Andrew Leigh


Andrew Keith Leigh is an Australian politician, author, and former professor of economics at the Australian National University. He has been a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2010 representing the seat of Fraser until 2016 and Fenner thereafter. He briefly served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013 and then served as Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Competition from 2013 to 2019. Leigh is not a member of any factions of the Labor Party.

Early life and education

Leigh's early years of education were in Sydney, Melbourne, Malaysia and Indonesia before completing secondary education at James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney, New South Wales.
Leigh graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in 1994, and a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours in 1996. He then obtained a Master of Public Administration degree and a PhD in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 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.

Professional career

Before entering politics, Leigh worked as a lawyer for Minter Ellison in Sydney and Clifford Chance in London from 1995 to 1997. He was then associate to Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia from 1997 to 1998, senior trade adviser to Shadow Minister for Trade Senator Peter Cook from 1998 to 2000, and research fellow with the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. in 2001. Leigh also served as a principal adviser to the Australian Treasury from 2008 to 2009.

Academic career

Leigh was Professor of Economics at the Australian National University from 2004 to 2010. He also had several visiting appointments at the University of Melbourne, New York University, the Research Institute of Industrial Economics and the University of Michigan. Over his academic career, Leigh published over 50 journal articles in the disciplines of economics, public policy and law and over 100 opinion pieces. His research findings have been discussed in The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, The New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Political career

In the 1995 NSW election, Leigh stood as the Labor candidate for the New South Wales state seat of Northcott, receiving an 8-point swing, but nonetheless losing by a large margin to Barry O'Farrell.
On 24 April 2010, Leigh was selected as Labor's candidate for the Australian federal seat of Fraser following the announced retirement of Bob McMullan. Fraser is a safe Labor seat. Leigh was subsequently elected in the Australian federal election held on 21 August 2010.

Government Ministry

In 2013, Leigh served as the Government Spokesperson on Opposition costings. Leigh was then promoted into the Ministry of Julia Gillard on the 25 March 2013 as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister following a Cabinet reshuffle in the wake of a failed leadership challenge on Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Leigh, a supporter of Gillard, lost this position after the June 2013 Labor leadership spill.

Shadow Ministry

After the 2013 federal election, Leigh was appointed by Bill Shorten as Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Competition. After the 2016 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 the 2019 federal election, Leigh was dropped from the outer ministry of the Shadow 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.

Honours and awards

Leigh delivered by the Garran Oration of the Institute 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 the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Also in 2011 Leigh was appointed a Fellow of the Academy 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."

Personal life

Leigh ran the 2017 Tokyo Marathon in a time of 2:42:48.