Dr Andrew Leigh | |
|---|---|
 Leigh in 2017 | |
| Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury | |
| Assumed office 13 May 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Anthony Albanese |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury | |
| In office 23 May 2022 – 13 May 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Anthony Albanese |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Assistant Minister for Employment | |
| In office 23 May 2023 – 13 May 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Anthony Albanese |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forFenner | |
| Assumed office 2 July 2016 | |
| Preceded by | New seat |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forFraser | |
| In office 21 August 2010 – 2 July 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Bob McMullan |
| Succeeded by | Division abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Andrew Keith Leigh (1972-08-03)3 August 1972 (age 53) Sydney, Australia |
| Party | Labor |
| Spouse | Gweneth |
| Children | 3 sons |
| Residence(s) | Canberra, Australia |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Lawyer, academic, political adviser |
| Website | www |
Andrew Keith Leigh (born 3 August 1972) is an Australian politician, author, lawyer and former professor of economics at theAustralian National University. He currently serves as theAssistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury.[1] He briefly served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime MinisterJulia Gillard in 2013 and then served as Shadow Assistant Treasurer from 2013 to 2019. He has been aLabor member of theAustralian House of Representatives since 2010 representing the seat ofFraser until 2016 andFenner thereafter. Leigh is not a member of any factions of the Labor Party[2].
Both Leigh's parents are academics and both came from homes of social activists "in the Christian socialist tradition".[3] Leigh's maternal grandfather, a boilermaker and Methodist lay preacher, used the family's spare room to shelter a constant stream of refugees from places like Cambodia and Chile, who were escaping the regimes of Pol Pot and Augusto Pinochet.[3]
Leigh's early years of education were in Sydney,Melbourne,Malaysia andIndonesia before completing secondary education atJames Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney, New South Wales.[4] He graduated from theUniversity of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in 1994, and aBachelor of Laws with First Class Honours in 1996. He then obtained aMaster of Public Administration degree and a PhD in Public Policy fromHarvard Kennedy School, where his thesis was "Essays in poverty and inequality".[5][6][7] At Harvard, Leigh was a Doctoral Fellow at the Malcolm Wiener Centre for Social Policy from 2002 to 2004, and a Frank Knox Fellow from 2000 to 2004.[8]
Leigh has been a member of theAustralian Labor Party since 1991.[9]
Leigh is one of at least ten MPs in the47th Parliament of Australia who possesses a PhD, the others includingAnne Aly,Jim Chalmers,Andrew Charlton,Daniel Mulino,Jess Walsh,Carina Garland,Adam Bandt,Mehreen Faruqi,Anne Webster andHelen Haines.[10]
Before entering politics, Leigh worked as a lawyer forMinter Ellison in Sydney andClifford Chance in London from 1995 to 1997.[1] He was then associate toJusticeMichael Kirby of theHigh Court of Australia from 1997 to 1998. Leigh has said that he "probably learnt more from (Kirby) than anyone except for my parents"[11] He was senior trade adviser toShadow Minister for TradeSenator Peter Cook from 1998 to 2000, and research fellow with theProgressive Policy Institute inWashington, D.C. in 2001.[1] Leigh also served as a principal adviser to theAustralian Treasury from 2008 to 2009.[1]
Leigh was Professor of Economics at theAustralian National University from 2004 to 2010.[1] He also had several visiting appointments at theUniversity of Melbourne,New York University, theResearch Institute of Industrial Economics and theUniversity of Michigan.[12] Over his academic career, Leigh has published over 100 journal articles in the disciplines of economics, public policy and law and over 200 opinion pieces. Since entering parliament in 2010, he has authored or co-authored ten books.[13]
In the1995 NSW election, Leigh stood as the Labor candidate for the New South Wales state seat ofNorthcott, receiving an 8-point swing, but nonetheless losing by a large margin toBarry O'Farrell of theLiberal Party.[14] Since then, O'Farrell occasionally sends Leigh "lovely little handwritten congratulations" for life milestones.[11]
On 24 April 2010, Leigh was selected as Labor's candidate for the Australian federal seat ofFraser[15] following the announced retirement ofBob McMullan. Fraser was a safe Labor seat.[16] Leigh was subsequently elected in theAustralian federal election held on 21 August 2010.[17]
In 2013, Leigh served as the government spokesperson on Opposition costings. Leigh was then promoted into theMinistry of Julia Gillard on the 25 March 2013 as theParliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister following a Cabinet reshuffle in the wake of afailed leadership challenge on Prime MinisterJulia Gillard.[18] Leigh, a supporter of Gillard,[19] lost this position after theJune 2013 Labor leadership spill.[20]
After the2013 federal election, Leigh was appointed byBill Shorten as Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Competition. After the2016 federal election, Leigh continued as the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and added the portfolios of Shadow Minister for Competition and Productivity, Shadow Minister for Charities and Not-for-Profits, and Shadow Minister for Trade in Services.
After the2019 federal election, Leigh was dropped from the outer ministry of theShadow Ministry of Anthony Albanese due to his decision to remain factionally unaligned. Leigh however was appointed to the parliamentary secretary-level positions of Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury and Shadow Assistant Minister for Charities.[21]
After the2022 federal election, Leigh was appointed theAssistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. In this role, he has criticised the lack of dynamism in the Australian economy, and the decline in social capital in the Australian community. In May 2023, Leigh was appointed Assistant Minister for Employment.[1] Following the re-election of theAlbanese government in the2025 federal election, Leigh was appointedAssistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury to thesecond Albanese ministry.[1]
In July 2025, Leigh approved Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status for Equality Australia after prior rejections by theAustralian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), theAdministrative Appeals Tribunal, and theFederal Court. The approvals were granted under ministerial discretion following public lobbying, including a written request by Equality Australia's CEO,Anna Brown. At the time of the decision, Equality Australia was collecting tax-deductible donations via theHIV/AIDS charity Thorne Harbour Health, a practice that drew formal complaints to the ACNC and theAustralian Taxation Office. Equality Australia defended the partnership as a lawful auspice arrangement.[22][23]
Leigh identifies as a social democrat, but within theAustralian Labor Party he is aligned to no faction.[3] He has argued that Labor MPs should have more autonomy to dissent from caucus decisions.[24] In a 2002 book he co-edited with the political scientist David Burchell,The Prince's New Clothes: Why Do Australians Dislike Their Politicians? Leigh suggested a more aggressive media, which covers politics like sport and gossip, and a general breakdown in "interpersonal" trust were largely responsible for politicians' falling stocks.[3]
In making his first speech, he identified the American Democratic Senator,Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as a role model.[25] In the central part of his speech, he spoke about the Australian Project:
This Australian project is not finished. It’s not something that stopped with the end of the First World War or with the death of Ben Chifley....To me, the Australian project is about encouraging economic growth, while ensuring that its benefits are shared across the community. It is about making sure that all Australians have great public services, regardless of ethnicity, income or postcode. And it is about recognising that governments have a role in expanding opportunities, because no child gets to choose the circumstances of their birth.[25]
Leigh believes the "passion for raising living standards" is part of the Australian identity.[25] He believes growth comes with free markets and innovation — and he strongly identifies with the liberalism of Australia's second Prime Minister,Alfred Deakin.[26] In 2019, Leigh claimed the beliefs of the contemporary Australian Labor Party was that ofsocial liberalism.[27] Leigh credits Labor to being the inheritor ofsmall-l liberalism in Australia, and that "social liberals have been cast out of theLiberal Party of Australia".[27] In the digital age, that liberalism means a market that is free to develop technological innovation, even with its "creative destruction".[28] With his co-authorJoshua Gans, Leigh has argued that the state must be wary of making entrepreneurs face prohibitively high costs, even as they face high chance of failure.[28]
When Leigh went to Harvard for post-graduate research, he studied under the social scientist Robert Putnam, who had published the major work on declining social capital in America,Bowling Alone.[3] Leigh has observed that Australians also 'bowl alone', as they are financially stretched, time poor, and unable to make regular commitments.[29] Leigh is concerned that online communities have actually created more alienation for Australians, but this can be ameliorated when the state encourages volunteering and community groups.[30]
Inequality is a key concern for Leigh, whose research has indicated that inequality is at a 75-year high within Australia.[31] Though Leigh maintains that inequality is not automatically a bad thing in itself, it does concern him in practice because he believes that "rising inequality strains the social fabric".[25] As a result, Leigh advocates someredistribution of wealth, in order to maintain opportunity for people.[3] Leigh particularly wants to see university made more affordable than it is for most young people now.[32]
Leigh delivered the 2004 Garran Oration of theInstitute of Public Administration Australia. In 2006 he was awarded the Best Discussant Award at the Annual PhD Conference in Economics and Business in 2006 and the Early Career Award by theAcademy of the Social Sciences in Australia.[33] Also in 2011 Leigh was appointed a Fellow of theAcademy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In 2011, Leigh was awarded the Economic Society of Australia's Young Economist Award. This award, presented once every two years, is given to "honour that Australian economist under the age of forty who is deemed to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge".[34] In 2022, Leigh was awarded the Accountability Round Table's John Button integrity award.[35]
Leigh is the first sitting Australian politician to complete the following:
His best marathon time is 2:42:48, in the 2017Tokyo Marathon,[41] and he has run all six marathon majors in under three hours.[42]Leigh's best Ironman time is 10:48:11 in the 2021 Cairns Ironman.[43]
In an article inMen's Health, he described his favourite running routes in each Australian capital city.[44] Leigh races as a supporter of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. Leigh discusses the role of sport in his life in his bookFair Game: Lessons from Sport for a Fairer Society and a Stronger Economy.
Leigh is married to Gweneth Leigh, a landscape architect.[11] As of 2024, they have been married for 20 years.[45] Leigh met Gweneth during his time at Harvard University.[11] They live in Canberra with their three sons, Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary.[9] He has said that "both parenting and politics should be done with a sense of kindness".[46]
Leigh is close friends withJustin Wolfers, a professor of economics atUniversity of Michigan, and his wifeBetsey Stevenson, theObama administration’s key economic adviser.[11]
In 2015, Leigh's family Christmas card went viral for his scowling toddler.[47] Speaking of the Christmas card in 2019, Leigh said, "people didn’t want to see airbrushed politics; they preferred to know that our kids were just as grumpy as everyone else’s".[46] Leigh appeared on America'sToday Show to discuss the photograph.[46]
| Parliament of Australia | ||
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| Preceded by | Member for Fraser 2010–2016 | Abolished |
| New seat | Member for Fenner 2016–present | Incumbent |
Prime Minister:Anthony Albanese | ||
| Cabinet | .jpg) | |
| Outer Ministry | ||
| Assistant Ministers | ||
| Resigned | ||
Prime Minister:Anthony Albanese | ||
| Cabinet | | |
| Outer Ministry | ||
| Assistant Ministers | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
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