Andrew Leigh Mp: Speeches & Conversations

Small-L Liberalism and the Labor Tradition Keynote Address - Second Annual History and the Hill Conference - Australian Policy and History  

Launching John Quiggin's 'Economics in Two Lessons'.  Because one-lesson economics only tells half the story. For more information on John's book - Economics in Two Lessons - Why Markets Work So Well, and Why They Can Fail So Badly - click here.

Announcing Labor's Tax Inspectors without Borders policy, I spoke at the ANU Devpolicy Centre about how tax havens hurt other developing countries, and what we can do about it.

As a part of Per Capita's reform series, and on the first day of the federal Election campaign, I set out Labor's centrist economic agenda for fairness and opportunity.

As a part of the ANU 'Meet the Author' series, i was In Conversation with Rebecca Huntley about polling, focus groups and the character of Australian democracy. Rebecca's Quarterly Essay, Australia Fair, is out now.

I spoke with award winning author Judith Brett as a part of ANU's In Conversation program. Judith's new book From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, gives a landmark account of the character of Australian democracy. We spoke about the peculiarly Australian aspects of our democratic system and the effects our innovations have had on elections here and on voting practices around the world.

Reflecting on heat waves and high stakes, I set out the urgent climate challenge we all need to face up to.  The full text of the speech is also available here.  

Building a better feedback loop: Labor to establish an Evaluator General Increasingly, policymakers in other nations are testing programs through randomised trials, with the same kind of control group used to evaluate new pharmaceuticals in clinical drug trials. When Australian policymakers develop programs in early childhood, health, crime and employment, we often look to those overseas randomised trials.

Presenting one of the keynote address to 2018 Conference of the Australia Indonesia Business Council, I recalled my childhood in Aceh and celebrated the connections Labor has been forging with this major trading partner and our region more broadly.

On 31 October, i presented the Lionel Murphy Lecture at the ANU, reflecting on Lionel Murphy's legacy and the challenge of framing competition laws that could help reduce inequality. Australia has a competition problem: there is not enough of it. Our industries are concentrated. Our markets show signs of weak competition.  There is a strong progressive case for repositioning how we think about competition. Focusing more on the competitive process, the structure of markets and the incentives those structures create for firms will play an important role in reducing inequality.

Why unions are vital to Advance Australia Fair - Melbourne, 2 October 2018

As a part of the ANU / Canberra Times 'Meet the Author' series, I joined Peter Mares to shine some light on Australia's housing affordabilty blindspots. Peter's new book is called No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis.  More than a million lower-income households in Australia pay above the affordability benchmark for their housing costs. More than 100,000 people are homeless. Seventy per cent of us are concerned we'll never own property. Yet owning a home is still seen by most Australians as an essential part of our way of life. Peter's expertly informed and eminently readable, No Place Like Home cuts through the noise around housing affordability and asks the common-sense questions about why we do housing the way we do, and what the alternatives might be. You can learn more about No Place Like Home here.

"How the tax system can narrow (or widen) the gender gap" was presented as part of the Women's Economic Network Seminar, on 7 September 2018, at the NSW State Library.

On 12 July 2018, Brookings hosted a launch of Randomistas featuring Thomas D. Cook, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Northwestern University and author or editor of 10 books on research, research design, and evaluation, Rebecca Maynard, professor of education and social policy at University of Pennsylvania, and Jon Baron, Vice President of Evidence-Based Policy at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. The conversation was chaired by Richard V. Reeves, Senior Fellow at the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution.

On 14 May 2018, I joined Dr Karl Kruszelnicki for a conversation at Gleebooks Sydney about my new book, Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Changed Our World. This podcast was originally aired on Dr Karl's excellent podcast, Shirtloads of Science. 

i was thrilled to join Mary Delahunty and Narelle Cooper to discuss gender equality and the value of work as part of CEDA’s Women in Leadership: diversity and inclusion series. The series examines the value of paid and unpaid work, and ask how the future of work will impact prospects for greater gender equality in the workplace. For more information about the event and CEDA, click here. A transcript of the speech is available here. 

I was very pleased to be asked to offer the vote of thanks at Hugh Mackay's Canberra launch for his new book, Australia Reimagined. Hugh is a prolific and highly regarded social researcher with a vision for a more compassionate and socially cohesive Australia.  You can learn more about Australia Reimagined here.

On 9 April, I launched the China Story Yearbook for 2017 at the ANU's China in the World centre.   The theme of the 2017 yearbook is Prosperity. The full text of the speech is available here.

On 5 April 2018, I spoke in Auckland, New Zealand on the topic of “Equalising the Antipodes: What can New Zealand and Australia learn from each other about reducing inequality?” The full text of the speech is available here.

On 6 April 2018, I spoke in Wellington, New Zealand on the topic of “How the Randomistas Can Help Fight Inequality”. The full text of the speech is available here.