Andrew Leigh

THE HON MARK BUTLER MP

SHADOW MINISTER CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY

MEMBER FOR PORT ADELAIDE 

 

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

Labor has been calling for the ACCC to investigate electricity prices for a long time, so we welcome today's belated annoucement - but it's not enough.

After four years in Government – and wholesale electricity prices more than doubling during that period – this is really the best the Liberals can come up with?

Under Malcolm Turnbull, the energy crisis is getting worse, and Australians are paying the price. Power prices are up, pollution is up, and jobs are down. 

Australians know this investigation alone will not solve the nation’s immediate energy crisis.

As the Australian Energy Council (AEC) has recently said, “In Australia, the lack of national policy certainty is now the single biggest driver of higher electricity prices.”

The Prime Minister’s failure to articulate let alone deliver a viable national energy policy is causing power prices to climb while reliability collapses.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ABC CANBERRA AFTERNOONS WITH LISH FEJER

RADIO INTERVIEW

FRIDAY, 24 MARCH 2017

SUBJECT: ‘Keep Me Posted’ Campaign

LISH FEJER: How full is your mailbox these days? Not your email, but your actual letterbox. The one the postie drops the mail into. What do you get in the post? We write letters less, but you’re lucky to even get a bill in the mail these days, unless – increasingly – you pay for the privilege. More and more companies such as banks and phone companies and electricity companies are streamlining their processes. They're moving away from paper bills to give them to you electronically. You can still opt-in to get the paper bills, but lots of companies are now charging for the service. 

I've got a list in front of me here for many of the companies that are charging for paper bills. Some of them up to $2 per bill. Or $2.20! Even more! $2.75 for some energy bills! Would you pay for a bill? Is that fair you have pay that to get the bill in paper?

Andrew Leigh is the federal Member for Fenner and Kellie Northwood is the Executive Director of the 'Keep Me Posted' campaign –looking at this whole idea of having to pay for paper bills and they join me in the studio.

Kellie, how many people don't realise that they could be paying – what looks like a small amount – but every month, and for a lot of people that's a large chunk? 

KELLIE NORTHWOOD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – KEEP ME POSTED: We think more and more people are realising and more and more people are getting upset about it. We are looking at fees of $2.50, $2.75. We are also seeing $6.70! We're seeing $3.20. It's such a range that it's hard to understand what it's all about.

FEJER: What are they saying this money is for?

NORTHWOOD: Well, we have written to them all, and the general response is that this is the cost of doing business. We challenge that. We went back and had a look at how much it cost businesses to pay to post. They pay a lot less than you and I do. And also how much it costs to print it and put it in an envelope. It costs them about 88 cents a unit. So when we are looking at fees starting at a $1.25 and going all the way up to about $6 – averaging about $2.50 – we're arguing that they're maybe double-dipping.

FEJER: Why is there such disparity between the fees?                                     

Today, I was pleased to host the ‘Keep Me Posted’ team along with many Canberra residents at an open forum to promote the campaign for paper bills and statements to be issued to Australians without financial penalties.

With me at the campaign’s first Canberra forum was Colin Ormsby from Fair Go for Pensioners and Kellie Northwood, Executive Director of the ‘Keep Me Posted’ campaign.

In 2017, numerous banks, telecommunication companies and other service providers are pressuring their customers to accept electronic bills and statements, even though many Canberra residents find it difficult or impossible to access their papers online.

Keep Me Posted is challenging corporations to remove ‘pay-to-pay’ penalties for Australians who prefer paper communications.

Labor welcomes the news that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been honoured with an international award from the World Bank and the International Competition Network.

The award recognizes the Commission for its role in making competition policy a key part of Australia’s economic agenda.

Which begs the following question….considering the Commission is working with one regulatory arm tied behind its back, imagine the honours with which it would have been showered had it the powers Labor proposed before the 2016 election?

CHRIS BOWEN MP

SHADOW TREASURER

MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

UMM, MALCOLM...SCOTT’S STARTED IMPROVISING POLICY AGAIN

The Treasurer’s latest idea is a last-minute amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act that he will reportedly move today in the House of Representatives.

In the words of Monty Python’s Life of Brian: “He’s making it up as he goes along!”

Although the government’s budget cuts to the Australian Bureau of Statistics have already forced 120 staff members out of their jobs, reports this afternoon are warning that another 80-100 jobs will be cut from the agency.

If true, this is more unwelcome evidence of the Turnbull-Joyce government’s war on information.

The government’s ideological obsession with firing public servants has blinded it to the important work of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ABS staff produce data and analysis critical to the delivery of hospitals, schools, housing and public transport infrastructure.

Just six months ago Chief Statistician David Kalisch admitted that, “the ABS does not have the resources to undertake all the activities that fall within our legislative mandate that our users would like”? 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 20 MARCH 2017

SUBJECT/S: Competition policy; Newspoll; National energy crisis; Turnbull’s support for penalty rate cuts.

KIERAN GILBERT: With me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Thanks very much for your time. You've copped some criticism for a piece you wrote last week in relation to the five faceless investors in top 20 Australian companies. The critique of your piece is basically that it's wrong in the sense that these custodian firms only have the power to hold shares, not have voting rates or anything of that sort. Were you wrong to suggest that these faceless investors behind the scenes control the firms?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, I've made a mistake and I've owned up to that already. But what we were doing here is looking at the ways in which uncompetitive markets can hurt consumers. It's a part of work I've been doing for years since taking on the competition portfolio. I think it's absolutely critical in Australia that we keep on lifting up rocks and having a look at instances in which consumers aren't getting the best deal because of uncompetitive markets. 

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

TIM HAMMOND MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR RESOURCES

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH

 ROD SIMS BACKS LABOR’S CALL FOR HIGHER PENALTIES, AGAIN

Labor welcomes yet another call from Rod Sims, the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, for an increase in the penalties for companies that breach the Australian Consumer Law.

 In 2016, Labor announced that we would;

 “Increase civil penalties under the Australian Consumer Law from $1.1 million to $10 million, bringing penalties in-line with the competition provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.”

–     Andrew Leigh, 15 June 2016

In yesterday’s speech to the National Consumer Congress, Mr Sims cited recent messages from the Federal Court that penalties must be high enough to sufficiently deter misconduct, especially as some big companies continue to treat their customers “so badly, and with so little respect.”

“Penalties should be seen as more than just a cost of doing business…Where the Court finds contraventions, it’s vital that large companies are held to account, but the penalties must make them sit up and take notice.”

 –     Rod Sims, 15 March 2017

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

MORNING WITH JON FAINE (774 ABC MELBOURNE)

FRIDAY, 10 MARCH 2017

SUBJECT/S: Inequality, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Housing affordability.

JON FAINE, PRESENTER: There's a big mining conference on in Melbourne today. The Shadow Assistant Treasurer from the federal Opposition - Bill Shorten's federal Labor Opposition - Andrew Leigh is going to go along and tell the mining community that they need to think about equality, of all things. Andrew Leigh, good morning to you.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning, Jon. Great to be with you.

FAINE: Not sure that the mining industry are that interested in hearing about equality, but why does it matter?

LEIGH: I think there's three reasons that the mining community, and indeed the business community more broadly, should care about inequality. One is that more inequality means less wellbeing. If you believe that a dollar buys more happiness for a battler than a billionaire, then you should care not just about the average level of income, but also about egalitarianism.

I think too, miners care about political stability, and we do know that the rise of far-right populism in Europe, the US and elsewhere is partly driven by growing inequality. And the third reasons is that a more unequal society is less mobile society, which we we don't make good use of the talents of all Australians; in which kids born into poverty tend to stay there. So these are all reasons why I think it in the enlightened self-interest of the business community to make equality a higher priority.

‘WHY CORPORATE AUSTRALIA SHOULD CARE ABOUT EQUALITY’

MINERALS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA TAX CONFERENCE

FRIDAY, 10 MARCH 2017

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri people, and pay my respects to elders past and present.

In doing so, I want to recognise the significant steps forward that have been made over the past generation towards a better relationship between the resources industry and Indigenous Australians.

At a time when it’s fashionable to bemoan the lack of bipartisan progress on important issues, it’s worth recognising how much that relationship has been transformed over recent decades, in terms of employment, respect and engagement.[1]

It’s not perfect, and as the troubling 2017 Closing the Gap report revealed, there is much more to be done. But amidst the nasty Native Title debates of the early-1990s, I think few would have imagined that Indigenous Australians and miners would be where we are today. That’s a credit to many in this room.

I should also say that it’s a pleasure to be back at the Minerals Council of Australia’s biennial tax policy conference, a conference which has fast-established itself as a vital forum for talking about the economics and politics of public finance in the mining sector. For the 17 of us in the country who are passionate about these issues, there’s no more exciting place to be today.

It reflects the fact that the Minerals Council doesn’t just supply pet rocks for Question Time. You also sponsor discussions where policy wonks like me get to use words like ‘elasticity’ and ‘incidence’. What other body in Australia can do all that?

* * *

I want to talk with you today about a theme that is often underplayed in policy debates - inequality. When we talk about tax policy, we often say that good tax reform needs to be efficient, equitable and simple. But too often, equity becomes the ugly duckling of that troika - forgotten as soon as it has been uttered.