Andrew Leigh

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 22 JUNE 2021

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Last July, the Morrison government squibbed a chance to buy Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, because the price was too high. But they weren't so stingy when it came to JobKeeper, giving almost $20 billion to firms with rising earnings.

Hedge funds, investment banks and expensive men-only clubs were among the lucky recipients. JobKeeper waste cost every Australian adult $1,000. In higher education, the Morrison government changed the rules three times to stop public universities getting JobKeeper. At least 17,000 jobs have been lost at public universities. Courses have been cut. Whole departments have been abolished. But, while public universities missed out, private universities could get JobKeeper. Bond University got $17 million, despite rising profits. New York University got JobKeeper for its Sydney campus, despite rising revenues.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 21 JUNE 2021

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I'm sure those opposite wish that they had one of those little Men in Black memory wiping devices, because then they could wipe away the debt truck, which their party proudly unveiled with a figure of $315 billion that they were criticising Labor as having taken on to deal with the global financial crisis. Under this budget, debt will go to one trillion dollars. The party that promised the budget would be back in surplus in their first year and in every year after that have failed to deliver a single surplus in eight years, and never will deliver a surplus.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 21 JUNE 2021

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On Friday I spent time in one of the most beautiful parts of my electorate, Jervis Bay.

I met with Jackson Brown, George Brown and Sherrie Tripp of the Wreck Bay Volunteer Fire Brigade, an Indigenous-run brigade predominantly made up of people from Yuin country.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS

THURSDAY, 17 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Territory Rights, Mitochondrial Donation Bill, Deliberative Democracy, Commonwealth COVID Hotspots.

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Welcome back well a host of states have either already enacted or are looking at euthanasia legislation, or voluntary dying as it’s often called. The ACT, well it wanted to go down that path, but it’s unable to, The Commonwealth in a bill that was introduced back in the 1990s blocking it from having that power. Joining me now is Labor MP and, of course, proud Canberran, Andrew Leigh. Thanks for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure Tom, great to be with you.

CONNELL: Where does Labor federally sit on this in terms of I know there’s a sort of general feeling that they’d like the ACT to have the power, but is this firmly in the policy platform, where are you at?

LEIGH: It would be a conscience vote if this came up Tom, but I think it would be supported, because the issue here is fundamentally one of territory rights. We’ve now got three states out of the six that have legislated on euthanasia, and others are considering it. And yet the two territories, the ACT and Northern Territory can’t even debate voluntary assisted dying: something that is supported by four out of five Coalition voters, four out of five Catholics, four out of five Protestants. This is an issue on which the Australian community is well ahead of the parliament, and at the very least, the territories should be able to debate the issue.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 16 JUNE 2016

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The Labor Party will be supporting this motion, recognising the importance of ensuring that firms that receive JobKeeper they didn't need to pay it back.

Yesterday the exclusive Australian Club voted on whether or not to allow women as members. Apparently, the memo hasn't gotten through to the Australian Club in Sydney that it's 2021. Of the 693 votes that were cast, 62 were against allowing women members. Thirty-seven per cent were in favour. One per cent abstained—apparently, they couldn't decide whether or not women should be allowed into the Australian Club.

But the one thing that 100 per cent of Australian Club members voted for was taking two million bucks of JobKeeper from the Australian taxpayer. And last year the Australian Club didn't do badly: they doubled their surplus.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

2CC CANBERRA LIVE WITH LEON DELANEY

WEDNESDAY, 16 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s failure to tackle tax havens and multinational tax dodging; Morrison Government’s crackdown on charities engaged in public debate.

LEON DELANEY, HOST: Well, we've heard a lot of talk about making multinational companies pay their fair share in tax. This is a topic that has emerged once again after a decision taken at the G7 meeting in the last few days, in order to levy taxes on companies like Facebook, Google, and other internet giants that shift their sphere of operations from one jurisdiction to another to avoid tax and the G7 nations have vowed to take steps to combat that. Somebody who's been beating this drum for some time, the Federal Member for Fenner and Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, Shadow Assistant Minister of Charities, Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Leon. Terrific to be characterized as a drum beater. I like that description.

DELANEY: Well, that's what you've been doing. You've been beating this particular drum for quite some time, about getting multinational companies to pay a decent share of tax. Now the basic problem is that a company like Google or Facebook or whatever can come and operate here in Australia, generate revenue here in Australia, but because the parent company is in some offshore tax haven, they have to pay fees to their parent company for intellectual property or some other such nonsense, which means they don't make any taxable profit here in Australia and hence pay little or no tax. It's a dodge isn't it?

LEIGH:  Sure is, and if you're a video game designer in Gungahlin, I know we've got a bunch of terrific local firms, then you can't headquarter yourself out of Ireland or Netherlands or the Cayman Islands. You've got to pay tax like everyone else. If you're a pay-as-you-go earner then you end up paying the regular tax rate. But multinationals have been getting away with too much for too long and the Group of Seven rich countries has finally said we need to put a floor under company taxes. It's quite a different philosophy, Leon, from the one that Scott Morrison was touting a couple of years ago when he said we had to be part of this race to the bottom in company taxes. Back then there was a race he believed in. It was a race to the bottom. Now we're actually seeing Britain and the United States looking to raise rates, and all of these rich countries putting a floor under the company taxes, which I think is a great thing for making multinationals pay their fair share.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

5AA MORNINGS WITH LEON BYNER

WEDNESDAY, 16 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Multinational tax avoidance and tax havens; tax fairness.

LEON BYNER, HOST: Now, ever wondered how your Netflix statement bills to a company in the Netherlands and gets to you, why people who place Facebook ads are charged by a company in Ireland, and why the tiny island of the Bahamas is the sixth-largest foreign owner of Australian farmland? Bet you didn't know that, eh? Back when most multinationals produced manufactured goods, taxation was pretty straightforward: profits were taxed in the country where the goods were produced and where the firm was headquartered. But these days, firms are sneakily shifting profits into low-tax jurisdictions. Two-fifths of multinational profits now pass through tax havens and so-called investment hubs, and of course, that means that a lot of those places, I would have thought that the place where you do business is where you pay your tax. Not necessarily. I want you to meet, again, a bloke who I think is one of the finest economic minds we've got. He's the Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, this seems to put an unfair burden on the ordinary taxpayer, doesn't it - and good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: G'day, Leon. Yes, you're absolutely right. When multinationals don't pay their fair share, that doesn't take away the need to spend on schools and hospitals, it just means the shortfall has to be made up for by pay-as-you-go taxpayers and regular small businesses. Your typical Adelaide business can't hide profits in the Cayman Islands, so they end up being stung more when multinationals pay less. It's in the interest of the whole economy to make sure that multinationals pay their fair share, but I don't see very much enthusiasm about that from the current Federal Government.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
2SM MARCUS PAUL IN THE MORNING

TUESDAY, 15 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Biloela family; Scott Morrison out of step with G7 on climate action; Liberals attack on charities; Importance of a UK trade deal that works.

MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Right now, Andrew Leigh. Good morning to you, Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: Good morning, Marcus. Terrific to be with you.

PAUL: Thank you, mate. Did you enjoy - do you get a long weekend in Canberra?

LEIGH: We do indeed, yeah. A lovely big chunk of time with our three little boys, so that was fabulous.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
2SM MARCUS PAUL IN THE MORNING

TUESDAY, 8 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Indigenous Marathon Project and the Cairns Ironman; Liberal Government’s failures on vaccines; renewable energy project at Liddell power station; Liberals’ Medicare cuts; multinational tax avoidance.

MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Let's go to Canberra now. Andrew Leigh joins us each and every Tuesday. Morning, mate.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: Good morning, Marcus. Great to be with you.

PAUL: Congratulations, by the way. You competed your Ironman race, and you raised - how much money did you raise?

LEIGH: We're at $17,000 so far. We were aiming for $22,000, so if any of your listeners would like to chip in it's not too late to support Rob De Castella's Indigenous Marathon Foundation.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 2 JUNE 2021

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A sea monkey isn't a monkey. A shooting star isn't a star. A koala bear isn't a bear. A firefly isn't a fly. A strawberry isn't a berry. A jellyfish isn't made of jelly. And the modern Liberal Party certainly isn't liberal.

If you needed any more proof that the modern Liberal Party has become the illiberal party in Australia, look at this bill before the House, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Future, Your Super) Bill 2021, which gives the Treasurer the power to unilaterally cancel investments. As the member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, has just pointed out, this is a measure that could cut directly to the heart of the market system, by giving the Treasurer Chavez-like powers to cancel any investment he doesn't like. It has been called a measure that would 'do more harm than good' and 'create new compliance burdens that would add new costs and risks and would divert management and board attention'. It would represent 'arbitrary powers granted to the Treasurer of the day' that 'would set a dangerous precedent and would add a new and unpredictable source of sovereign risk to the investment process'. Which union leader or Labor member said that? It turns out to have been Innes Willox, the head of the Australian Industry Group, who also said that, if there had been a regulatory impact statement for this bill, then it would not have survived.