Andrew Leigh

STATEMENT - KATE LUNDY

In nearly two decades in parliament, Kate Lundy has helped shape Australia for the better.

In 1996, Kate became the youngest woman in the federal Labor caucus and a standard bearer for a more representative Parliament. 

She has been an early adopter of technology, seeing its power to widen our democracy, and bring more people into the conversation.

Kate is a star of the sports field, quick with a hockey stick or a soccer ball. Her prowess has even gotten her into trouble, as with the time she lost a bet with the UK Sports Minister, and was forced to row down the Thames wearing British colours.

Today I tabled the Fluffy Families and Residents First Group Impact Statement in the federal parliament. It was a privilege to share these families' voices and let them know that our community stands behind them.

Constituency statement - Mr Fluffy families

27 November 2014

I seek leave to table the Fluffy Owners and Residents Action Group Impact Statement ‘Hope in grief: confronting Mr Fluffy’s toxic legacy in Canberra and Queanbeyan’.

For people outside the ACT, the name ‘Mr Fluffy’ probably calls to mind something fun and frivolous. But fun and frivolity have been pretty scarce over the last few years for over 1,000 Canberra families who discovered their homes had been pumped full of crushed raw asbestos by a dodgy contractor trading under the name of ‘Mr Fluffy’.  

What can economics tell us about guns and crime? 

In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, newly elected Prime Minister John Howard worked with state and territory governments to implement tougher gun regulations. One of the strongest advocates was Walter Mikac, whose wife and two daughters had been murdered by Martin Bryant. Addressing a rally of 3000 people in the Sydney Domain, he said 'as you know, three months ago to this day, I lost the entire reason for my existence'.

To make sure that the tougher rules actually reduced the number of weapons, they were also accompanied by a buyback program. From mid-1996 to mid-1997, anyone could take a gun to their local police station, and the police would pay its fair value. In total, nearly 650,000 weapons were handed in to police. While some of these were weapons had newly become illegal (pump-action shotguns and semi-automatic rifles), many people seem to have simply taken the chance to 'clean out the closet' by handing in weapons that were legal if the owner had an appropriate licence (such as .22 rifles). In the Northern Territory, police even paid compensation for a set of World War II aircraft cannons. According to one survey, the proportion of Australian households that had at least one gun dropped from 15 per cent to 8 per cent as a result of the buyback.

On Monday I rose to speak on Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2014 in the House of Representatives. 

Patents create short-term monopolies. The deal for a pharmaceutical manufacturer is simple. They make their formula public; in exchange, we give them a competition-free run of the market lasting up to 20 years. I will begin my speech today with the specifics of the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2014 and then conclude with some broader contextual issues over the role of the patents system in boosting—or potentially impeding—innovation.

This bill is a worthy one, replicating as it does a bill put forward by the former Labor government last year. Its main purpose is to implement the TRIPS protocol, which enables manufacturers of generic pharmaceuticals to apply to the Federal Court for a compulsory licence to make and export a patented pharmaceutical product to address a health crisis in a developing country. As the previous speaker has noted, it delivers on the Australian government's commitment to the World Trade Organization's TRIPS protocol and does so with a humanitarian goal.

Over the weekend it was my pleasure to take part in the Lifeline half marathon on the recently nearly finished Majura Parkway. While in government, I fought for funding to be allocated to this project that will move traffic out of the Canberra CBD.

It was my pleasure yesterday to participate in the Lifeline Canberra half-marathon on the about-to-be-opened Majura Parkway. It was a great sporting event, and I pay tribute to the Lifeline team, including Carrie-Ann Leeson, Matt Heffernan and the volunteers who were there. Many of the Lifeline staff took part in the event itself, including phone counsellor Susana Silva and her dog, Obama.

Lifeline Canberra is a great charity which is committed to helping Canberrans and which has been arguing forcefully against the Abbott government's attempts to get rid of the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission. The ACNC has served Australian charities well, and four out of five Australian charities support its retention. So it continues to bewilder me that Minister Andrews wants to scrap the charities commission, in the face of the overwhelming view of the sector. The charities commission helps donors and charities, and helps protect Australians against scams.

Yesterday's fun run was also significant because it took place on the Majura Parkway. The Majura Parkway is a piece of public infrastructure that I fought for and was delighted to see the former Labor government fund. It never would have been funded by a coalition government; but a Labor government gave it $150 million. It will serve to take the traffic pressure off the streets of the north side and allow more trucks to avoid the Canberra CBD as they service the airport.

With yesterday's news dominated by Tony Abbott's broken promise on cuts to the ABC, I joined Peter van Onselen on his show to talk about why the national broadcaster is too important to cut to shreds. 

More tax transparency for a more informed debate

House of Representatives, 24 November

In the tax evasion trial of Leona Helmsley, a prominent American businesswoman from the 1970s and 1980s, a former housekeeper testified that she heard her employer say, 'We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.'

These 'little people' are the hardworking men and women of Australia.

For too long, the 'little people' have been forced to pick up the slack left behind by large multinationals with complex accounting arrangements.

For too long, large multinationals have been able to hide behind a veil of secrecy. For too long, Australians have been left in the dark on the issue of multinational profit shifting. Now, for the first time, Australians will know which companies are paying their fair share of tax.

Companies which follow the rules have nothing to fear from opening their books to the Australian public. Once and for all, this bill before the House today will provide a comprehensive set of figures on how much companies are earning and how much tax they are paying. Recent reports pointing to large-scale instances of multinational profit shifting and tax avoidance suggest that
this information is needed now more than ever.

This morning I introduced a Private Members Bill to increase tax transparency by requiring the ATO to publish data on what big companies have paid. The Abbott Government now has a choice: it can back my bill, or prove it really is all talk but no action on tackling multinational tax avoidance. 

MEDIA RELEASE

TIME FOR ABBOTT GOVERNMENT TO BACK BETTER TAX TRANSPARENCY

Labor has today introduced a bill to put more information about how much tax multinational companies pay into the public domain.

The Private Members Bill will bring forward the publication of data about the tax paid by companies with total income over $100 million. If passed, the Australian Tax Office will publish information about these companies’ taxable income, total income and tax paid for the 2012–13 financial year onwards.

Knowing more about what companies earned and how much tax they paid is an important step in addressing multinational profit shifting.

It's a pleasure to represent the Wreck Bay community in the Federal Parliament, a place of striking natural beauty and close-knit community. Here's a video from my visit last week. 

Although Parliament isn't sitting this week, there has been so much happening in federal politics that Waleed Aly invited myself and Josh Frydenberg onto his Drive program to talk through it all. Here's the transcript:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

RADIO NATIONAL DRIVE

TUESDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2014

SUBJECT/S: ABC cuts; visiting Chinese and Indian leaders; renewable energy

WALEED ALY: There’s so much international stuff going on in Australia, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stole the show again today, I think he might have a habit of doing that. He and Tony Abbott got together and they sprung a surprise, they promised to crank-up their economic relationship. There was talk of a free trade deal that could be finalised within a year, also military cooperation, not a bad result for Australia you might think on the economic front, particularly when you factor in the deal with China that was signed yesterday, or at least the statement of intent. There’s potential here there, but there might be possible shortfalls as well. Joining me as sparring partners are Josh Frydenburg, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, and Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Gents welcome, thanks for coming back in.

JOSH FRYDENBERG, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Nice to be with you, Waleed and Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good to be here, Josh and Waleed.

ALY: I am just overflowing with the number of important people that have touched down in Australia recently. What do both of you think of the fact that Kim Kardashian has just arrived?

FRYDENBERG: She’s playing second billing to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie because they’ve also been in town. But in term of Australia’s long term interests, this has been a historic few days Waleed.

ALY: What a seamless segue Josh! That’s very well done, I’m impressed.

FRYDENBERG: It has been. I mean you think that not just the G20 leaders have been here but also the leaders of the major international organisations like the United Nations, like the ILO, like the WTO, like the Financial Stability Board, like the IMF and the OECD and World Bank. It’s just been an array of leaders who’ve been in Brisbane and many who have gone onto make state trips including Modi and Xi Jinping.

ALY: Who got to Tassie, I think we should say. I think we should acknowledge that which means he’s covered every state and territory in the country doesn’t it?

FRYDENBERG: I think it is and that’s his fifth visit to Australia so very interesting. Actually Waleed, his father was, or his grandfather I think it was, was Party Chief of the Guangdong Province and came to Australia 35 years ago where he signed a deal with Neville Wran as a sister city relationship in New South Wales. So that’s an interesting historic fact too.

LEIGH: Waleed, it’s great having him in town. And I think it’s a moment for Australia that we’ll look back on and recognise because never before have so many world leaders been in the country. You know, it’s great for me now to recognise that all sides of politics think it was a good thing having the G20 in Australia. What I really appreciated too was hearing in the Parliament from particularly Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi. I met Narendra Modi back in 2000 when I spent a month travelling around India. He was then General Secretary of the BJP and I managed to spend half an hour chatting with him about his vision for India, little knowing that 14 years later he’d be in the top job.