Andrew Leigh

Following word that the Abbott Government is going ahead with plans to increase the fuel excise tax, I joined David Speers on Sky PM Agenda to explain why Labor can't support yet another regressive move which will hit to poorest hardest.

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY PM AGENDA

TUESDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2014

SUBJECT/S: fuel excise tax slug; Tony Abbott’s plans to raise the GST; Rupert Murdoch’s comments on inequality

DAVID SPEERS: Well the main political story here in Canberra today has been the Government's surprise announcement that it's going to go ahead with an increase in fuel excise even though it's been unable to get this through Parliament. How's it doing it? Well it's changing the tariff. It then has 12 months in which it needs to legislate that. So for 12 months it can collect the higher tax – it will go up from 38.1 to 38.6 cents, half a cent a litre. It will cost, the Government says, the typical family using about 50 litres of fuel a week only 40 cents a week in additional cost. Over time, of course, that will go up. Labor is still opposed to the increase in the fuel excise, however it's done. Joining me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Thank you for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure David.

SPEERS: Why is this such a bad idea, to put up fuel excise by a tiny amount?

LEIGH: Well it's another measure that hits the poor the most, David. We've had a big rise in inequality over the last generation, the most regressive budget we've ever seen brought down, which smashes the poor while including giveaways to the most affluent. And now another measure which we know will hit those on the lowest incomes the hardest, because in fact Joe Hockey is wrong when he says the poor don't drive. If you look at fuel as a share of income, it's six per cent of disposable income for the poorest fifth, and just two per cent for the top fifth. So an increase in fuel taxes is a regressive tax and that deeply concerns us.

Tony Abbott has announced that he wants to radically alter the relationship between the federal government and Australia's states and territories. In response, I held a press conference outlining why Labor will never back proposals which alter the egalitarian character of our federation.

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DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

MONDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2014

SUBJECT/S: Tony Abbott’s plan to increase the GST; boat turnbacks; Abbott Government inaction on Ebola; flawed Direct Action climate plan 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Over the weekend we saw Tony Abbott give a speech on federalism in which he resorted to coded language rather than being straight up with Australians. He talked about increasing the indirect tax burden and raising states' revenue capacity. Let's be honest: when you talk about indirect taxes, you're talking about wine taxes, fuel taxes, car taxes and the GST. What Tony Abbott wants to do ought to cause the hairs on the back of Australians' necks to stand up. Because after bringing down the most regressive budget in Australian history, he now wants to raise the GST. Mr Abbott very clearly wants to engage in the same sort of cheap politics that he did last year. He wants to pretend to Australians that he can deliver better services and not put in place tax increases. But federalism isn't a magic pudding. To the extent that Mr Abbott is promising more payments to one state, that's got to involve taking away from other states. Federalism is a fundamentally egalitarian institution, and Labor is going to work to prevent more unfair cuts being put in place through the excuse of a federalism review. Happy to take questions. 

Over the weekend Tony Abbott gave a speech flagging major changes to federal/state relations and the way state services are funded. I joined Marius Benson on ABC NewsRadio to raise concerns about this simply being a stealth move to raise the GST.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

MONDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2014

SUBJECT/S: Tony Abbott’s plans to increase the GST

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, can I risk losing all listeners by beginning with asking you about vertical fiscal imbalance, which is the gap between the federal government gathering taxes and the state government spending them. The recommendation to the Government is that this makes no sense and a lot of people agree with that. Do you?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: One of the concerns, Marius, is not just that taxes are raised at the level they’re spent, but that they’re raised in efficient ways. When economists look at Australia’s tax mix, I think we look at taxes like income taxes and corporate taxes as being fairly efficient tax bases and so some transfers from the federal government to the states make sense. Frankly that’s what you see in other federal systems such as the United States and Canada.

BENSON: Well, Nick Greiner, for example – the former New South Wales Premier – takes a less sanguine view. He calls the present system ‘close to dysfunctional’ and says the federal/state system is a shambles where you’ve got all levels of government sort of doing everything.

LEIGH: I don’t think I would agree with that description and I am worried about the turn that the federalism debate is taking. Mr Abbott seems to think that Commonwealth money is a magic pudding and that he can give more to one state but not have to take away from another state in the process. In a way, federalism is fundamentally an egalitarian institution.  When states aren’t doing so well, we give them a helping hand, and if you hack into that element of federalism then you make us again a more unfair country. That’s a road that the Abbott Government unfortunately seems keen to walk down.

BENSON: But can’t you make the tax system more efficient, without making it less fair?

LEIGH: It’s certainly possible and that’s what we focused on in the Henry Tax Review. Let’s not forget that one of the biggest tax reforms of recent years was to increase the tax on carbon pollution and reduce the tax on work. That was an environmental measure, sure, but it was also a measure which was designed to encourage people to work and which was supported by a range of economic evidence. I want to see tax reforms backed in by strong evidence – rather than tax reform which is entirely contrary to the position that Mr Abbott took before the last election and which is unfair, which is what a rise in the GST would be.

BENSON: In broad terms, is there merit in shifting the tax load to some extent towards indirect taxes to allow a reduction in income taxes? To increase things like –not necessarily the GST but those other indirect taxes – to allow an income tax drop?

LEIGH: Let’s be clear about what we’re talking about with indirect taxes. We’re talking principally about fuel taxes, car taxes, wine taxes and the GST, and of those of course the lion’s share is the GST. Really when the Abbott Government says that it wants to have a debate about income taxes and it wants to increase the states’ revenue capacity, it’s resorting to code words. Because Mr Abbott doesn’t want to be clear with the Australian people that he’s getting ready to break yet another promise and do something that is yet again unfair when this is so much from the playbook of the last budget. It breaks promises, and also takes from the most vulnerable. Again, that is what a change to the GST would do Marius. We’re up for sensible debates about tax reform in the Labor party, but we are not up for more broken promises and more measures which are unfair on Australian families.

The Abbott Government is holding it's second Red Tape Repeal Day this week. But don't believe their hype - if it's anything like the first one back in May, their changes won't amount to much.

Red tape ritual doesn't help, The Australian, 27 October

This week the Abbott government will hold its second red tape repeal day. Since the first one just six months ago, it has passed more than 690 regulations. But then, defining red tape is a little bit like defining art — people know it when they see it, and they often see it very differently.

When the government held its first repeal day, parliamentary secretary Josh Frydenberg crowed about liberating Australians from thousands of items of costly and unnecessary regulation. On closer inspection, that included 39 individual amendments changing the term “electronic mail” to “email”, and several hundred amendments adjusting spelling, grammar and punctuation. It also encompassed the repeal of business obstacles such as the Dried Fruits Export Charges Act 1927, the Lighthouses Act 1949 and the Nitrogenous Fertilizers Subsidy Act 1969.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being invited to open Harry Hartog bookstore in Woden. Here's my launch speech:

Opening of Harry Hartog Bookstore
Woden, Canberra, 24 October 2014

It is a delight to be at a book store opening in the era of book store closings.

I acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people and pay my respects to their elders, past and present.

I’d like to thank Robert and David Berkelouw for inviting me, and James and Michelle for their hospitality – and for generously placing a few copies of my books at the front, so you can’t possibly get out of the store without tripping over them.

As Groucho Marx observed: outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend – and inside a dog it’s too dark to read anyway.

This week I met up with a group of Canberra based social entrepreneurs to discuss some common issues facing the sector and to hear about some of the challenges working in the nation's capital. 

ON the day that Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane announced his government would slash the Renewable Energy Target by 40 per cent, I joined Waleed Aly on Radio National's Drive program to defend this important environmental and economic initiative.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

RN DRIVE WITH WALEED ALY

WEDNESDAY, 22 OCTOBER 2014 

WALEED ALY: You know when you've just given birth to a newborn baby, or your partner has, and you cradle it, and you look at it lovingly this way that says there's nothing more beautiful in the world than this at the moment, or indeed henceforth there will never be anything quite so beautiful? Well, I think today Greg Hunt had exactly that moment as the Environment Minister, when he was gazing adoringly at a 5.1 per cent drop in electricity prices. It's a beautiful set of numbers, Paul Keating might have said, and here he is talking about it in Question Time.

GREG HUNT: At 11 am today the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced the largest quarterly fall in electricity prices in Australian history. The largest quarterly fall in the 34 years of records from which statistics had been kept. And so it is likely that it isn't just a 34 year record, it's likely that it's a record which stretches back to the Second World War. Maybe stretches back further.

ALY: So is that just a payoff from axing the carbon tax? We'll ask our regular number gazers. Josh Frydenberg joins us as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, and Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Gentlemen, welcome again.

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, Waleed. 

One of the fun parts of this job is getting to contribute a regular column to The Chronicle. Here's my latest...

Flower power, The Chronicle, 7 October

In 1637, Dutch tulip mania was at its peak. In that year, a single bulb could trade for 10 times the average wage. History records a bulb exchanged for 12 acres of land. One unfortunate sailor was jailed when he mistook a tulip bulb for an onion and ate it.

As an economist, I can’t help thinking of this story when I walk through Floriade each year. While the Dutch tulip bubble burst after a few years, Floriade is now in its 27^th year. But the same intensely coloured flower that drew speculators to part with fortunes centuries ago now draws over 400,000 people to Canberra to enjoy the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest spring festival. 

Youth Connections

Federation Chamber

20 October 2014 

The Government decision to stop funding the Youth Connections program continues to astound me. Some of the most vulnerable people in our community will have the threads connecting them to school, work, and a stable life completely cut away.

Diwali in Canberra

Federation Chamber

20 October 2014 

Diwali, or Deepavali as it is also known, is one of the most import festivals in the Hindu calendar. Diwali was celebrated this weekend in Canberra at the Albert Hall. A celebration of the victory of light over darkness, Diwali is an important reminder that all of us are strengthened when we celebrate each other and each others festivals.