Andrew Leigh

The Minefield

Thursday 25 August 2016 11:30AM 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/does-love-have-any-place-in-politics/7774916 

Next week, the 45th Parliament sits for the first time since the federal election. The government holds a paper-thin majority in the House of Representatives; the Liberal Party Room is suffering significant internal discord; and the new Senate is more fractious, demanding and wilfully recalcitrant than any in modern history.

These are the ideal conditions for political discord and outright opportunism.

Australia is hardly unique in this respect. Western politics as a whole seems to be following this trend toward greater political instability, less cooperation; more anger, less empathy. The media’s own fetishisation of the spectacle of conflict is doubtless complicit in this state of affairs.

But the proliferation of social movements and forms of political activism are not exempt from blame either.

On all sides, the prospects for constructive, broad-based collective action are under threat. The question is: if there is to be a change in our fraught and fractious political climate, what will be the agent? From where might the impetus for change come?

For one Australian politician, that change must come from within politics itself.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 25 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s plan to protect Medicare; Budget; Superannuation; Scott Morrison; NBN; Petrol prices; Labor’s plan for a banking Royal Commission; Asbestos

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION: Good morning everyone, thank you very much for coming out to Macquarie in the heart of the Fenner electorate. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and member for Fenner and it's a great pleasure to be welcoming Opposition Leader Bill Shorten here to the National Health Co-op. The National Health Co-op began life as the West Belconnen Health Co-op in 2010, it was an initiative of the local community who wanted to do something to raise accessibility to bulk billing. Since then it has expanded to seven sites across the ACT and is now in conversation with three states across Australia. 

The co-op model is a great one for delivering healthcare, because it is focused not on how much money it makes but on how much good it can do in the local community. And in ensuring that people get access to bulk billing doctors by providing access through a membership based model to bulk billing doctors. The National Health Co-op ensures that people get ongoing care, get to see a doctor before problems turn too serious and get access to Allied Health services such as mental health, such as pathology, such as diabetic wrap around care. It's a great model and I would really like to thank Blake and the team for taking the opportunity to show Bill Shorten what the National Health Co-op is achieving here today, and to remind Canberrans and Australians about the value of Medicare for Australia. I will hand over now to Bill Shorten. 

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO WITH MARIUS BENSON

WEDNESDAY, 24 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s genuine solution for budget repair; Marriage equality plebiscite.

PRESENTER: To look at Labor's budget repair formula, Marius Benson is speaking to the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh.

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, Bill Shorten will be outlining savings of about $8 billion over a four-year period – the forward estimates. Now these are well-known savings. These are the savings you were promising during the election campaign?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION: These are fair savings Marius, which make sure that we're able to bring the budget back into surplus without hurting the most vulnerable Australians. Savings like the changes to negative gearing that we took to the last election – which experts recognise would not only add to the budget bottom line but would also help the housing situation in Australia that's seeing a generation of young Australians priced out of the housing market. 

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT

MONDAY, 22 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: Chifley Institute on inequality; superannuation; Chinese investment; Country Fire Authority; same-sex marriage

KIERAN GILBERT: With me to discuss this and the other issues of the day – the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. What exactly does that mean? To stop trickle-down politics? I know Wayne Swan's used this quite a bit in terms of criticisms of the Business Council of Australia. As far as you see, what does that actually mean?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It’s recognition of the fact that inequality's grown massively in Australia over the last generation. We've seen earnings grow three times as fast for the top 10th as for the bottom 10th. We've got the top one per cent share having doubled and the richest three Australians now having more wealth that the poorest one million Australians.

What Australia needs isn't more tax cuts for the top one per cent but a strategy to ensure that everybody shares in prosperity. Because otherwise you get the nasty politics you're seeing emerge in the United States and Europe. Part of which is caused by the increase in inequality in those places. 

Looking for the liberal Liberals
Labor Herald, 16 August 2016

When Malcolm Turnbull toppled Tony Abbott to become party leader for the second time, the partisan side of me was a little worried. I thought we’d see a PM with a strong inner core, guided by his values and confident in his instincts.

But, after nine months in office and eight weeks’ campaigning, Malcom Turnbull worries me no longer. In fact, I’m beginning to worry for him. I am worried Australia still does not really know what he stands for, and neither does he.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

FIVEAA MORNINGS WITH LEON BYNER

THURSDAY, 11 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: 2016 Census

LEON BYNER: Let’s talk the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, what’s your take on all this?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning Leon. My sense is that the frustration of Australians needs to be rightly directed at the Turnbull Government. They're engaging in a bit of point the finger exercise at the moment, trying to say "well it's the contractor" or "it's the Department". The fact is, Leon, as you well know there's a doctrine of ministerial accountability in Australia which says that the buck stops with the minister. And the attempts by Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and the rest to find someone else to blame miss the fact that a good government has proper oversight even of a complicated process like running a Census. 

SPEECH LAUNCHING TURNER SCHOOL STEM FESTIVAL

TURNER PRIMARY SCHOOL, CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 11 AUGUST 2016

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

Thank you very much for inviting here today everyone. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, and pay my respects to elders past and present. I also recognize Andrew Neely for that terrific talk just now.

Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering are important because they all do the same thing.

They ask questions.

Science asks questions about why things are the way they are. Asking lots of questions, and then trying to find the answers to those questions, is one of the great keys to life.

I’ve got three little boys. Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary are always asking questions. And you know what? The answer, “Because that’s just the way it is,” isn’t very satisfying for them. And it shouldn’t be very satisfying for you either.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 11 AUGUST 2016

 SUBJECT/S: 2016 Census.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Before he became Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull sold himself as Australia's number one 'techspert'. But when something goes wrong, Malcolm Turnbull's the last to accept responsibility. He says today that he's "very angry" about a problem that was “entirely avoidable”.

Mr Turnbull, if it was "entirely avoidable" what steps did you take in order to avoid it?

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

WEDNESDAY, 10 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: 2016 Census.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much for coming along today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer.

This has been the worst-run Census in Australian history. One of the worst IT debacles Australia has ever seen. Make no mistake, from here the data from the 2016 Census will never be as good as the data from previous Censuses. 

That's because the Turnbull Government has botched their handling of the 2016 Census. The date for the 2016 Census has been set for many years. They have known the Census was coming and yet they failed to do the proper planning. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

WEDNESDAY, 10 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: 2016 Census.

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh joins me now.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning Marius.

BENSON: Your own response, are you surprised at this revelation?

LEIGH: Yes I am, but it is an inevitable result of the way in which the Government has so mismanaged the Census. The position of chief statistician, left vacant for more than a year, budget cuts and job losses at the Bureau of Statistics and a culture from the very top of this Government that suggests that public servants should embrace "fear of failure" as Malcolm Turnbull once put it. It works for a start-up, doesn't really work for a Government.