Andrew Leigh

BETTER TRAINING FOR NDIS WORKERS IN CANBERRA

Canberra will be one of the first places in the country to benefit from Labor’s plan to invest $40 million in training locals for jobs in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government, which will fix the NDIS and create local jobs in Canberra, or more of the Liberal’s cuts and chaos.

We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough.

The NDIS is expected to create up to 1,200 new jobs in Canberra and Labor will make sure locals can get the quality training they need to work in the NDIS.

HELPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS

A Shorten Labor Government will commit almost $50,000 to local projects in schools in North Canberra, helping students learn and play.

This election is a choice between Labor’s plan for better schools, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $16,000 towards science equipment at Melba Copland Secondary School, so students can learn to assemble and program droids. 

The seat of Fenner is named after legendary Australian scientist Frank Fenner, and Andrew Leigh hosts an annual Fenner Lecture to raise the understanding of science among young Canberrans. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 13 MAY 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s $6 million commitment for ACT students, Labor’s plans for affordable housing.

ALICIA PAYNE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CANBERRA: Good morning. I'm Alicia Payne, Labor’s candidate for the seat of Canberra. It's great to be here at my former workplace the University of Canberra with Andrew Leigh, Carrie Graf and Michelle Lincoln to talk about this great investment that a Shorten Labor Government will make in a sports program here at UC to boost disadvantaged students, to be able to access higher education and using sport as a pathway into that. I'll hand over to Andrew to give a bit more detail about the announcement.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Terrific. Thanks, Alicia. It's a great day to be talking about a great program. Two strengths of the University of Canberra have been reaching out including more disadvantaged students in higher education and their capacity in elite sport. There’s 132 elite sports players currently enrolled at the University of Canberra, playing for the Capitals and the Brumbies. Triathletes, power lifters, cheerleaders. And the University of Canberra is keen to provide opportunities to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to engage in higher education. We know across Australia there are ‘Lost Einsteins’ and ‘Lost Curies’, brilliant young people who don't get a chance to do those studies that will benefit them and the nation. New research out today from RMIT University highlights the importance of boosting education levels in Australia in an increasingly technologically engaged era. We know it's vital to increase university places and that's why a Shorten Labor Government would uncap university places, ensuring over the course of the next decade another 200,000 Australians have a chance to attend university.

Today we're announcing that under a Shorten Labor Government, we would provide $6 million to the University of Canberra for the Sport and Health Empower Program, a program which would bring high school students - Years 10, 11 and 12 – on to campus twice a year. It would give them exposure to some of the best sports science that’s being done, provide tips for their own sporting lives so they’re able to combine studies and their sporting careers, and set them up with mentors - elite sportspeople, sports researchers - so they can better understand what they can achieve by going to university. It's a program that will then work with students in their own communities, to reach out to students in the ACT and the region from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It's absolutely vital if we're to become a more prosperous society, a more equal society, a society that uses the talents of all its members, that we boost university attendance among disadvantaged people and disadvantage populations. So I'm very pleased to be here with my friend and colleague Alicia Payne, making this announcement today. I hand over now to Michelle and then to Carrie to say a few more words about the specifics of the proposed program.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 13 MAY 2019

Subjects: Five years on from the Liberals’ horror 2014 Budget, Labor’s plans for affordable housing, the Liberals’ scare campaign on negative gearing.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much for coming out today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Five years ago, the Liberals brought down their horror 2014 Budget. They said there'd be no cuts to health. They lied. They said there’d be no cuts for education. They lied. They said there'd be no cuts to the pension. They lied. They said there'd be no cuts to ABC or the SBS. They lied. The 2014 Budget was a horror show in Australian politics and if Scott Morrison is re-elected on Saturday it'll be his blueprint for the next three years.

Scott Morrison is a man bereft of ideas, a failed ad man who’s given up on reform. But he was as enthusiastic a backer for that 2014 Budget as you could find in the Parliament. Scott Morrison was a man who was very happy for the Liberals to go out and break their pledges to the Australian people to look after the social safety net. If the Liberals are re-elected on Saturday, you will see more tax breaks for the top end of town, tax loopholes for multinationals, and cuts to health and education – which we know from Grattan Institute modelling amounts to some $40 billion of secret Morrison cuts. Secret Morrison cuts that could be even worse than the 2014 Budget.

LABOR WILL GIVE CANBERRA STUDENTS A $6 MILLION SPORTING CHANCE

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $6 million in a boost to disadvantaged school students who are seeking higher education.

This election will be a choice between a Shorten Labor Government that will help empower disadvantaged students to access higher education or more of the Liberal’s cuts and chaos.

If elected, Labor will co-fund the University of Canberra’s Sport and Health Empower Program, helping local students work towards a career in sport, health, and wellbeing.

The program will use sport as a pathway for participants to enrol in university and raise aspirations for higher education among school students from Canberra and the surrounding region.

A SHORTEN LABOR GOVERNMENT WILL CLEAN UP GINNINDERRA CREEK

Ginninderra Creek has been named as a priority project under Labor’s Urban Rivers and Corridors Program, designed to bring urban waterways and habitat corridors back to health.

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $600,000 to help fund woody weed removal and revegetation with native plants along the waterway, as well as facilitate community education about local ecology.

The proposal to restore Ginninderra Creek was first elaborated upon by the local catchment peak body - comprised of more than 17 Landcare groups - which has long standing expertise in the ecology and stewardship of waterways in the area. Local waterways are one of the delights of living in the bush capital, and North Canberrans have heartily thrown their support behind the campaign to see this project prioritised.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

CHARITY AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT SECTOR PRE-ELECTION DEBATE OPENING REMARKS

TRANSFORM CONFERENCE

MELBOURNE

FRIDAY, 10 MAY 2019

Subjects: The Liberals’ war on charities, the Liberals’ no show at the debate, Labor’s 10 point plan for the charities and not-for-profit sector.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS: Well, thank you very much David and I’ll weave into my remarks the origins of this place, it will come up in just a moment. I acknowledge that we meet on the land of the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay my respects their elders. David [Crosbie], thank you for organising today and for your leadership. The charitable sector owes you a great debt for all that you do. I recognise Rachel Siewert and acknowledge the empty chair for a Coalition representative, with David’s invitations having been turned down by Zed Seselja, Kevin Andrews and Paul Fletcher. It's a pity not to have them here. I think the sector is owed the kind of charity debate that we had in the previous two elections, and it’s a shame the Coalition is a no-show today. I also acknowledge the range of charity and not-for-profit leaders here today, including Sue Woodward and Adrienne Picone.

When I think back to my teens and twenties, some of the most important memories are volunteering. I helped build walking tracks in Lane Cove and Nowra with the Australian Trust for Conservation Volunteers. I dressed up in a clown suit to sell juggling balls to raise money for Oxfam. I volunteered as a law student at Redfern Legal Centre, at the Welfare Rights Legal Centre in the ACT. When I think about my three boys and when they’re at their best, it's often when they’ve joined me on one of my regular park clean ups. Doing something for the community, rather than doing something for themselves. A life lived in service to others is a life well lived. In that, I'm following somewhat in the footsteps of my grandfather, a Methodist minister who worked here in Melbourne and who passed away in 1970 doing a run up Mount Wellington in Hobart to raise money for overseas aid.

LABOR’S PLAN FOR CHARITIES: SECTOR SUPPORT   

A Shorten Labor Government will have Australia’s first ever Charities Minister, who will fix the damage done by six years of Liberals and Nationals’ chaos and work with the nation’s not-for-profits to build a more connected country.  

Labor will guarantee the right of charities to advocate, and deliver a stronger and more productive charities and not-for-profit sector by establishing a Not-for-profit Sector Expert Reference Panel and ‘Building Community - Building Capacity’ Working Group. 

We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough. Many in the sector agree and have voiced their support for Labor’s plans. 

“This vital sector has been treated with contempt over the past six years, enduring policies that seemed designed to crush civil society and the ACNC, and successive waves of disinterested and incompetent presiding ministers and parliamentary secretaries. We welcome and eagerly await the opportunity to replace the top-down, far-right-wing agenda that has predominated in recent years with one of respect and authentic engagement.” 

- Denis Moriarty, Our Community Founder and Group Managing Director 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 9 MAY 2019

Subjects: Labor’s plans to help vulnerable individuals and small businesses with their tax, and strengthen the volunteering culture among tax students and professionals.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thank you everyone for coming along today to The University of Canberra. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Federal Member for Fenner.

We are here today to announce that if elected, a Shorten Labor Government would give $150,000 in ongoing funding to establish a tax clinic right here at the University of Canberra. We know that deep-pocketed billionaires like Clive Palmer can access an armada of accountants when it comes to navigating the tax system, but for many vulnerable Australians and small businesses, tax means late nights and worries about whether you've got it wrong. Too many Australians are struggling to try and sort out their tax affairs. Tax clinics have worked effectively in the United States where the low income tax clinic model is a proven success. At Curtin University, a tax clinic has been operating for a number of years now, serving vulnerable taxpayers and small businesses.

And that’s why a Labor Government has announced that if elected, we wouldn't just trial tax clinics - we'd put them in place. Ten tax clinics across the country and right here at the University of Canberra a tax clinic which would look to serve not just the ACT, but the region. We’ve even spoken about the possibility of the UC tax clinic taking to the road aboard a bus that the University of Canberra has used in the past to engage in outreach allied health care provision. So tax clinics are a great innovation for University of Canberra and they're also great for the outlying population, ensuring people have access to that first rate advice. They're going to be vital too as we look to build a culture of giving back within the tax profession. In law, we've got community legal centres where many law students will spend some time during their training. Many doctors will have an opportunity to engage in pro bono work. But we haven’t been quite as good in the past when it comes to tax and providing opportunities for tax professionals and tax students to put their altruistic urges into action. Tax clinics will do that. They’ll work with local tax practitioners and they’ll ensure that we build that culture of giving back among tax professionals.