Andrew Leigh

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH ROSS SOLLY
FRIDAY, 20 MARCH 2026

SUBJECTS: Canberra Stadium; Commonwealth infrastructure investment in the ACT, fuel supply; ACCC; budget; APS Data Awards; Celebrate Gungahlin Festival

ROSS SOLLY: Well, let's go to Andrew Leigh because we want to talk to him about the fuel situation et cetera. But a couple of people earlier on said, is there anything the Commonwealth can do to help us fast-track a better stadium? And I know Andrew Leigh loves his sport. Andrew Leigh, good morning to you.

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

ROSS SOLLY: And you as well. I know we want to talk about fuel and budgets and stuff like that, but just on the stadium – you've been there a few times. It bubbled over again last night. The opposing coach broke his hand – broke his hand, cut his hand on a window. There are leaky change rooms. The tunnels are leaking everywhere. It is a bit of an embarrassment, isn't it?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, the infrastructure spend from the Commonwealth Government to the ACT is at record levels Ross. We have projects right across the ACT – a lot of cranes in the sky. You think about the National Security Precinct, the work going on with the War Memorial, the work going on with light rail. There are significant infrastructure projects and we're always guided by the ACT Government in terms of those priorities. So we’ll work with the ACT Government.

ROSS SOLLY: And has the stadium been put forward as a priority or not?

ANDREW LEIGH: Look, I think there's been a number of discussions over different models for the stadium. That's an ongoing conversation. But in terms of the commitment from the federal government to ACT infrastructure, it is at record levels. Certainly very different from that Liberal period in which we were getting a fifth of our fair share of infrastructure spending. There is a lot of infrastructure spending going into the ACT. And we'll work with the ACT Government on all that full range of priorities.

The Hon Clare O’Neil MP
Minister for Housing, Homelessness & Cities

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

Albanese Labor Government delivering more homes for Canberrans

16 March 2026

Work is underway on 315 new social and affordable homes in the ACT, back by the Albanese Labor Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).

This mixed‑tenure project will deliver 420 homes, including 211 affordable homes and 104 social homes near the heart of Belconnen, close to shops, public transport, schools and parks.

This project is a clear example of the HAFF delivering more homes for low and moderate income Australians while boosting overall housing supply and attracting more long‑term investment into the housing system.

The project has been supported by Housing Australia through Round 1 of the HAFF and is being developed by Assemble on behalf of its capital partner, AustralianSuper.

Once complete, the social homes will be managed by Housing Choices Australia who will also jointly manage the affordable housing component along with Assemble.

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

The Best Charts Ever Drawn

2026 APS Data Awards,
Canberra

Wednesday, 18 March 2026

1. Seeing Clearly

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet tonight, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present; I also thank the Data Awards team for bringing us together, and Chief Statistician David Gruen, head of the Data Profession.

It’s a pleasure to be among people who know that data is where opinions go to face consequences.

These awards celebrate excellence across the full data enterprise – building systems, linking information, analysing patterns, and strengthening capability.

Each step matters.

Because data, on its own, doesn’t change anything.

Data lives in spreadsheets, dashboards, and occasionally in PowerPoint decks dense enough to qualify as insulation.

What changes things is understanding.

Most humans find spreadsheets confronting. They look like the Matrix – except without Keanu Reeves to explain what’s going on.

The brain evolved to spot patterns.

A good visualisation speaks that language. It reveals structure. It makes the complex graspable.

It allows people to see clearly.

And once you see something clearly, you can’t unsee it.

Tonight, I want to show you some visualisations that do exactly that.

And the first may be the most famous statistical graphic ever drawn.

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

Rethinking Economic Foundations in an AI World

Ted Evans Lecture,
Brisbane

17 March 2026

The Ted Evans Legacy

It is an honour to deliver the Ted Evans Lecture this evening. Ted Evans belonged to a generation of economic policymakers who understood that ideas matter most when they are tested against reality. He combined analytical discipline with institutional seriousness, and he approached economic reform as a practical responsibility to improve the functioning of the nation. Those are demanding standards. They are also standards that continue to shape how many of us think about the craft of economics.

Ted’s life reminds us that intellectual authority does not always begin in predictable places. He grew up in modest circumstances – his father was a fitter and turner – and attended Ipswich High School before leaving at fifteen to work as a linesman in the Postmaster-General’s Department. The trajectory from teenage linesman to Secretary of the Treasury illustrates a quality that economists sometimes underweight: the capacity of institutions to recognise talent that does not arrive with conventional signals.

One of the pivotal moments in his early career reportedly occurred over a drink with the late great Max Corden. Evans had been considering a PhD in New Zealand. Corden persuaded him instead to join Treasury and learn economics from inside government. In retrospect, that advice shaped the intellectual architecture of Australian economic policy for decades. It is a reminder that careers, like economies, are path dependent.

Evans served as Treasury Secretary from 1993 to 2001, working with treasurers John Dawkins, Ralph Willis and Peter Costello, during a period in which the reform momentum of the Hawke–Keating era continued to reverberate through the policy system. The reforms associated with that period transformed Australia from what Paul Keating memorably described as a ‘sclerotic command and control economy’ into one that was more competitive and flexible. Large reductions in marginal tax rates, the introduction of capital gains and fringe benefits taxation, dividend imputation, and changes to the taxation of superannuation were structural shifts that altered incentives across the economy.

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

Fuel Security

Matters of Public Importance

House of Representatives

Wednesday, 11 March 2026

At the beginning of 2022, after claiming that only the Coalition could be trusted to keep petrol prices low, the Morrison Government saw petrol prices hit 216c a litre in Sydney and 212c a litre in Melbourne. What did fuel companies face if they were engaged in a breach of the competition law? They faced not a serious penalty but a slap on the wrist - a $10 million penalty. That really wasn't a penalty; it was the entrance fee to the bad behaviour club. The fuel industry is one of our more concentrated industries. The big four have more than two-thirds of the market, compared to just a fifth for the big four fuel retailers in the United States. And so, when we came to office, we raised the penalties for anticompetitive conduct. We raised that maximum dollar figure from $10 million to $50 million - a five-fold increase because under Labor, penalties will not be a cost of doing business.

Today, the Treasurer, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and I have announced that a Labor Government will double penalties for false or misleading conduct and cartel behaviour. Up to $100 million per offence, across the economy. This very clearly demonstrates that only Labor can be trusted when it comes to looking after consumers and ensuring we have a more competitive and dynamic economy.

Under the Coalition, we saw a rise in market concentration, an increase in mark-ups and a decrease in the small-business-creation rate, and we saw significant signs that the Australian economy wasn't as dynamic. Under Labor, we've set about putting in place a strong competition agenda. We've reformed Australia's merger laws - the biggest overhaul of our merger laws in 50 years - to ensure that the competition watchdog is able to properly scrutinise mergers and keep a lid on excessive market concentration in the economy. We've got national competition policy going again with a $900 million productivity fund, working with the states and territories to try and get those sorts of productivity-boosting competition reforms that turbocharged productivity and boosted household living standards to the tune of some $5,000 a household in the 1990s. Reflecting that 1990s experience, we've refreshed the National Competition Council, now chaired by Marcus Bezzi, and we're working collaboratively with states and territories on a robust competition agenda. Labor knows that if we are to get productivity going again after it languished for the nine years in which the coalition was in office, we need competition reforms that'll work for Australians.

Today the Treasurer, the Energy Minister and I announced that we will task the ACCC to ramp up fuel price monitoring, reporting weekly with a focus on unusual price spikes. We'll work with industry to increase fuel supply to service stations, including by helping the fuel sector secure ACCC authorisation to coordinate supply and unlock bottlenecks. This follows the Treasurer having written to the ACCC last week asking them to ensure that motorists aren't being taken for mugs. The ACCC has issued their own statement to retailers.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2XX FM CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH NOAH SECOMB
WEDNESDAY, 11 MARCH 2026

SUBJECTS: Productivity; Middle East conflict; Australia’s fuel supply; supermarkets; travel insurance; volunteering passport

NOAH SECOMB: And now we're talking to the Assistant Minister for – here we go: Competition, Charities and Treasury. I've missed one. I've missed one in there. I think productivity is somewhere in that pile. So, here's to Andrew Leigh and first of all, thanks for coming on.

ANDREW LEIGH: My pleasure.

NOAH SECOMB: For those who perhaps aren't engaged in federal politics too much – talk us through what your portfolio means, what your job looks like and how that kind of fits in with representing a chunk of Canberra?

ANDREW LEIGH: So my job is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, which means I assist the Treasurer on a range of issues in his portfolio. Productivity is a big challenge for the government in this term. Productivity has languished over the course of the last 15 years and one of our big priorities is getting a strong growth agenda.

Part of that is through competition. We've done some competition reforms, national competition policy and mergers but we've got a lot more to do, including holding the supermarkets to account. I'm responsible for the government's regulation of charities, which I think of as kind of a community building portfolio. Rebuilding that sense of shared purpose that increasingly Australia has struggled with. And then Treasury is the sort of catch all for the work that I do on a range of issues, including the Mint, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and multinational taxation.

NOAH SECOMB: Yeah right. So, you've got plenty to do. That's always good.

ANDREW LEIGH: I'm very lucky. Yes. Lots of interesting things to work on with the Treasurer.

NOAH SECOMB: And so looking at some of the news of this last week, especially coming out of Iran and the conflict in the Middle East. A lot of concern has been going to the rising petrol prices and we've heard in recent days that the Treasurer has empowered the ACCC to really look into petrol price gouging. So what does that actually look like when we're talking about empowering the ACCC to do something like that?

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

How Should Australia Grow its Tech Sector? Charting a Digital Future

Tech Council Breakfast Event, 
Parliament House 

11 March 2026

Good morning everyone, and thanks to the Tech Council of Australia and Capital Brief for bringing together such an interesting group of policymakers, technologists and thinkers.

The tired old stereotype of innovation is a lone genius in a garret or garage. It’s a tidy tale that makes for engaging biographies and simple stories.

It is also misleading.

The reality is that innovation operates more like a team sport. A founder depends on engineers, designers, investors and early customers. Researchers exchange ideas with industry partners. Infrastructure providers support the digital backbone. Regulators set the boundaries of fair play.

Anyone who watched last weekend’s Melbourne Grand Prix race saw this in action. At the end of the race, the drivers stand on the podium. But each of them know that they’re only there because of the work of their teams.

In Formula One, around twenty mechanics change four tyres in about two seconds. If any one of them hesitates for half a second, the car loses position on the track. It’s the purest demonstration I know that performance comes from teamwork.

Successful technology sectors resemble strong sporting teams. They combine talent, coaching, facilities and well-designed rules.

So this morning I want to explore Australia’s digital future through that sporting lens. What does it take to field a winning innovation team?

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, 10 MARCH 2026

SUBJECTS: The Shortest History of Innovation; Middle East conflict’s impact on Australia’s petrol; Iranian women’s soccer team

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Time to talk federal politics with the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, good morning.

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

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Now, there's a lot to talk about this morning but I just want to touch on something. You've written a follow-up to your book, ‘The Shortest History of Economics’ – ‘The Shortest History of Innovation’ this time?

ANDREW LEIGH: Yes. I'm fascinated by innovation Stephen, by those new gadgets but also by the people that make it happen. The argument of ‘The Shortest History of Innovation’ is that innovation is rarely just a lone person with a breakthrough. Much more often it's a team of people tinkering away and trading in ideas. So good teamwork and open societies really are at the heart of driving innovation.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I've heard an interview early in the early hours of this morning talking specifically about your book, and the fact that Australia has made a lot of innovative breakthroughs over the years and there's a lot of technologies that we now take for granted that were developed here. But the argument from this academic was that the chances of those breakthroughs are limited these days and it's more just about tinkering around the edges. What did you find in the process of writing this book?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Australians of course can take credit for things like Wi‑Fi, the hills hoist and the black box flight recorder but we've also managed to extend a whole lot of innovation. So we didn't invent the plough, but we invented the stump‑jump plough, which was revolutionary for the circumstances in which Australian farmers found ourselves.

We do still produce a lot of that basic R&D – our university sectors are doing very strongly, but building the linkages through to business is an area where we don't do as well as many other advanced countries.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH STEPHANIE BORYS
MONDAY, 9 MARCH 2026

SUBJECTS: Middle East conflict’s impact on Australia’s petrol; inflation; One Nation

STEPHANIE BORYS: Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition Charities and Treasury, and he joins me now. Andrew, thank you for your time this afternoon. Is there more the government can do to ensure there's no restriction to fuel in the regions?

ANDREW LEIGH: We've already done a lot Stephanie. Since we came into office, we've ensured that our fuel reserve is kept onshore or within our Exclusive Economic Zone. Under the Coalition, you had Australia's fuel reserve being kept in Texas and Louisiana. Now it's in Brisbane and Geelong. We've also put in place minimum stockholding obligations on large fuel users and we've also overseen a significant electrification of the vehicle grid which ensures that there are fewer motorists who are putting demands on the fuel supply.

I understand there's a lot of pressure on at the moment. The Treasurer has written to the competition watchdog to keep a close eye on any price gouging at the bowser and we are working constructively with the industry, as you heard before from Minister Bowen.

STEPHANIE BORYS: So when did he write to the competition watchdog –the Treasurer?

ANDREW LEIGH: So, that was last week in order to ask them to – in addition to their usual fuel monitoring program – to pay particular attention to any price gouging that's going on at a time where the prices are rising. This is a significant challenge. But Australia is better placed to meet this challenge than we have been at any other time in the last 15 years – both in terms of the fuel stocks that are in place, but also the decreased pressure that we have for fossil fuels in the grid.

The electricity usage over summer 2022 was almost twice what we saw drawing from gas than in the most recent summer. So we're demanding less gas for our energy usage, we're demanding less fuel as a result of the electrification of the vehicle fleet and we've done much better than the Coalition did in terms of the size of the fuel reserves and keeping them onshore.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH ROSS SOLLY
THURSDAY, 5 MARCH 2026

SUBJECTS: Conflict in the Middle East; return of Australians and repatriation flights; cheaper home batteries in the ACT; visit of Canadian Prime Minister to Australia

ROSS SOLLY: Well, let's talk about what's happening in Iran and in particular, what's happening here in Australia. Andrew Leigh is the Member for Fenner, also Assistant Minister for Competition. Andrew Leigh, good morning to you.

ANDREW LEIGH: Morning Ross, great to be with you.

ROSS SOLLY: And good to be with you as well. I'm assuming – now, I don't know if you've got figures and you've been briefed on this but I'm assuming there are Canberrans who are caught up in the Middle East at the moment who are desperately trying to get home?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well Canberra is, I guess, 2 per cent of the Australian population, so we know we've got over 100,000 people in the Middle East region, suggesting there’s a couple of thousand Canberrans over there. We're doing all we can, but working primarily with commercial airliners. As you know, the first one arrived this morning. We're hopeful of three more airliners taking off, but it really is dependent on conditions on the ground as to whether it's safe for those planes to leave Dubai.

ROSS SOLLY: And it's absolutely not an option for the government to charter a plane – a Qantas plane or something, as it did in COVID and other times and fly that in there and get people out?

ANDREW LEIGH: The scale of this is massive, and really working with commercial airliners is the best way to go. They have the planes. It's just a matter of being able to take off and where it takes off is the main constraint, rather than the hardware. It makes sense to be relying on those commercial options.

The UAE has been very good in terms of providing accommodation for Australians who are stranded there, and we've extended our thanks to the government for the way in which they've handled that. And we're working, of course, with those crisis teams, having deployed six crisis teams to the region. This is one of the biggest disruptions we've seen to the travelling patterns of Australians, just because that Middle East hub is so central to the way Australians get to Europe these days.