Andrew Leigh

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
NEWS24 NEWSDAY, WITH TOM CONNELL
FRIDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Intergenerational Report; Productivity; Industrial Relations; Industrial Action; Housing; One Nation; Members of Parliament Act

TOM CONNELL: The intergenerational report has been released and there’s a huge reliance on productivity to continue our standard of living increases. But recent years of productivity have been in the doldrums. Joining me now is Assistant Minister for that very thing; productivity – a few other things as well but I'll just stick with that title today. So, it's going backwards and it's four years into Labor’s term. Clearly that hasn't been the plan. If you're going to identify how you're going to improve something, you need to diagnose where it's going wrong. Where has it gone wrong on Labor's watch; productivity? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well Tom, productivity has been a big challenge in our economy, not just for a couple of years but for over the course of a full decade. That’s why we've got such a strong focus on productivity. From next year, non-compete clauses will be banned for anyone earning under $190,100. That'll make it easier for people to move to a better job and that'll be great for productivity. If you're starting a new firm looking to hire workers from existing enterprises, then getting rid of non-compete clauses is going to be good for you. And our competition package – the National Competition Policy, working with states and territories has productivity at its heart. That was one of the secrets to the 1990s surge in productivity and we're looking to revamp that.

TOM CONNELL: There have been huge changes in industrial relations. There was a lot of business warnings from business groups that would hurt productivity. They have a fair case to say they were right now don't they – four years in?

ANDREW LEIGH: Look, I don't think you can diagnose that from changes made in Australia given that productivity has been sluggish around the world…

TOM CONNELL: But we're below other OECD nations, aren't we? We're basically at the bottom of the pile.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO SYDNEY, MORNINGS WITH HAMISH MACDONALD
FRIDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: AI cyber incident; Labor ensuring tradies can get free access to mandatory standards; Stronger product safety standards for e-bikes; Rebuilding trust: the future of Australia’s charities and community life

HAMISH MACDONALD: Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Treasury. Good morning to you.

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

HAMISH MACDONALD: When you discovered that this had happened, and the way in which OpenAI had notified the Australian Government via Services Australia was through a public email address, what was your reaction?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, it's clearly inadequate and they should have been notifying the Australian Signals Directorate. This is a company with significant revenue, one of the largest organisations in the world – they should be notifying the Australian Government through the Australian Signals Directorate. They also had meetings with senior Australian officials at which they didn't raise this. So, we're very concerned about the poor way in which it was conveyed and the delay of the breach appears to have occurred in June and the notification took place in September. 

HAMISH MACDONALD: Is there also a dimension of this which would indicate that actually Australia's Government standards are not clear or are not up-to-scratch?

ANDREW LEIGH: We've got very clear standards, and of course we've got the Australian AI Safety Institute, the National Cyber Security Co-ordinator, and the Australian Signals Directorate, all of which have responsibility in these areas. We've established a task force to look into this incident. This is, as we understand it, the first incident of this kind in the world and so clearly there will be other countries also watching Australia's response. 

HAMISH MACDONALD: Has the law been broken?

ANDREW LEIGH: That's one of the things that the taskforce is going to inquire into. There's, as I understand it, some aspect of intent that's required and so it may be the taskforce makes recommendations about that as well. 

HAMISH MACDONALD: Okay, so what, if there was not an intention to break into a government website, then it wouldn't be a crime?

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

Tradies To Get Free Access To Mandatory Standards

Friday, 25 September 2026

The Albanese Government is delivering on ensuring workers such as electricians, plumbers and builders can access mandatory Australian Standards online for free. 

We are putting an end to a system which can force Australian workers to pay to read rules they are legally required to follow by providing $42.7 million over four years to Standards Australia to give free online access to Australian Standards contained in Commonwealth, State and Territory laws.

For too long, mandatory Australian Standards have sat behind a paid access system, leaving electricians, plumbers, builders, manufacturers, safety officers and small business owners paying to see what they are required to do.

Today, the Government completed the legislative process to make funding available for this program. The Government will now work through the final steps with Standards Australia to get the program up-and-running. 

When a standard becomes part of the law, people should have clear access to it.

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, 23 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Fuel prices in the ACT; Fuel excise; Middle East conflict; UN Security Council; AI; Digital Duty of Care; Social Media Age Ban; Net Zero; Renewables; Intergenerational Report; Productivity 

LEON DELANEY: It's no secret that we're all paying more for petrol and diesel at the pump. Of course, the conflict in the Middle East has caused fuel prices to spiral across Australia. What's less clear is why is it that motorists in Canberra consistently pay more than any other capital city? The federal Member for Fenner and Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Dr Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon. 

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

LEON DELANEY: Thanks for joining us today. This is a question for which it's apparently very difficult to get a straight answer. But tell me, if you can, why is it motorists in Canberra have to pay more? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, the competition watchdog looked carefully into this couple of years back and their conclusion was less competition. We have fewer independent retailers than you see in Sydney and Melbourne. The big players have a larger share of the market, and that leads to higher prices for consumers. We also have a lot of people using fuel cards who aren't as price sensitive and that again takes away another source of competition from the market. Of course, the main thing going on with fuel prices right now is the war in Iran but it doesn't help that we have these challenges in the market structure here in the ACT. 

LEON DELANEY: Exactly. So, but as the Assistant Minister for Competition, isn't there something you can do about that lack of competition? 

ANDREW LEIGH: We boosted resources to the competition watchdog and we've got them doing more fuel price monitoring than ever before. They've already instituted an inquiry into diesel price arrangements between a couple of the regional retailers and they are putting more scrutiny on fuel prices than they ever have before. 

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

Joining the Dots: Towards a Seamless Australian Economy

CEDA

Edith Cowan University City Campus,
Perth

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people as the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I extend that respect to all First Nations people here today.

Thank you to CEDA and Edith Cowan University for bringing us together, and to my former colleague, the talented economist Professor Colm Harmon, for leading the conversation to follow.

By my count, this is the seventh time I have spoken at a CEDA event. Past talks have covered multinational tax, productivity, job security, gender equality, program evaluation and merger reform. It is good to be back.

CEDA has been part of Australia’s economic conversation since 1960, when it was founded by Sir Douglas Copland. Copland held senior academic posts at the universities of Tasmania and Melbourne. He later became the Australian National University’s first Vice-Chancellor. He was a remarkable institution builder.

For 66 years, CEDA has brought together business, government, academia and the community around a distinctly Australian goal: sustainable long-term prosperity. CEDA forums give governments a place to test policy against business experience and academic evidence. With researchers like chief economist Cassandra Winzar and under the leadership of CEO Melinda Cilento, CEDA is in good hands.

My talk today is about competition policy. But you need not fear that it will get too abstract. We will start with bicycle helmets, move to prefabricated bathrooms, and finish with electric trucks.

I’ve chosen these examples because they each have something to say about making the national economy work better. With Western Australians voting to join the federation in July 1900, our nation sprang into being in January 1901. The economic benefits of federation have been immense, yet 125 years on, the job still isn’t quite done.

Businesses and workers often tell us that they encounter eight regulatory economies. Sometimes the differences are small, but added together, these differences consume time and deter entry. They constrain scale and slow the spread of better technology. The bill arrives through higher prices and weaker productivity.

The Albanese Government’s revitalised National Competition Policy is all about making it easier for workers and firms to operate across Australia. 

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO PERTH, MORNINGS WITH NADIA MITSOPOULOS
TUESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Intergenerational report; AI; Productivity; Immigration; Senate Committee Triple Zero recommendations; Credit card surcharges; 2026 AFL Grand Final

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Well, I suspect most of you did not sit down yesterday and have a good look at the intergenerational report which had been released, and it's a snapshot of what the country is going to look like in 40 years. It’s going to be an aging population. People will be living longer, while fewer children are born and that means that for the first time, deaths will outnumber births by the 2060s.

So why is that a problem, and how expensive will managing an ageing population be? Well, I suppose this government can just kick that can down the road but let us discuss this in more detail with Andrew Leigh. He's the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. He's a trained economist, so he knows a fair bit about this and he will tell you why this might be a bit of a worry for the government. He's in Perth and with me in the studio. Welcome, and nice to see you face-to-face!

ANDREW LEIGH: Great to be here Nadia, and always here for the long game. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Now as an economist, just tell us, help people understand what is concerning when deaths outnumber births, which is what is predicted to happen in Australia in the 2060s? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, it becomes a fiscal challenge and also a challenge for maintaining our quality of life. Productivity, participation and population are the three ‘P’s’ we often talk about in economics, and the intergenerational report projects our population will be a little smaller in 40 years' time than the previous report had forecast. Participation is up a bit. We're seeing increased participation by women and older Australians compared to what the previous IGR had said, and then the real action comes in productivity, in getting more output from every hour of work that we do. Artificial intelligence has great potential there, but of course some risks as well which the government is managing. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Okay, so let's go through a few of these things because what does it mean for government spending? Because this becomes a drain on the budget, caring for an older population – is that right? 

ANDREW LEIGH: One of the great things about our system is we have universal superannuation. Most other countries would give their right arm for a system like ours, which ensures that that age pension spending will fall from 2.3 per cent to 1.8 per cent of GDP. So even though there will be more older Australians – three times as many people aged over 85, as my father now is, we're going to see decreased spending on the age pension because more Australians will have the dignity of retirement through universal superannuation. 

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

The Learning State: Building Experimentation into Australian Government

Shann Memorial Lecture

University of Western Australia, 
Perth

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

1. How Many Hoops Should a Jobseeker Have to Jump Through?

I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people, on whose lands we meet, and recognise all First Nations people present. Thank you to the University of Western Australia, to Alison Preston, president of the Economic Society of Australia (Western Australia), and to everyone involved in organising the Shann Memorial Lecture. It is a huge honour to give a lecture bearing Ed Shann’s name. I will say more about Shann shortly, and how his approach to economics fits today’s theme.

But I want to begin with a much more recent Australian story about how our government is using randomised trials to shape government policy.

When people receive income support through Workforce Australia Online, the government sets mutual obligations. Jobseekers can meet these obligations through job applications, training, study and other activities. Each activity is allocated a certain number of points under the Points Based Activation System. The standard monthly target has been 100 points, which typically includes a minimum of four job applications.

The logic seems straightforward. Looking for work takes effort. Requiring more effort should, up to a point, increase the chances of finding a job.

But where is that point?

How many applications should someone be required to submit? How demanding should the points target be? At what stage does an obligation stop encouraging useful job search and begin consuming time that could be spent finding work in other ways?

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH SARA TOMEVSKA
MONDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Intergenerational Report; Artificial Intelligence; Productivity; Child Care; Immigration; Fuel Excise; One Nation 

SARA TOMEVSKA: Well, now for a view from the government, I want to bring in the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition and Charities, Andrew Leigh. Andrew, welcome to the program. 

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

SARA TOMEVSKA: Assistant Minister, this intergenerational report shows birth rates declining, weaker productivity growth and young people working longer and still struggling to buy a home in 40 years’ time. The Treasurer described elements of this report as confronting. Is it actually worse than that? 

ANDREW LEIGH: There's certainly big international challenges being thrown at us. The geopolitical situation is quite uncertain. AI offers great upside potential but also significant downside risks. And we know that there are challenges in dealing with the Liberal debt that we were left with – work that continues under our government. The report shows that participation rates have come in higher than expected but we still need to do a lot of work on productivity.

Just to give you one example Sara, if we can increase productivity by 0.4 per cent, then in 40 years that translates to 15 per cent higher living standards for Australians. So, that's why it really is the main game for this government. 

SARA TOMEVSKA: But a lot of the economic progress that's been projected in this report relies on AI. What if the digital revolution doesn't deliver? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we've also got a big productivity agenda in competition, modelled by the Productivity Commission to add some $13 billion to the economy. The work we're doing on scrapping non-compete clauses for 9 out of 10 workers will ensure people can move to a better job. That too increases productivity and wages. Artificial intelligence is an important technology and really here the challenge Sara, is about diffusion, because only 1 in 10 Australian firms say that they're significantly using AI in a way that's making a substantial impact on their businesses. So, if we can get more firms to the AI productivity frontier, ensure it's job augmenting rather than automating, then all of that is to the benefit of Australians. 

SARA TOMEVSKA: But there's a lot of uncertainty in that. I mean, the truth is, we don't really know how AI is ultimately going to impact the workforce of tomorrow, wouldn't you agree? 

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, MORNINGS WITH EDDIE WILLIAMS
MONDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Fuel prices in the ACT; Albanese Government making product recalls faster and more effective; EVs; Intergenerational Report; Productivity

EDDIE WILLIAMS: You're with Eddie Williams on 666 ABC Canberra. It can happen with anything – from a carton of eggs to a child's toy or even your car. A product recall when there's something wrong with the product, so you've got to return it and get a refund. Well, for the first time in more than a decade, the government is looking at some reforms to how product recalls work in Australia. Andrew Leigh is the federal Member for Fenner in the ACT and the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Dr Leigh, good morning.

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

EDDIE WILLIAMS: I want to ask you about petrol first. I was speaking with Liberal Senate candidate, Nick Tyrrell a few minutes ago about the Opposition's proposal for a fuel price shield. Should the government be looking at doing something further when it comes to the fuel excise?

ANDREW LEIGH: We're already taking significant action. We've increased the penalties for anti-competitive conduct. We've given the ACCC more resources to go after price gouging, and we've ensured that it is doing fuel price monitoring right across the country. They've already announced an inquiry into possible collusion by a couple of diesel retailers in regional Australia. This is a well-funded, well-armed regulator that has stronger tools than they've ever had before and are going after bad behaviour in the petrol market in the interest of Australian drivers.

EDDIE WILLIAMS: I asked Nick Tyrrell about prices in Canberra, specifically being the highest of Australian cities and whether any specific measures are needed here. This is what he said.

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

Making Product Recalls Faster And More Effective

Saturday, 19 September 2026

The Albanese Government is taking action to improve product recalls and strengthen Australia’s response when unsafe products reach consumers.

For the first time in over a decade, the Government is taking a dedicated look at how Australia’s product recall system works.

Recent product safety incidents, including recalls of children’s coloured sand products because of asbestos concerns and several other consumer product recalls, highlight the importance of identifying safety risks early and acting quickly.

The Government is releasing a Consultation Regulation Impact Statement seeking views on reforms to Australia’s post-market product safety framework.