Andrew Leigh

The Hon Julie Collins MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

The Hon Anne Aly MP
Minister for Small Business

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

Tuesday, 2 June 2026

Supporting Farmers to Secure a Better Deal

The Albanese Government is supporting farmers and fresh food suppliers to secure a fairer deal when negotiating with large supermarkets.

Funding has been awarded to the National Farmers Federation and AUSVEG to deliver the Know Your Grocery Code program.

The program will provide free, high-quality training to fresh food suppliers across Australia to help them better understand their rights under the new mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.

It includes online and in-person workshops across metropolitan, regional and rural areas and will be accessible to all suppliers including rural producers and First Nation growers.

Fresh produce suppliers often face structural disadvantages in negotiations. Their products are perishable, growing cycles can be long, and many upfront costs cannot be recovered if fresh produce goes unsold. These factors can weaken bargaining positions when dealing with large buyers.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
MONDAY, 1 JUNE 2026

SUBJECTS: AUKUS; 2026 Budget; housing; polling; Pauline Hanson and One Nation; Labor’s tax cuts

PATRICIA KARVELAS: For the government's view I want to bring in Andrew Leigh – another Andrew, the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition and Charities and just to note, we are standing by to hear from the Queensland Police about some counterterrorism charges which of course is a pretty important breaking story, so we'll bring that to you as soon as it's happening. Andrew Leigh, welcome.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Patricia, great to be with you.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just on where I ended there, I think it's only fair to start again with you, and that's these second‑hand subs that are not good enough. Andrew Hastie says we should have actually got a better deal. Why are we just getting some second‑hand subs when we're spending so much money on AUKUS?

ANDREW LEIGH: Patricia, when we came to office we were faced with a serious sustainment challenge. The Coalition, as you recall, had said that they would buy French submarines and then backed out of that and left us with a significant capability challenge.

So it's left to Labor to ensure that the Collins‑class submarines have that extension of life project and also that we're able to fill the gap between when the new AUKUS‑class submarines come in. That's an important measure that we put in place. Of course, if you were starting doing this afresh, you would have made better decisions in the 2010s, but this is the best deal for Australia from the situation we face now.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO ILLAWARRA, BREAKFAST WITH MELINDA JAMES
FRIDAY, 29 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Wreck Bay Community; PFAS contamination; Legal action against 3M

MELINDA JAMES: Andrew Leigh is the federal Member for Fenner, which oversees Wreck Bay and has been good enough to give us some of his time this morning. Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Mel, great to be with you.

MELINDA JAMES: Look, we heard a little bit from the Attorney-General earlier this morning about the Commonwealth's decision to pursue this but just tell our listeners now why the federal government is doing this?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well this is, as you said, the biggest case that the Commonwealth has brought and the action we're bringing is based on allegations that 3M withheld its own environmental testing that showed that there was an adverse environmental effect to the 3M firefighting foam, that they misrepresented its biodegradability and that they made misrepresentations around its impact on the environment.

As you know, the Commonwealth has settled for $22 million with people in the Wreck Bay community. Defence has spent millions of dollars around the country cleaning up the effects of these firefighting foam. And this is about us looking to recoup over a billion dollars that we have spent on remediation.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO SYDNEY, DRIVE WITH THOMAS ORITI
THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Albanese Government banning unfair trading practices; BTS tickets

THOMAS ORITI: If you don't know the band BTS, they're massive. They are, I guess, arguably the giants of K-Pop and they're coming to Australia, including a concert at Sydney Olympic Park in February next year. Two concerts I should say, in February 2027. But the race to get tickets is proving a bit controversial. Australian fans are accusing the ticketing giant, Ticketmaster of deploying predatory and crazy tactics. And they've urged people to lodge formal complaints with the ACCC.

Now they're annoyed because Ticketmaster hasn't detailed the pricing of the tickets ahead of the sale next week. They're not on sale yet, but fans want to know now. They have no idea about the pricing category. So, the different tiers of tickets you can buy and how much it is all going to cost. And they say that's unfair – it's manipulative. Why not just tell us the price now? Ticketmaster says the prices will be made available once the online waiting room as it's called, opens and those prices will not change. There won't be any of that dynamic pricing that we've heard about in the past. The Assistant Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh is with us now to discuss this. Assistant Minister, good afternoon.

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

THOMAS ORITI: What's the big deal here? I mean, people are going to know how much a ticket is before they choose to pay the money. Why do they need to know the price so far in advance?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well if you're going to a concert and you're paying hundreds of dollars, then there might be some of your mates who are willing to go for that price and others who aren't and you want to be able to make your plans beforehand. Look, it's up to the ACCC to enforce the law but this looks pretty shonky to me. I'd like to see Ticketek providing prices well in advance. One of the things we've just done is introduced into Parliament a ban on unfair trading practices that outlaws practices that manipulate or unreasonably distort decision-making. So that's an additional protection in addition to the significant increases in fines for anti-competitive conduct that we've already legislated.

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

Productivity gains come from getting the plumbing right

Published in Capital Brief

28 May 2026

Productivity policy is often imagined as a search for the next big breakthrough. Frequently, it begins with something more prosaic: clearing away the delays and duplications that make everyday business harder than it needs to be.

That is the thinking behind this year’s Budget productivity package. It is built around a powerful idea: make the economy easier to move through.

The package is expected to cut regulatory costs, with the National Competition Policy reforms alone adding around $13 billion to the economy each year once implemented. That is an average benefit of around $1200 for every household in Australia.

The productivity package reduces frictions that have accumulated across the economy: cutting financial-sector paperwork, reducing duplicative data requests from financial regulators, streamlining foreign investment, speeding up the investor front door for major projects, and ensuring skilled workers do not need separate licences and fees to work across state borders.

None of these reforms will dominate a political cartoon. Together, they make it easier for firms to invest and expand, while spending less time feeding the compliance machine.

A growing business should spend its energy finding customers and hiring workers, rather than learning eight licensing regimes. A foreign investor should face rigorous scrutiny where it is needed, while receiving faster decisions where risks are low. A bank should provide regulators with the information they require once, rather than repeatedly in slightly different formats.

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

Matters of Public Importance
2026 Budget

What we just heard then was a diatribe by a dying tribe. A diatribe by a dying tribe that went to the last election promising to raise income taxes on all Australians and to spend taxpayer dollars on long lunches for bosses. But the fact is that the Liberal Party has always been the party that has opposed significant reform in Australia.

Indeed, when we go back to 1942, when the Curtin government put in place uniform income taxes, the coalition were against it. Arthur Fadden said:

...'taxpayers under 1,000 pounds pay too little tax and those over 1,000 pounds pay, relatively speaking, too much tax'.

Even back then we had the Coalition parties saying that low-income workers should pay more so high-income earners could pay less.

Then in 1986 we've got the fringe benefits tax put in place by the Hawke government, and we had Jim Carlton standing in the House of Representatives saying:

'We are totally opposed to this new business tax, this new payroll tax, which will destroy investment and destroy employment'.

And we had Albert Adermann, another coalition member, in 1986 saying:

…'these inequitable taxation propositions must be reversed and abolished'.

The party of long, taxpayer funded lunches for bosses has always had its snout in the public trough.

When the capital gains tax was introduced for the very first time and the debate came to this House in 1986, Jim Carlton said:

'This is a day of infamy for this Government…We are opposed to this capital gains tax. We will vote against it here and in the Senate, and should the legislation pass we will repeal it on our return to office. Make no mistake: After our Bicentenary in Australia there will be no capital gains tax'.

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

Dangerous Baby Bottle Prop Devices Permanently Banned 

Tuesday, 26 May 2026

The Albanese Government has acted to protect infants by permanently banning baby bottle self-feeding devices, following safety advice from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

These products are marketed as a hands-free feeding solution. In practice, they can leave babies unable to regulate the flow of milk or formula, creating a serious risk of choking, aspiration and suffocation.

Under the ban which takes effect from today, the following products will be prohibited:

• Devices that prop or position a bottle in an infant’s mouth
• Wearable holders designed to secure a feeding bottle to an adult’s body
• Flexible straw-style systems that connect a bottle to a teat positioned in an infant’s mouth

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

Competition and Consumer Amendment (Responding to Exceptional Circumstances) Bill 2026
House of Representatives, Parliament House 

Monday, 25 May 2026

I present the revised explanatory memorandum to this bill and move that this bill be now read a second time.

Since the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran began on 28 February, our government has been responding to the biggest oil shock in history with a comprehensive plan to secure more fuel, strengthen supply chains, build resilience and take the sting out of prices. The government's Strengthening Australia's Fuel Resilience package will deliver more fuel for drivers and industry, more fertiliser for farmers and more fuel security for the economy, with its centrepiece being immediate fuel supplies and a permanent Australian fuel security reserve to ensure we have the fuels and fertiliser we need.

Our government is helping businesses and manufacturers bolster supply chains through interest free loans via the National Reconstruction Fund. Along with incentives to shift more freight onto trains and ships, targeted support for electric vehicles, more charging stations and heavy vehicle reform, this will strengthen our long-term fuel resilience, while the Cleaner Fuels Program and reforms to the low-carbon liquid fuels market will help Australia produce more fuel at home and support future demand. We're reserving 20 per cent of gas exports for Australian users to increase domestic supply and lower prices, and we're advancing the Future Made in Australia agenda through the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve and investments in domestic smelting and manufacturing.

We understand this crisis is adding to cost-of-living pressures, which is why we're more than halving the fuel excise, reducing the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero, putting petrol companies on notice by doubling the consumer watchdog's maximum penalties and ramping up enforcement and monitoring, giving businesses more leeway at tax time if they face fuel supply problems and continuing to make it easier and quicker for small businesses to access credit when they need. It. This bill supports that action by creating new powers for the Treasurer and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to permit coordinated action during a crisis by increasing the maximum penalties that can be imposed for breaches of the Oil Code of Conduct.

The Hon Catherine King MP
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government

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

Yvette Berry MLA
Deputy Chief Minister
Member for Ginninderra

Tara Cheye MLA
Minister for City and Government Services
Member for Ginninderra

Construction Underway On William Hovell Drive Duplication

25 May 2026

Main construction works have begun today on the William Hovell Drive Duplication, with the major project set to improve safety, ease congestion and support growth in Canberra's northwestern suburbs.

The upgrade will duplicate 4.5 kilometres of road between John Gorton Drive and Drake Brockman Drive, creating two lanes in each direction to ease congestion and improve safety for more than 20,000 vehicles that who use the corridor each day.

The $107.25 million project is jointly funded by the Australian and ACT governments.

The start of main works follows completion of surveying, dilapidation assessments and site compound establishment over the last month.

Long-term modelling indicates that Belconnen’s population could exceed 185,000 people by 2065, and up to another 79,000 residents living in the Molonglo Valley, increasing demand for safer and more efficient transport.

Complementing the $225 million joint investment to build a new bridge crossing over the Molonglo River, which is expected to open to traffic later this year, these projects will support future housing growth in Ginninderry, Denman Prospect, Whitlam and Molonglo.

Julie Collins MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Member for Franklin

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP PRESS CONFERENCE
MORNINGTON, HOBART
FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Extending the Right to Repair framework to agricultural machinery

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, ANDREW LEIGH: Thank you for joining us today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition. When Labor came to office, independent mechanics didn’t have access to the data they needed to fix modern cars. That changed with the introduction in July 2022 of the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing Scheme, That has created $2.4 billion a year in additional value. Much of it comes from independent mechanics like this one. Cooper Automotive, which is able to fix modern cars by getting access to the onboard computer data. We've also seen huge benefits for consumers. Independent mechanics tend to be a whole lot cheaper than the authorised dealer, and that gives more choice to consumers, particularly in regional areas.

What Julie and I are announcing today is the next stage in the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing Scheme. We're looking at how we can expand it to agricultural machinery, to tractors, harvesters and roll out more information that allows farmers to get that machinery fixed. Now for a motorist, having a car break down can be frustrating. But for farmers, this can cost thousands of dollars a day in lost productivity as a harvester isn't able to work when you need it most.