Andrew Leigh

3 September 2014

The government's Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014 was debated in the Parliament this week. I spoke about Labor's record investment in universities and how the proposed reforms are regressive, will harm our tertiary education sector and ultimately the productive capacity of Australia.

I rise to speak on the Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014 on the back of 16 years in universities—six years at the University of Sydney, four years at Harvard and six years teaching at the great Australian National University. It is with deep concern that I rise to speak on this bill, put forward by a political party with a very poor track record in education.

With the worsening situation in Iraq prompting the Australian Government to commit resources towards international relief efforts, I joined Fairfax's Breaking Politics program to talk about humanitarian intervention and the moral case for action. Here's the transcript:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ONLINE INTERVIEW

BREAKING POLITICS

MONDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER, 2014

SUBJECT/S: Australian military involvement in Iraq

CHRIS HAMMER: We're joined now by Labor's Andrew Leigh and the Liberal Party's Andrew Laming to talk about Australia's renewed intervention in Iraq. Andrew Laming, I'll come to you first as a representative of the Government, why is Australia backing Iraq?

ANDREW LAMING, MEMBER FOR BOWMAN: Australia is a pluralist, democratic economy and we've long supported efforts in the Middle East to see that new democracies can thrive. What we can see here is that areas like Syria and Iraq clearly are under threat both from a humanitarian sense and a security sense. I think there's bipartisan agreement, mostly, across both chambers and on the street in my electorate for some form of intervention to support the innocent people who are caught up in this.

HAMMER: Dropping food and water to trapped civilians is one thing, giving arms to one side in a bloody civil war is another. How can that be justified?

LAMING: Well, I have no problem with supporting the Kurdish minorities. I've lived and worked in parts of Kurdish controlled Western Asia. I'm very supportive of addressing the particularly difficult situation in that area, geographically and geopolitically. I'm 100 per cent behind this type of military support, but protecting innocent people is just one part of it. The greater picture, of course, is national security.

HAMMER: In that case would you support some sort of Kurdish independence, an independent Kurdish state in the north of Iraq? 

LAMING: Well that's the next question. My work was done in Turkey itself and a long time ago, but my main concern is keeping the borders as they are. At the moment Kurds in Northern Iraq have a high level of autonomy and were actually achieving autonomy, which is a great achievement. This is all under compromise and under threat with the emergence of ISIS.

HAMMER: Okay, Andrew Leigh, why has Labor been so quick to support the Government in this?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Chris, I think Andrew has very articulately put the successes of the Kurdish community on the table and against that you have this terrifying movement in IS, a group so extreme that they were disavowed by al-Qaeda. They are carrying out something that seems to be bordering on genocide, undertaking attacks on minority religions but also killing Sunni and Shia people. They claim to do this under some sort of theocratic banner but frankly there is no religion that advocates rape, murder and pillage on the scale that IS is committing it. Providing support to vulnerable communities is, I believe, in fulfillment of the UN Genocide Convention.

1 September 2014

Today I spoke in the Parliament about the need to keep the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, continue the support of investment in renewable energy and how the government's climate position is globally isolated.  

We are back again in the House debating climate change, after a period of months in which members of the government have, one after another, begun attacking Australia's moves to deal with dangerous climate change. A GLOBE-Grantham survey looked at parliaments around the world and how they were acting on climate change. It covered over 60 nations, accounting for about 90 per cent of global emissions. It found that only two nations were backsliding on tackling climate change: one was Japan, which was shutting down nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster—understandable, you might say; the other was Australia. Australia is now one of only two nations in the world that is backsliding on tackling climate change. It should not be that way because Australia emits more carbon pollution per person than any other country in the developed world and we stand to lose as much as any other country in the developed world. The Great Barrier Reef is a fabulous asset to Australians, not just for those of us who want to visit it but also for the economic benefit that tourism brings.

1 September 2014

Over 1000 Canberra residents have been affected by the use of loose-fill asbestos by the Mr Fluffy company. Today, I commended the actions of FOR Renewal and the ACT Government in their response to this issue. 

Around 700 deaths a year occur as a result of exposure to asbestos, a number which is increasing and projected to peak in the next decade. Asbestos is a class 1 carcinogen and there is no safe level of exposure. It has been banned since 2003. In Canberra, over 1,000 residents have been affected by the use of loose-fill asbestos by the Mr Fluffy company, and yesterday hundreds of affected families joined for a barbecue on Federation Mall on the lawns of Parliament House. While I was there I spoke to a constituent of mine. She and her husband have two adult sons, one of whom has a disability. They have been forced to move out of their house. They are housesitting for friends next week, but they do not know where they will be the week after.

The gathering heard from many speakers, including the indefatigable Brianna Heseltine, Katy Gallagher and Jeremy Hanson. The member for Canberra was there, as were Senators Lundy and Seselja. We recognised the launch of FOR Renewal. I commend FOR Renewal's co-founders, Natasha Parkinson, Elisa Thompson, Lisa Ziolkowski, Priya Reddy, Annabel Yagos and Brianna Heseltine. We recognised the stress that the families are going through during this difficult time. I commend the ACT government's work, through its task force, to deal with this extremely difficult issue for Canberra residents, and I hope also for Queanbeyan residents.

Over the weekend the ACT Labor family was rocked by news that one of our brightest young activists, Kurt Steel, was killed in a sudden accident while travelling overseas. In Parliament this morning I paid tribute to Kurt and the enormous contribution he made in his all-too-short life.   

REMEMBERING KURT STEEL

It is fair to say that political staffers do not get a lot of love in the Australian public debate. But we who have the chance to serve in this place know how invaluable staffers are. It is not just the many long hours they give us; it is that many of our staff are impressive in their own right. They crack jokes, read deeply, love ideas and use their spare time to do community service or travel the world.

Kurt Steel, the media adviser to ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr, was such a man. Kurt was Canberra through and through. He attended Melrose High, Canberra College and the University of Canberra and barracked for the Raiders.

Anyone involved in ACT politics at the federal or territory level knew Kurt. He worked first for New South Wales parliamentarian Steve Whan, before switching to work with Andrew Barr. Within the ACT, Kurt seemed to be at every committee meeting, trivia night and party event. My enduring memory of him is the man with a smile, looking for the next problem to solve. As Andrew Barr put it: ‘Kurt was a professional, highly respected and dedicated leader’

On Saturday, Kurt died in a bus crash in Bolivia, aged just 25. He had been on a six-week trip around South America—a trip that he had more than earned by dint of working many long hours and weekends.

Kurt's death has shaken the whole Labor family. Opposition leader Bill Shorten spoke of his 'truly awesome' passion for the Labor cause. ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has remembered him as a person ‘who always went beyond what was required of him’. ACT Labor Secretary Elias Hallaj has called him ‘one of our brightest stars’. National ALP Party Organiser Nathan Lambert said, 'Kurt was so valuable in the last national campaign, we had already begun working out how to poach him… again.'

As the face of the Right faction at ACT Labor conferences, I know Kurt would have got a chuckle out of the fact that tributes to him have come not only from ACT opposition leader Jeremy Hanson – but even from the Left faction of the Labor Party.

Many of his friends have told me how much they will miss him and how strange it is to look at Facebook updates from his trip and realise they will not be able to share a beer with him ever again. Many in the media have also added tributes to Kurt, with whom they worked closely. I extend my condolences to Kurt's siblings, Chris and Yasmin, and to his parents, Jayne and Phillip.

As Mark Parton tweeted: ‘Kurt Steel seemed like one of nature's true gentlemen.’ Adam Collins tweeted 'such a lovely and happy bloke'. As Kurt's friend Todd Pinkerton put it over the weekend: ‘Heaven has gained one hell of a community organiser today.’

 

 

1 September 2014

Today I spoke on my Private Members Motion to retain the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission by again highlighting the great work it does and how this benefits our nation.

Private Members Motion

That this House:

(1) recognises that the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) was established in 2012 after external inquiries in 1995, 2001, 2010, Parliamentary committee reviews, issues and discussion papers, exposure drafts and consultations with experts, and is operating efficiently and effectively, helping charities, donors and taxpayers;

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) the vast majority of submissions to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (Repeal) (No. 1) Bill 2014 speak positively of the ACNC’s work and urge the Government to retain the charities commission as a one-stop shop;

(b) the evidence to this inquiry provided by eminent Australian, Mr Robert Fitzgerald AM, strongly supports the retention of the ACNC;

(c) in a survey, four out of five charities support keeping the ACNC, while only 6 per cent like the Government’s idea of returning the regulation of charities to the Australian Taxation Office;

(d) in an open letter, more than 40 charities, including Lifeline, Justice Connect, ACOSS, Social Ventures Australia, Save the Children, St John Ambulance Australia, Community Colleges Australia, Sane Australia, the Sidney Myer Fund, the Myer Foundation, Danks Trust, the RSPCA, Youth Off the Streets, the Ted Noffs Foundation, Music Viva Australia, Wesley Mission Victoria, the RSPCA Australia, World Vision, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Odyssey House, the McGrath Foundation, the Australian Council for International Development, Changemakers Australia, Volunteering Australia, YWCA Australia, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the Consumer Health Forum of Australia, Hillsong Church, Churches of Christ Victoria and Tasmania and Wesley Mission Australia, called on the Government to keep the ACNC; and

(e) the Australian Capital Territory and South Australian governments are already working to reduce the paperwork burden on charities and not-for-profits by cooperating with the ACNC to reduce duplication in reporting;

(3) notes that some of those who the Minister for Social Services claims to have consulted with have written to the Government to make clear that they have never been consulted on the ACNC repeal; and

(4) calls on the Government to drop its ill-considered and unpopular plan to axe the ACNC.

On 16 June, this House debated a motion quite similar to the one that is before us today, and it is a mark of the deep concern among many members of this House that the selection committee has seen fit to choose this motion for debate so soon afterwards. As the famous line goes in Monty Python's Life of Brian:

… what have the Romans ever done for us?

1 September 2014

The Labor Party's tradition of competition reform has strengthened markets, fostered innovation and benefited Australian consumers. I spoke of this tradition in the Parliament today to remind the House which party truly believes in the benefits of competition.

I am pleased to rise to speak on the important issue of competition as Labor's shadow minister for competition. We, on this side of the House, have a proud tradition of reforms in the competition space. Through the long salad years of the Menzies government, little was done on competition policy. The Restrictive Trade Practices Act was regarded as relatively weak and it was not until the Whitlam government that Australia, for the first time, had a Trade Practices Act. As Kep Enderby said in introducing that bill to the House for the first time, 'The effect of empowering consumers themselves to take private action to enforce their rights.' And it was a Labor government, under Paul Keating, which put in place national competition policy. 

As part of launching my new book 'The Economics of Just About Everything', I sat down for an interview with my good friend Dr Tim Harcourt, also known as The Airport Economist. In this video, we to talk about the economics of dating, dieting and designing policy. Take a look: 

At the end of Parliament's first week back, I joined the panel on The Nation to talk about the budget big picture, the future of Qantas and the terrible humanitarian situation in Iraq. You can watch the full discussion here:

...I'm not sure they meant it as literally as this.