Andrew Leigh

LABOR WILL SUPPORT EARLY LEARNING IN FRANKLIN

A Shorten Labor Government will nurture children’s imaginative play and social connections for parents through a commitment of $2,000 to improve and expand playgroups resources at Franklin Park and Play.

The Franklin Park and Play is run in partnership with ACT Playgroups and Franklin Early Childhood School, providing access to early learning for parents and children in Gungahlin.

Labor’s $2,000 commitment would help update and expand resources – with a particular focus on craft, toys and equipment – for the more than 400 local families that access the service each year.

Playgroups are a valuable community resource particularly for families unable to afford to provide toys and educational aids for their children.

LABOR TO HELP CANBERRANS NAVIGATE TAX SYSTEM WITH TAX CLINIC 

A Shorten Labor Government will ensure that all Canberrans have help navigating the tax system by helping fund the University of Canberra Tax Clinic. 

This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government, which will help Canberrans with the support they need, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos. We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough. 

Labor will commit $150,000 annually to the University of Canberra Tax Clinic as part of our proposed expansion of 10 tax clinics around Australia. 

While multinationals and millionaires can afford an armada of experts to navigate the tax system, low- and middle-income Australians are often intimidated by the tax system, and unsure where to turn to get help. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

MELBOURNE

WEDNESDAY, 8 MAY 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s charity policy; the Coalition’s war on charities; News Limited’s attack on Bill Shorten’s mother; News Limited’s use of tax havens.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much everyone for coming along today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Minister for Charities and Not-for-Profits. I'd like to thank SANE Australia for hosting us here today. I'm joined by my colleagues Mark Dreyfus, the Shadow Attorney-General, Fiona McLeod, our candidate for Higgins, and Josh Burns, our candidate for Macnamara. 

It's been a tough six years for Australia's charities. They have borne the brunt of a war on charities. We've seen the government go through six different ministers responsible for the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. Over the course of 2011 to 2016, the government's goal was to scrap the ACNC. When they couldn't succeed with that, they put a charity critic in charge of the charity regulator.  The war on charities has prompted two open letters to successive prime ministers from the charity sector. A great deal of energy of Australia's great charities and not-for-profits has been chewed up in fighting against the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government's war on their work. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2GB MONEY NEWS
TUESDAY, 7 MAY 2019

Subjects: Reserve Bank decision, Labor’s plan to crack down on multinational tax avoidance, climate change.

ROSS GREENWOOD: I thought I'd just bring here somebody who's really good with his time here on the program. That is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh, who's on the line right now. Andrew, many thanks for your time. 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure, Ross. Great to be with you. 

GREENWOOD: All right. I want to start there with the Reserve Bank and this decision to keep rates on hold and where it might go. Wages has been a big issue in this election campaign and clearly many Australians right now are feeling the pressure of not having had a wages increase yet their costs, their household bills, even now their supermarket prices are starting to rise. So your side of politics has said you want a living wage. The question is whether Australia can afford that living wage, as you've described it in the election campaign.

LEIGH: Ross, I think the question is whether we can afford to have wages growth still stuck in the doldrums. Wages growth under this Government has been lower every quarter than in any quarter under its predecessor. We've seen wage growth at 1.9 per cent since the 2013 election. Even in the global financial crisis wage growth didn't drop below 2.9 per cent. That matters because, as the adage goes, my spending is your income and your spending is my income. What doesn't go into workers’ wallets doesn't go back into the economy. One of the reasons we've seen this flat-lining of retail sales, the fall off in new car sales, has been that wages have been been stuck in the slow lane.

ECONOMIC REFORM: AMBITION VERSUS ZUGZWANG

SPEECH TO AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SUPERANNUATION INVESTORS ANNUAL CONFERENCE

MELBOURNE

WEDNESDAY, 8 MAY 2019

(Check against delivery)

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and pay respect to their elders.

Introduction

My thanks to the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors for the chance to speak with you about Labor’s positive plans for the economy.

In an era of shrill soundbites, your organisation has a track record of producing careful research that shapes policy debates. Your research reports have dovetailed closely with our priorities, covering topics such as modern slavery, fossil fuel investments, and whistleblowing. I know this research is closely read by my colleagues Chris Bowen, Jim Chalmers, Clare O’Neil, Madeleine King, and Matt Thistlethwaite. Fresh ideas can help shape the policy debate for the better.

To take just one example, you publish an annual report on CEO Pay in ASX200 firms. Last July, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors reported that the best-paid CEO in Australia, Don Meij, received $37 million. Commentators were quick to note the contrast between this pay packet and the reported underpayment of Domino’s pizza workers.

$2.9 MILLION FOR CANBERRA SHARED PATHWAYS

A Shorten Labor Government would invest $2.9 million in shared pathways to improve access for cyclists and pedestrians in Canberra’s suburbs, in partnership with the ACT Labor Government. 

This election will be a choice between a Shorten Labor Government with a plan for the local infrastructure Canberra needs, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos. 

Investing in this network of shared pathways will make it easier for Canberrans to enjoy the Territory’s great outdoor lifestyle, improving public amenities and safety at the same time. 

LABOR TO LEAD THE WAY ON CHARITIES 

The Liberals have waged a six-year war against charities. A Shorten Labor Government will have Australia’s first ever Charities Minister, who will fix the damage, and work with this vital sector to build a more connected country. 

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

The Liberals first attempted to abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, a body respected across the sector. When they were blocked in the parliament, they instead decided to undermine the commission by putting a long-time charities critic in charge.  

It is a mark of how little the Liberals care about charities that in six years, the Liberals have had six ministers responsible for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Labor has had one shadow minister responsible for charities and non-profits throughout our time in opposition. 

BABYSITTERS, CARS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Crikey, 7 May 2019

Ever struggled to find a reliable babysitter? Some years ago, a group of American parents reckoned they found the solution. They created a voucher system. The rules were simple: If you babysat someone else’s kids, they give you one of their vouchers. If someone else babysat your kids, you gave them one of your vouchers. The system ensured everyone was doing their fair share of babysitting. A perennial problem of parenthood had been solved.

Or so they thought. Problems arose when some couples in the group started to hoard their vouchers, worried they might need babysitters more frequently in the future. As the flow of vouchers slowed, other couples panicked and started hoarding vouchers themselves. The result was textbook economics. The babysitting cooperative went into recession.

These parents discovered a core tenet of macroeconomics: that my spending is your income and vice-versa. When some parents stopped spending their vouchers, they robbed other parents of the opportunity to earn vouchers. Those other parents, in turn, spent fewer of their vouchers. And so on.

TAX HAVEN CRACKDOWN

Labor will introduce a Tax Haven Blacklist to appropriately vet investments from countries that fail to comply with international standards.

Under Labor, companies that operate out of the most notorious tax havens will be prevented from engaging in tax avoidance activities in Australia.

The following hot spots will be put on Labor’s blacklist: Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Monaco, Mauritius, Liberia, Seychelles, Brunei, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Montserrat, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, US Virgin Islands.

The Liberals have dropped the ball when it comes to taking action against international companies exploiting tax loopholes in Australia.

BOOSTING GROWTH AND EQUITY THROUGH MEMBER-OWNED FIRMS: THIRD PARTY SUPPORT

A Shorten Labor Government will make Australia’s economy more productive and our society more egalitarian by creating a taskforce to streamline regulations and break down barriers for new competitors.

Since announcing our plan to create a Competition and Growth Taskforce to sit within Treasury on Thursday, many key groups across the cooperative and mutuals sector have voiced their support:

“The Customer Owned Banking Association has welcomed Labor’s announcement that it would establish a Competition & Growth Taskforce. The announcement is a positive move toward improving competition in the banking sector and accommodating the customer owned model.”

- Michael Lawrence, Customer Owned Banking Association CEO.