Andrew Leigh

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 2 JUNE 2021

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I want to thank all the members and senators who joined the Reconciliation Run this morning, co-organised by Rob de Castella's Indigenous Marathon Foundation and the Parliamentary Friends of Running. It's a reminder that there are many small steps we can take towards reconciliation alongside the big one: an Indigenous voice to parliament. We could fly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags inside the parliamentary chambers alongside the Australian flag. We could have the Speaker speak the acknowledgement of country in Ngunnawal language when parliament begins. Capital cities could be given dual names as the New Zealanders do. Instead of the Queen's visage, Australian coins could see feature the heads of prominent Indigenous people. The $2 coin does feature the image of Gwoya Tjungurrayi, but he's on the tails side of the coin.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1 JUNE 2021

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Mr Speaker, it was a pleasure to catch up with you in your suite this morning to discuss the work of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. Since it was founded in 2009 by Rob de Castella, over a hundred young Indigenous leaders have gone through the program. I've been inspired by graduates such as Charlie Maher, the first to cross the finishing line in the New York marathon; Joyrah Newman and Hope Davison in this year's squad; and Nat Heath, one of the first Aussies to compete in the Hawaii Ironman.

Tomorrow morning, members and senators from both sides will be joining Rob de Castella and young Indigenous runners for a run to mark Reconciliation Week. This Sunday, I'll be lining up at the start line of the Cairns Ironman—a 3.8-kilometre swim, a 180-kilometre cycle and a 42.2-kilometre run—to raise money for the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. I hope members and senators on both sides might follow your generous example, Mr Speaker, of making a donation to the Indigenous Marathon Foundation so they can continue their terrific work.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1 JUNE 2021

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In July, COMCAR driver Tony Harriott will retire after 50 years of service, making him the longest-serving driver in COMCAR history. He was 24 years old when he took the wheel of a Ford Galaxie, numberplate C*9. Since 1971, Tony has driven hundreds of politicians, including the fathers of the members for Kennedy and Hunter. Tony remembers picking up Graham Richardson when he first arrived in Canberra, fresh off his Ansett flight. When ministers had their own assigned drivers, Tony was driver to defence minister Kim Beazley. But he especially enjoyed his time driving Anita Keating and Hazel Hawke, who he described as 'just terrific ladies'. COMCAR drivers are famously known for their discretion, so I couldn't get Tony to tell me too much, but he did say 'we had some fun with Hawke' when he was Prime Minister.

As a resident of Ngunnawal, Tony is one of my constituents; yet the irony is that almost all of my parliamentary colleagues are more likely to be getting into COMCARs than I am. But I know the extraordinary professionalism of the COMCAR service and how lucky we are to be looked after by them. Tony Harriott's 50 years is a record that may never be matched. Enjoy your retirement, mate; you've earned it.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2SM MARCUS PAUL IN THE MORNING

TUESDAY, 1 JUNE 2021

SUBJECTS: Morrison Government’s failure on quarantine and vaccinations; Morrison Government failing to assist Victorian workers; Christian Porter; Reconciliation Week.

MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Andrew Leigh is a Labor MP. Good morning, Andrew. How are you?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: Good morning, Marcus. It's great to be with you.

PAUL: All right, well, we can bet on a longer lockup. The blame game started. Of course, those conservatives those LNP rusted-on types are blaming Dan Andrews, it's all the Victorian Government's fault. I think perhaps if we had vaccination up to scratch and if we had quarantine facilities away from populations, and of course if we didn't go back on, you know, rules that were in place for government-controlled aged care facilities, we might have avoided this.

LEIGH: Absolutely, Marcus. Every outbreak from hotel quarantine is a direct result of Scott Morrison's failure to put in place a safe national quarantine system. We know quarantine is a federal responsibility because it's in the Constitution, which sets out things the federal government should do - Section 51(ix): quarantine. The Federal Government's lax pace of the vaccination rollout - we've had vaccination on slow-mo - has meant that the impact of the outbreak in Victoria has been much worse than it would otherwise have been. Other countries have half their populations fully vaccinated. We have around 2 percent fully vaccinated and only 18 percent have gotten one jab. We are not even in the top 100 countries in the world in terms of the vaccination roll out. Labor has also been urging Prime Minister to put in place a national ad campaign. It’s sort of strange that the guy who was once an ad man, before he was fired by Fran Bailey, won't put in place government ads persuading people who are hesitant to go out there and get vaccinated.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 27 MAY 2021

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Australia is now on track to head to $1 trillion of debt, and it is incumbent on those of us on this side of the House to look at the quality of that spending. You can't look at the quality of the spending by the Morrison government without looking at the question of scandals. We have seen a government replete with rorts, scandals and handouts to mates. The sheer volume of the scandals can sometimes overwhelm. Each scandal crowds out the previous one.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 26 MAY 2021

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The Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 3) Bill 2021 does a couple of things. It includes a housing measure for sole parents. It is a measure which has been much touted by the government, but its impact is much smaller than their claims would have you believe. It adjusts Medicare levy low-income thresholds, which is something that happens on an annual basis, so there's nothing to write home about there. It changes the tax arrangements for disaster recovery grant payments in such a way as to make them tax free. And it adds a number of charities to the specific listings for deductible gift recipients. Among them is the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, a really important institute which is broadening the quantity of high-quality journalism available and collaborating with a range of media organisations in order to provide better international and regional coverage, and more investigative journalism. The work that the Judith Nielson Institute does is going to be increasingly important in the future as more pressure comes upon the media industry.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 26 MAY 2021

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In the 1940s and 1950s, US Senator Joseph McCarthy began a regime of attempting to seek out so-called communist sympathisers. Over that period, some 10,000 to 12,000 people lost their jobs. People's lives were ruined. People were unjustly imprisoned. The claims were exaggerated, and did nothing to improve the national security of the United States.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 26 MAY 2021 

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No contribution from the member for Goldstein is complete without a mention of the 'Wilson first, Australians second' campaign he's been running. Unable to persuade his own parliamentary colleagues, he continues to come in here with fluff and bluster, saying that Australians can't get a government that will actually deal with housing affordability and what they need is to be poorer in retirement. The member for Goldstein wants Australians to rip money out of their retirement savings, to lose the compounding returns and to increase the pressure on the age pension, which of course will be paid by future generations of taxpayers, all because he is part of a government that has overseen the homeownership rate fall to 60-year lows.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2SM MARCUS PAUL IN THE MORNING

TUESDAY, 25 MAY 2021

SUBJECTS: Territories’ right to legislate on voluntary assisted dying; Scott Morrison’s failure to address sexism and women’s safety.

MARCUS PAUL, HOST: Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: G'day, Marcus. How are you?

PAUL: Not bad. Great to have your company this morning. Now, euthanasia - it's just one of those topics that, well, quite often we will ask MPs to vote on their conscience on. It's, as we know, it's controversial. It's very personal. My point earlier in the program was jurisdictions like the ACT and the Northern Territory, should be able to on their conscience vote on these issues without interference from the federal government. I mean after all, locals living in Canberra and surrounds vote people in within their own legislature, that is the local, not MPs, what are they called out there, MLAs. They are the ones who should decide these issues, not the federal government. That's my take anyway, Andrew.

LEIGH: That's right, Marcus. People will remember the history of this. In the 1990s, the Northern Territory was the first place in Australia to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws, and the Commonwealth Parliament said 'well, we can't have a territory going first, and so we'll ban the territories from legislating on euthanasia’. A quarter century on, we've now got half the states, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, having passed euthanasia laws, Queensland is about to begin debating them, so it could well be a majority of the states have euthanasia laws in place, and yet the territories are still banned from legislating on it. We are now in a situation where 87% of Australians support euthanasia, including around four out of five Coalition voters, four out of five Protestants, four out of five Catholics. It's one of those issues where the federal parliament is lagging behind public opinion.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC CANBERRA LIVE WITH LEON DELANEY

MONDAY, 24 MAY 2021

SUBJECTS: Territories’ right to legislate on voluntary assisted dying; Upper Hunter by-election; Prime Minister’s focus on photo ops instead of vaccines.

LEON DELANEY, HOST: The Federal Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh, is today at some point introducing a motion into the federal parliament to seek the restoration of territory rights in matters of determining assisted dying laws. Andrew Leigh is on the phone now. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: Good afternoon, Leon. Good to be with you.

DELANEY: Thanks for joining us. Have you, in fact, presented your motion as yet?

LEIGH: I have. It was debated at 11 o'clock this morning and it's now up to the Government as to whether they'll bring it on for debate. It's high time we got this thing fixed, Leon. It's been a quarter of a century since parliament took away the rights for Canberrans to have euthanasia debated by our local Assembly. Since then we've seen three states go ahead and enact euthanasia laws, and yet 700,000 Territorians aren't able to have their parliaments debate the issue.