Andrew Leigh

ANDREW LEIGH, ACTING SHADOW TREASURER

CATHY O’TOOLE, LABOR MEMBER FOR HERBERT 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

TOWNSVILLE

WEDNESDAY, 13 JUNE 2018

SUBJECTS: Banking Royal Commission; Job cuts at the ATO.

CATHY O'TOOLE, MEMBER FOR HERBERT: It's really fantastic to have the Honourable Andrew Leigh here with me this morning. He's our acting Shadow Treasurer and our Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Andrew has been here talking to the people in this community about the devastation that they have experienced in terms of the activities of the banks. And with the Royal Commission into banking and finance this has been a very important opportunity for the people in our community to have their voices heard. So I'll hand over to Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, ACTING SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much, Cathy. It's great to be here with Cathy, a hard working local member fighting for the interests of Townsville. We've been engaged in two main issues over the last couple of days. The first is a banking forum, hearing some of the stories of how people have been personally affected by banking malfeasance. We know that Malcolm Turnbull fought for nearly two years against this Royal Commission into the banks which is now uncovering scandal after scandal. Following the Storm Financial collapse, the people of Townsville don't need any more reasons to see that a Royal Commission into the banks is critical. Labor's call has been vindicated, and more and more evidence is emerging from the Royal Commission. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NORTH QUEENSLAND

WEDNESDAY, 13 JUNE 2018

SUBJECT: Banking Royal Commission.

MICHAEL CLARKE: Last night a forum was held to discuss cases of financial misconduct. It was put together to discuss the issue with the Labor Party and in town at the moment is the ALP's Acting Shadow Treasurer, Andrew Leigh who joins us this morning along with the Member for Herbert, Cathy O'Toole. Good to see you both. Thanks for being with us today. Andrew Leigh, why have a discussion about banking issues in Townsville when there is this Royal Commission underway across the country?

ANDREW LEIGH, ACTING SHADOW TREASURER: Michael, we want to hear directly from people about their stories about how the banks have affected them. We know that Townsville was hard hit by the Storm Financial scandal that not only saw people lose their homes but in some cases, end up with over a million dollar’s worth of debt. That led the last Labor Government to put in place a series of reforms that required financial advisers to act in the best interests of their client. Not a very high bar you'd think! We were surprised when the Liberals and Nationals tried to wind that back when they won office. We then argued for almost two years for this Royal Commission that we finally had. Malcolm Turnbull was telling us it was a stunt and we know it's anything but. We've seen the scandals coming through, dead people being charged for financial advice, one bank playing with kids school bank accounts, the head of AMP having to step down, one in twenty bits of advice the ANZ has given were not in the best interest of the client. And then last night we were hearing a lot of the texture around that and how that's directly affected Townsville residents and the changes that they want to see.

ANDREW LEIGH MP, ACTING SHADOW TREASURER

CATHY O'TOOLE, MEMBER FOR HERBERT

TOWNSVILLE COMMUNITY FORUM

Last night, Townsville locals gathered at CQ University to share their experiences with and concerns about the big banks.

These stories, along with the revelations of dodgy behaviour in the banking sector, prove how important the banking royal commission is.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

MURRAY WATT, LABOR SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND

RUSSELL ROBERTSON, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CAPRICORNIA

LABOR TAKES THE WHEEL FOR MECHANICS IN CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

Labor is driving a better deal for car owners and independent mechanics with a plan to make timely access to technical information a reality.

Whether you own a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Ranger, everyone should be able to choose where they get their car serviced. But independent repairers are struggling to get fair access to the standard service information they need.

Under Labor, car manufacturers will have to share the same technical information with independent mechanics that they currently provide to authorised dealers.

ANDREW LEIGH,SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

RUSSELL ROBERTSON, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CAPRICORNIA 

ZAC BEERS, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FLYNN

ROCKHAMPTON COMMUNITY FORUM

Last night, Rockhampton locals gathered at the Giddy Goat to discuss what they want to see from a future Labor Government.

Concerns over wage growth, penalty rates and inequality were among the issues discussed.

Labor understands that ordinary Australians have been left to struggle with sluggish wages growth and increasing inequality, which is now at a 75-year high.

With profits now growing six times faster than wages, now is not the time to be handing out billions of dollars to big business.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER & SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SUSAN LAMB, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LONGMAN

LABOR TAKES THE WHEEL FOR MECHANICS IN LONGMAN

Labor is driving a better deal for car owners and independent mechanics with a plan to make timely access to technical information a reality.

Whether you own a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Ranger, everyone should be able to choose where they get their car serviced. But independent repairers are struggling to get fair access to the standard service information they need.

Under Labor, car manufacturers will have to share the same technical information with independent mechanics that they currently provide to authorised dealers.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST
SATURDAY, 9 JUNE 2018

SUBJECTS: Economic growth figures; Labor’s plan for a bigger, better and fairer tax cut; Indigenous treaty; gender quotas.

HOST: We are speaking now with Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Thank you so much for your time this morning.

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

HOST: Are these economists right? Is it as good as it gets?

LEIGH: You have to look at the fragility around the numbers. The household savings rate is now at a 10-year low, wages growth is as slow as a dead duck, and we're seeing some softness in the housing market. That suggests that what households have been doing in some cases is reducing their savings in order to spend. Not spending because they have more in their wallet, but choosing to put less in the bank and spend more down the mall.

GENDER EQUALITY AND THE VALUE OF WORK

CEDA

SYDNEY

FRIDAY, 8 JUNE 2018

Thank you Ursula for the most generous introduction. Can I too acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, on whose lands we’re meeting today and pay my respects to their elders past and present. And just to say how chuffed I am to be back at CEDA, speaking on this critical topic. I thank CEDA, Macquarie University and Deloitte for putting on today’s event, acknowledge Lee Kelly, Mary Delahunty, Narelle Hooper, Lucy Taksa and particular Libby Lyons, the head of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. It’s not many countries that can boast that the head of their gender equality agency is also the granddaughter of the first female parliamentarian. So we should be pretty proud of that.

I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is the gender pay gap is closing. The bad news is that it is happening at a glacial pace. According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s most recent report, the gender pay gap among full time workers was 16 1/2 per cent in 1997. Twenty years later, in 2017, it had narrowed to 15 1/2 per cent. That’s a gap of $250 a week. If we continue at that rate - closing the gender pay gap by half a percentage point every decade - then in just 310 years we will have done it.*

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

MARK DREYFUS QC, SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND MEMBER FOR ISAACS

PETA MURPHY, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DUNKLEY

LABOR TAKES THE WHEEL FOR MECHANICS IN DUNKLEY

Labor is driving a better deal for car owners and independent mechanics with a plan to make timely access to technical information a reality.

Whether you own a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Ranger, everyone should be able to choose where they get their car serviced, but . But independent repairers are struggling to get fair access to the standard service information they need.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SENATOR CATRYNA BILYK, SENATOR FOR TASMANIA

GROWING INEQUALITY IS CHANGING THE FACE OF TASMANIA

Over the past generation, Australia has become more unequal, and Tasmania has slipped further behind.

In the late 1970s, Tasmanian household incomes were 90 per cent of household incomes in NSW. Today, that figure is down to 78 per cent.

As novelist Richard Flanagan put it in a recent speech to the National Press Club: “Our society grows increasingly more unequal, more disenfranchised, angrier, more fearful. Even in my home town of Hobart, as snow settles on the mountain, there is the deeply shameful spectacle of a tent village of the homeless, the number of which increase daily.”

Fairness is fundamental to Australia’s national identity. Australians prefer saying “mate” to “sir”, and generally don’t have private areas on our beaches. Gated estates are rare, and many of us sit in the front seat of the taxi.