Andrew Leigh

Belconnen Magpies

House of Representatives

22 October 2015 

For five years now, I have been a patron of the Belconnen Magpies Aussie Rules football club. It is a club with a proud history—originally known as Turner Football Club, then the Bees and then the Blues. Then, after its merger with the West Canberra Football Club, it became the Belconnen Magpies in 1987 and moved to its headquarters in Kippax in 1991.

Although I have not gotten to as many games as I would like to this year, I did get out to 'The Nest' at Kippax to see the Magpies' convincing 118-35 victory against the Ainslie Tricolours on 29 August. The ACT AFL competition grand final was held on 19 September. Playing in both the first and second grade matches were, of course, the Magpies. Alas—despite a thrilling semifinal victory against Tuggeranong on 5 September—the first grade side was narrowly upset by Queanbeyan, 95-71. The Magpies second grade team also fought to the end, but ultimately went down to Tuggeranong 87-39.

Constituency Statement 

Federation Chamber 

19 October 2015

It was my great pleasure last Thursday night to attend not one but two innovation events in the ACT. In Braddon, just across the road from my electorate office, The Studio Braddon is opening—a bright, beautiful and bold space hosted by Maylee Thavat which provides working opportunities for NGOs, for innovative businesses and for women returning to work. The Studio benefits from getting the National Broadband Network, but, alas, my electorate office, a stone's throw away, does not. It is again a testament to the great benefits that the National Broadband Network is bringing to Australia. The Studio Braddon complements a similar space that exists in O'Connor.

I also had the pleasure of speaking at the 10th anniversary of Capital Angels, an ACT based network of 'angel' investors, who talked about many of the important start-ups here in the ideas city. I would like to acknowledge Michele Troni, Nick McNaughton, Stephen Hardy, Ian Cox, Doug Stuart, Keith Ayotte, Bob Quodling, Uwe Boettcher and the indefatigable Anna Pino for their support of innovative businesses here in Canberra.

Canberra is not just the national capital but also the social capital and the creative capital of Australia, and it was terrific to be inspired by those two groups of innovators last Thursday.

Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015

House of Representatives

19 October 2015

I move the second reading amendment which has been circulated in my name:

That all the words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"while not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that its revenue impact is unquantified, and calls on the Government to adopt Labor's fully-costed multinational tax package to raise $7.2 billion over the next decade".

Labor's position is to support the Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2015. Labor has been calling for more action on multinational taxation for over two years and we will not be standing in the way of significant action on multinational taxation—or even insignificant action, which may well be what this bill being debated before the House is. We are taking a constructive position on this and we are willing to work with those opposite. We hope that, in return, the hand of constructive bipartisanship might be returned, and the government might look seriously at Labor's $7.2 billion package tackling a different set of loopholes from those addressed in this bill.

Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Trustee Governance) Bill 2015

House of Representatives

20 October 2015

Labor's position is to oppose the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Trustee Governance) Bill 2015, as previous opposition speakers have noted. The government is proposing to end more than two decades of successful joint governance by employer and employee nominated fund directors and instead force boards to take on both an independent chair and one-third independent directors. It is passing strange that a so-called 'liberal party' is seeking to mandate how independent investment funds structure their activity.

It is clear, as I will outline in my speech, that the effect of the government's proposals would be to increase administrative costs for funds and thereby drive down member returns. Perhaps we should not be surprised that a so-called 'liberal party' that opposes the use of markets in tackling climate change is again wanting additional red tape when it comes to Australia's superannuation funds. The Mckell Institute has nicely summarised the government's bizarre motivations on the issue by asking: 'When a system is working better than the alternative, why tamper with it?' Alas, I am concerned that this is being driven by ideology and not by evidence.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Polls; Multinational tax; China Australia Free Trade Agreement; Tax transparency; Australian Building and Construction Commission.

KIERAN GILBERT: This is AM Agenda, with me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Good to see you. I know you don't like talking about polls that much; you never have. But this one is pretty clear in terms of every category: in terms of the leadership attributes, the primary vote, the two-party vote, the preferred Prime Minister. It's all showing that people are quite pleased to have Mr Turnbull in the top job. 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Yes, Kieran. I don't like talking about polls mainly because it takes us away from the deeper conversations about issues and ideas that I know you care about as well. I think what this shows is that Malcolm Turnbull has been campaigning as a Labor member on the streets: he's been talking about the issues of cities; and about start-ups, which Labor has been on about for years. The problem is that when he gets to the Parliament, he still votes like a Liberal. He still votes for tax secrecy rather than tax transparency; he doesn't seem to have any proposals on multinational tax that raise any money and we're yet to see anything constructive to tackle inequality in the tax system. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWS RADIO

MONDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Multinational tax; Superannuation; Malcolm Turnbull’s Cayman Island portfolio; Polls.

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning, Marius.

BENSON: You are backing these measures by the Government to crack down on multinational tax avoidance although you say yourself that you're a bit underwhelmed by them?

LEIGH: Well that's what the Budget says Marius. The Budget estimate of the amount of revenue that this package will raise is basically zero. There's a set of asterisks there in the Budget Papers where revenue estimates should be, so the Government isn't particularly confident about this adding to the Budget bottom line. But to the extent that they're committed to closing loopholes, we're committed to support that in the spirit of bipartisanship. We hope that in return, they'll take a look at Labor’s $7 billion package which has been costed, which does raise revenue and which closes a different set of loopholes than the Government's package focuses on. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

MONDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Multinational tax; Tax transparency; Polls; Somali asylum-seeker case.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Today, the Government is going to be bringing into the Parliament its multinational tax Bill. This is a widely expected event; the multinational tax Bill was announced in the Budget. Unfortunately, according to the Government's own estimates, it doesn't raise any revenue. Where there should be significant revenue estimates, there's just a series of asterisks on p.14 of the Budget papers.

Labor will be supporting the Government's multinational tax Bill because we think any efforts to crack down on multinational tax avoidance are worthwhile. But we'd also urge the Government to look again at Labor's package, which raises $7.2 billion over the next decade; has been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office; is inspired by work done at the OECD; and which tackles a different loophole from the one the Government is focusing on. I'm also very disappointed that last week the Government snuck through the Senate measures to reduce tax transparency. The last thing we need at the moment, when we're having a conversation about how to get multinationals to pay more tax, is to be putting up the secrecy shutters. But that's exactly what the Government did last Thursday. Happy to take questions.

LABOR’S PLAN FOR STEM IN CANBERRA SCHOOLS

Joint Release with Amanda Rishworth

Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Higher Education Amanda Rishworth and Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh have today visited Harrison School to discuss Labor's positive plan for science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM).

They met with students working in Harrison School’s robotics lab and joined with science students to talk about building better career paths to the jobs of the future.

STEM disciplines will be central to the jobs of the changing economy and Canberra kids with these skills will be well positioned to succeed in the future.

That is why a Shorten Labor Government will do more to support local teachers to ensure that they can deliver STEM to students in a way that engages and inspires them. This includes funding 25,000 primary and secondary teachers over five years to undertake professional development in STEM disciplines, including coding.

Labor will also provide 25,000 teaching scholarships over five years to new and recent STEM graduates to encourage them to continue their study and become STEM teachers.

TURNBULL STANDS FOR TAX SECRECY

Malcolm Turnbull is today responsible for ensuring Australia’s biggest private companies can keep secret how much tax they pay.

His Government has rammed a bill through the Senate that will gut this country’s tax transparency laws and keep Australians in the dark about the tax affairs of huge firms.

Today Malcolm Turnbull has been forced to defend his own investments in the notorious tax haven of the Cayman Islands. His Government has chosen this very same day to put a new cloak of secrecy over the tax affairs of companies earning more than $100 million a year.  

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Malcolm Turnbull’s Cayman Island portfolio

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning everyone. We've been debating in the Parliament a number of important issues that go to multinational taxation. Labor has been calling for all companies with income over $100 million to have their tax affairs disclosed. That's their total income, taxable income and tax paid. The Coalition is trying to take half of those companies out of the transparency net and keep their tax affairs secret. Labor has been putting on the table a serious package that will crack down on multinational tax avoidance and add more than $7 billion to the budget bottom line. The Coalition isn't willing to close these debt deduction loopholes.

In that context, I think many Australians will find it unusual that the Prime Minister is investing in vulture funds in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands have been on the radar of the OECD and tax authorities around the world as a notorious tax haven. Australia's tax commissioner has referred to it as a tax haven and Malcolm Turnbull's decision to invest in a number of Cayman Islands-based funds does call into question how serious he is able to be about cracking down on multinational tax avoidance – which is a serious issue for the Australian budget – and tax fairness. Happy to take questions.