Andrew Leigh

Imagine finishing a day’s work convinced that your new AI assistant has saved you an hour. Then discovering that it has actually kept you at your desk longer. That is roughly what happened to a group of experienced software developers in a randomised trial published last year.

The research organisation METR recruited 16 developers to work on software projects they knew well. They brought 246 real tasks to the experiment. For each task, random assignment determined whether they could use AI assistance or would work with conventional tools. Before they began, the developers expected AI to cut the time required by about a quarter.

The result went the other way. With access to AI, they took 19 per cent longer. And here’s the best bit of the study: even after doing the work, developers still believed AI had saved them 20 per cent of their time (Becker et al. 2025).

Remember that a lot of the time when we’re doing evaluations, our approach is to ask people how the intervention affected them. We want to prioritise local voices, recognising that those affected by a new tool, program or policy know best.

Except in this case they didn’t. If we’d assessed AI based on surveying the developers, we would’ve come away with a funky story about boosting productivity. The people closest to the work would have supplied the evidence themselves. METR only got to the truth by using random assignment, which busted the myth that the new tool raised productivity.

I’m not making a general point about AI. METR’s follow‑up, released this February, suggested newer tools were helping more, although the researchers cautioned that their results were inconclusive (METR 2026). And we’re aiming at a fast‑moving target, since November’s AI is far more capable than February’s AI.

The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

New Direction For Financial Security Regulator To Boost Productivity 

Thursday, 5 November 2026           

The Albanese Government is putting productivity and economic growth at the heart of its expectations for the Australian Financial Security Authority, with a renewed focus on reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, unlocking investment and helping Australians return to economic participation.

A new Statement of Expectations, released today, sets out how the Australian Financial Security Authority can better support businesses and individuals while maintaining financial stability, market integrity and strong consumer protections.

The Statement calls on the Australian Financial Security Authority to take a more intelligence-led approach to regulation, using data to identify emerging risks, harms and inefficiencies, target regulatory effort where it is most needed, and better identify vulnerable populations.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, LIVE WITH LEON DELANEY
WEDNESDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Inflation; Middle East; Albanese Government’s responsible economic management; Interest rates; Commonwealth funding arrangements for the ACT

LEON DELANEY: Now the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and of course our very own local member here in the federal seat of Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon Leon, great to be with you.

LEON DELANEY: When is your government going to admit to mismanaging the economy?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well Leon, we know that the primary driver of inflation is global oil prices, that's why we're seeing inflation going up around the world. This isn't unique to Australia. We're seeing inflation kick up in other advanced economies, in some cases by more than it has increased in Australia.

We're obviously doing our part. The federal government accounts for about $1 in $5 of demand, and we've made $180 billion worth of savings since we came to office, and we'll continue to make responsible savings in order to do our part in pushing inflation down.

LEON DELANEY: Okay, now that's almost word for word what you told me last time when we were talking about the latest inflation figures, but the fact is…

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

TRANSCRIPT
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
MONDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Interest rates; Inflation; Middle East; Albanese Government’s responsible economic management; Labor’s productivity reforms; Australian Public Service; Australian house prices; ACTU; Artificial Intelligence; One Nation 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to bring in the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition and Charities, Andrew Leigh. Andrew Leigh, thanks for joining me. 

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure, Patricia. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Why is the Prime Minister calling interest rates a blunt instrument? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, I think it's the acknowledgement of the simple fact that the Reserve Bank simply has one tool at its disposal, and that tool has disproportionate impacts across the economy. Part of it operates through the exchange rate channel, part of it operates through household mortgages and part of it operates through business borrowing costs.

But it is still the best way that advanced countries have come at getting long-term inflation under control. And that's why an independent central bank is a feature of most advanced countries. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: It is a feature. So when he's speaking like this, is it his way of jawboning the RBA? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Not in the least. I think it's an uncontroversial statement with which most economists would agree. But Patricia, what we're seeing around the world is upward pressure on prices as a result of the war in Iran. In Australia, the latest CPI figures showed that automotive fuels have gone up nearly 25 per cent over the last year. And that's why we're seeing inflation increases right across the advanced world; in some cases bigger increases than we've seen here in Australia. Andrew Hastie's a nice bloke, but he's dead wrong when he claims that government spending is the main driver. Government is about $1 in $5 of total demand in the economy, and the Reserve Bank has said that recent budgets haven't materially affected their estimates of the impact on demand. 

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: More than 4,000 GPs now fully Medicare Bulk Billing practices; Consultants; EU Free Trade Agreement

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Alright. Time to talk politics with the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and the Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh. Andrew, have you got a Melbourne Cup tip for us?

ANDREW LEIGH: I was going for Trustyourinstinct, Stephen. He's won the Curragh Cup, he's got a good trainer and, you know, apart from his barriers, I think number two's got a chance.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Seriously Andrew, is that a good horse for you to pick, given that the Government's on the nose in the polls. Trust your instincts – is that really the message you want out there at the moment?

ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely Stephen. I think I've got strong instincts, and those are for policy over politics. Polls will come and go, but good reform lasts forever.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Yeah okay. Alright, well let's talk about one of the reforms. Four thousand GP practices apparently are bulk-billing all patients now. Not here in the ACT, they're not?

ANDREW LEIGH: We're seeing a big increase in the ACT, but we are still the lowest bulk-billing rate in the nation and that's something that the Albanese Government's very concerned about. We've been doing a lot in order to support GPs here; the increased individual payment, the practice payment and also specific funding GP fully bulk-billing practices in Tuggeranong, Gungahlin, and in the centre of Canberra. So, that's tripled the number of fully bulk-billing practices in my electorate and we're seeing an increase in bulk-billing across Canberra. Still a ways to go, but encouraging signs.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

Building Outside the Box

Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council,
Parliament House

29 October 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Thank you to the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council for bringing together so many people who are helping shape Australia’s built environment.

In 2014, something impressive happened on a building site in Melbourne.

A nine-storey apartment building, containing 34 homes, was assembled in five days.

Thirty-six prefabricated modules were craned into place, creating a building complete with balconies, double-glazed windows and a six-star energy rating.

The building was called One9. Its construction used a system developed by Australian architect Nonda Katsalidis and manufactured by Hickory Group.

The entire project took considerably longer. There were designs to prepare, approvals to obtain and modules to manufacture. But the assembly of nine storeys in five days showed different way of building.

More than a decade later, Australia is starting to turn that demonstration into an industry.

Today, I want to talk about modern methods of construction, and how they could change the way Australia builds homes over the coming decade.

Let’s start with a troubling statistic.

The Global Inflation Challenge

House of Representatives,

Parliament House

The Global Inflation Challenge House of Representatives, Parliament House 29 October 2026 All ambition, no ammunition. As Richard Ackland once said of the Shadow Treasurer, 'I had the sound off, so I could understand him perfectly.' If anyone was listening to that misfortune of 10 wasted minutes, they will have seen the confected outrage from the shadow treasurer but a complete lack of policy solutions.

Let's just take a moment to imagine what Australia would look like today and what the cost-of-living pressures would be like on Australian families if Australia was governed by a Liberal-National-One Nation Coalition. The minimum wage would be lower. Student debt would be higher. Fewer students would be able to access free TAFE. Fewer parents would be able to access affordable child care. Home buyers wouldn't have access to Help to Buy. The government would be building fewer homes. Fewer Australians would have home batteries, which are putting downward pressure on their energy bills. Income taxes would be higher.

Government debt would be higher. Medicines would cost more. Visits to the GP would cost more. Multinationals would be paying less tax. Our competition laws would be weaker. The penalties for breaking competition laws would be, at their maximum, a tenth of what they are today. The fact is that the world is facing an inflation challenge. The IMF's October outlook projects global inflation rising to 4.7 per cent this year.

The simple reason for that is the war in Iran, which this government has urged the US and Israeli governments to bring to an end, their stated objectives having been achieved. The war in Iran has sharply driven up the price of a barrel of oil, which started the year at about US$75 a barrel and has now gone above US$90 a barrel, as supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions have tightened.

Here in Australia, we've had inflation figures out today which report that petrol prices rose 9.4 per cent, driven by higher world oil prices. That is the principal driver of inflation today. The Australian budget doesn't set the world oil price. We are seeing these challenges around the world. In the United States in September, inflation rose 0.3 per cent.

In Britain, inflation rose 0.4 per cent, and, in Germany, inflation rose 0.4 per cent. In Canada, inflation rose 0.1 per cent. Across the euro area, it rose, on average, 0.6 per cent in September. In France, inflation rose 0.8 per cent, Italy 0.9 per cent. In Spain, it was up 0.4 per cent. Of the European Union's 27 countries, 23 recorded an increase in their annual inflation rate in September. This is a challenge which countries are facing around the world.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner

Monika Mironov, Tamsyn Terry and the Canberra Food Co-op
Constituency Statement

Federation Chamber,
Parliament House, Canberra

Wednesday, 28 October 2026

Canberrans are endlessly ingenious. On chilly Canberra walks, Monika Mironov was forever stopping to rescue the blanket covering her daughter, Sofia. Sometimes it slipped and sometimes an excited kick sent it towards the wheelchair wheels. Monika decided there had to be a better way.

A graphic designer by training, Monika taught herself to sew at night, and spent two years testing designs with families and therapists. The result was Mimi Blankets, colourful blankets that attach securely to wheelchairs, with options for winter warmth and summer sun. More than 2,000 have been sold worldwide. An American dad told Monika that his daughter, who usually managed only 15 minutes of Halloween trick-or-treating in the cold, stayed out for over an hour with her Mimi blanket.

They'll be thanking Monika again this Saturday. This month, Monika won two Australian Good Design Awards. The best part, she said, was having Sofia there to celebrate. Sofia, who communicates using an eye-gaze device, even helped choose the colours and patterns. Congratulations to them both.

Helen Haines

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

26 October 2026

In 2020, the year after she joined parliament, Helen Haines, Dave Sharma and I founded Parliamentary Friends of Cycling. It was fitting to found a friendship group with Helen, somebody who seems to have managed to become friends with another 149 people in this room. I think, like everyone else, I felt I had a special relationship with Helen, but it turns out that all of us had a special relationship with Helen. Stephen Hodge, who helped found the group, described her as ‘a warm, intelligent and a highly engaged supporter’.

I really enjoyed chatting with Helen about her electorate. My parents had a share in a farm in Yackandandah, known as the biggest little town in north-east Victoria, and Helen shared my admiration for the way in which the town has remade itself as an environmental solar town. She was somebody who was passionate about bringing the issues of her community to the parliament, and I know she engaged extensively with the former coalition government, as she had with our government. She was someone who was always quick to think of others. I messaged her to wish her a happy 65th birthday last month, and she was quick to say that the very best presents were the grandchildren that she was looking forward to meeting.

Helen really epitomises the notion that you can get an awful lot done in politics if you don't care who gets the credit. Phil Haines spoke to us this morning, and he was as warm and expansive as Helen in talking about what she wanted in terms of shaping a kinder and gentler politics. Helen has urged people to donate to Save the Children and sign the CIPA Civility Pledge. I've done both, and I'd encourage others to do the same. She is somebody who is always thinking about others, and I'm, at the moment, thinking of her and the people around her. To Karen Rourke, her chief of staff, thank you for the work that you've done in looking after the team and that you will continue to do in the coming days. To Helen's children, Will, Nick and Georgia—I was thinking back to Helen's first speech, where she said to her children:

"… you are bold, you are brave, you are loved. Use your talents wisely."

The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

Bankruptcy Reforms To Give Australians A Fairer Chance To Start Again

Friday, 23 October 2026           

The Australian Government is delivering on our commitment to make the personal insolvency system fairer for businesses and individuals under financial stress.

Exposure draft legislation released today will double the debt threshold for involuntary bankruptcy from $10,000 to $20,000, give people more time to respond to bankruptcy notices, and remove a barrier to negotiating debt agreements.

The Government is also progressing changes to end permanent listings on the National Personal Insolvency Index, allowing people to be removed seven years after bankruptcy.

Most insolvencies stem from job loss, illness, relationship breakdown or business downturns. Accountability is essential, but so is the opportunity to respond, restructure and, ultimately, rebuild.