Andrew Leigh

SUBJECTS: Misinformation and disinformation legislation; Anti-semitism; ACCC supermarket public hearings

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: Now I'm sure my next guest will try and tell me why it's so important that politicians should be able to tell me what's true and what's not. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner. Andrew, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: G'day, Stephen, great to be with you.

CENATIEMPO: This is the worst piece of legislation any government has ever put before the Parliament in Australia's history.

LEIGH: Stephen, we know that there is serious misinformation and disinformation in Australia -

CENATIEMPO: Who determines that?

LEIGH: Well, we'll have independent bodies doing it. But the threshold is very high. It must be reasonably verifiable that it's false, misleading or deceptive, and reasonably likely to cause serious harm. That means harm to our electoral system, harm to public health…

The Power of Charitable Advocacy: Three Stories and a Commitment

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay respect to all First Nations people here today. I also acknowledge the work of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Australian Democracy Network, Australian Progress and so many of you in the room towards Closing the Gap. It's a privilege to be joining Professor Kristy Muir, the remarkable Saffron Zomer, who has done so much to build capacity and charitable advocacy, and advocate and Indigenous Marathon Foundation graduate Amelia Telford in the panel today.

I want to talk today about three big stories of social change that were driven by the activist power of communities, philanthropy and charities.

The first story starts on 29 August 1966, when 200 Gurindji stockmen, led by Vincent Lingiari, led the Wave Hill Walk-Off. The Wave Hill Walk-Off began over a discontent with the way in which the Vestey landowners had been treating Aboriginal workers on the land. This was the land of the traditional owners, but the cattle herders had fenced it in, had allowed pollution to get into the water holes and had refused to pay the stockmen properly.

I acknowledge the Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation, on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay respect to all First Nations people here today.

On the table in my parliamentary office sits a board game. Designed in 1973 by economics professor Ralph Anspach, it is called Anti-Monopoly. In the original version of the game, play starts with three kinds of ‘cartels’ – trusts, oligopolies and monopolies – dominating the board. Players represent competition authorities, bringing legal cases against the monopolised businesses. The goal is to make the board akin to a free market system.

I’ve never liked the Monopoly board game, so the competitive spirit of Anti-Monopoly greatly appeals to me. But there’s a further story about Anti-Monopoly that I love. The year after Professor Anspach released his game, Parker Brothers sued him for using the ‘Monopoly’ name. In his defence, Professor Anspach revealed that Monopoly’s roots lay in The Landlord’s Game, designed in 1903 by social campaigner Lizze Magie as a critique of corporate power. After a decade-long dispute, Professor Anspach was able to continue distributing his game under the title ‘Anti-Monopoly’.

Subjects: ACCC Supermarket Public Hearings; Scam Prevention; Social Media restrictions; US Election

LEON DELANEY: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Supermarket Inquiry public hearings have begun today. Joining me now, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, not to mention our local member here in the seat of Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon.

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

DELANEY: Now, this inquiry has been much anticipated. The public hearings are underway from today. What will the hearings be told?

LEIGH: Well, we're hearing about Labor's measures to get a fair go for farmers and families. We're putting in place a mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, fighting against shrinkflation and providing Australians more information about where to get the best deal. Some of the information that's been coming up in the inquiry today from organisations like CHOICE and the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network is pointing to the decline in trust in the major supermarkets, big differences in pricing from city areas to remote areas, and challenges of unit pricing and shrinkflation.

Australian shoppers deserve a fair deal at the supermarket checkout. That’s why Labor is taking action to ensure competition delivers cost of living relief.

Today’s commencement of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Supermarket Inquiry public hearings is an important milestone to getting a fair go for Australian families and farmers.

Over the next two weeks, the ACCC will examine senior executives of Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Metcash, along with a range of suppliers and key consumer and industry stakeholders.

SUBJECTS: World Marathon Majors; HECS-HELP Changes; Merger reform.

SASKIA MABIN: Andrew Leigh has jumped on the line to talk with me about a range of things going on in his world. How are you?

ANDREW LEIGH: Very well, Saskia. How are you?

MABIN: Very well, and before we get into policy, I'd love to talk to you about the news that Sydney Marathon is going to be the seventh world marathon major. I believe you're a bit of a marathon runner yourself. Are you feeling a bit excited about this?

LEIGH: Very excited, Saskia. So, I've run the six world marathon majors and having Sydney join the ranks is just a remarkable thing for Australian runners. It will make the Sydney race a little bit harder to get into, but it will now be one which is attracting people from around the world. It won't be the fastest of the marathon majors. That will probably still be Berlin, Tokyo or Chicago, but it's going to certainly be the most scenic with that start across the bridge, the finish at the Opera House and the beautiful Sydney out in front of you. So, I'm sure many Canberra runners will be looking forward to lacing up next year to do either their seventh or their first marathon major.

Daily Telegraph 6 November 2024

Many Australian markets are dominated by a few big firms. Worse, over recent decades, market concentration has increased.

A lack of competition doesn’t just harm consumers; it can also hurt businesses that have to deal with monopolies.

Small-scale farmers are the meat in a market concentration sandwich. Upstream, there is often no choice about dealing with large-scale providers on inputs. Downstream, there is often no choice about negotiating with larger processors and retailers.

One in five Australian workers are subject to a non-compete clause in their employment agreement, impeding them from moving to a better job. Workers who want to switch to a nearby firm can find themselves barred from moving unless they take months off work. Faced with the prospect of enforced unemployment, many never make the switch. Given how important job mobility is to innovation and wages, this means non-competes may be hurting both productivity and earnings.

SUBJECTS: Travel upgrades; airline competition; competition reform; market concentration in farming.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: As the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, it's all pretty ugly, isn't it? This stuff about Qantas?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, certainly our focus, Kieran, has been on getting more competition for flyers. What we've done with the airline Ombudsman, compensation for people who are delayed, the slot review at Sydney Airport. Plus I've been a pretty assiduous critic of Qantas’s cancellation of flights between Sydney and Canberra. These have been the issues that I've been focused on, which are about getting a better deal for the flying public.

GILBERT: From memory though, the government hasn't included the aviation sector in all of its competition reviews. And the argument is, this is one of the areas that you've actually taken an approach to benefit Qantas.

LEIGH: Well, not only was aviation included in the Competition Taskforce’s work, but I also gave a speech earlier this year which laid out some of the troubling statistics about aviation competition.

SUBJECTS: Competition reform in the agriculture sector, Right to Repair. 

WARWICK LONG, HOST: Let’s talk competition in farming in Australia. A member of the Federal Government has identified farming as an area in dire need of competition reform in Australia. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition in the Labor Government. He says this country’s small-scale farmers are getting hammered at both ends by concentrated markets and at numerous points along the agricultural supply chain.  I had a chat to him about improving the improving the competition playing field for farmers after he made a speech on such a topic to ABARES in Canberra. 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, farmers are the meat in the sandwich when it comes to problems of competition in the Australian economy. We see too many farmers buying seed and fertiliser from concentrated markets and then getting squeezed by having to sell into concentrated markets for processors or in freight. And the effect is that farmers aren’t getting a fair deal. I’m talking about a lot of what we’re doing in the competition space through the lens of farming. Farming is a critical industry to the Australian economy, but it also illustrates some of the big competition problems that the Australian economy faces right now.

LONG: Why is farming such an easy example to grasp about the lack of competition and what it does to markets?