Andrew Leigh

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

ACTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE

MEMBER FOR FENNER

E&EO TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC DARWIN MORNINGS WITH ADAM STEER

TUESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Andrew Robb working for Landbridge

ADAM STEER: Andrew Leigh is the Opposition's Assistant Treasury spokesman. Andrew your Labor colleagues in the Northern Territory don't seem concerned. Are you?

ANDREW LEIGH, ACTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE AND SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well I'm concerned that Malcolm Turnbull sets high standards for his ministers and his former ministers, Adam. I think it's really important that Territorians know that Malcolm Turnbull's out there on their side, not standing by someone else's profit-making activities after politics. 

STEER: Are you really suggesting the former minister might disclose classified information to the Chinese?

LEIGH: I think that's why the ministerial standards require that ministers don't lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, public servants or defence force for 18 months after leaving the job. One wonders about the value that Andrew Robb is able to bring to Landbridge if he's not engaged in any of those lobbying activities. I think it is incumbent upon Malcolm Turnbull to be very clear about how he's making sure that his former minister abides by that code of ministerial standards.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOOSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Andrew Robb’s appointment to Landbridge; Asylum seeker policy.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. The ministerial code of ethics is the stamp of honesty that a Prime Minister puts on their Government. Compliance with that ministerial code of ethics says everything about the ethical bar that a Government sets for itself. 

We've learnt today that although Julie Bishop and Scott Ryan were aware of Andrew Robb's appointment to the Landbridge role two months ago, Malcolm Turnbull has only just found out. We have seen considerable concern within the Government. One senior Defence official was said to be ‘unprintably’ surprised about the decision that Mr Robb has taken. 

This raises serious questions for the Turnbull Government. Malcolm Turnbull has to answer why he was only informed today about the fact that Mr Robb has taken this role, shortly after being a key negotiator for the China Free Trade Agreement. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 

TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Asylum seeker resettlement; front page of The Australian – CFMEU officials.

KIERAN GILBERT: This is AM Agenda with me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasure Andrew Leigh. Dr Leigh thanks very much for your time. First of all, the asylum seeker permanent ban. The Government has basically said it’s insuring that any pathway or hope of a pathway to Australia is blocked. What's Labor's position on that? 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, the key for the 800-odd people who are on Manus and the 800-odd people on Nauru is third country resettlement. This bill won’t resettle a single refugee, it won't save a single dollar from the budget, it won’t create a single job for Australians. It's just another step in the steady metamorphosis of Malcolm Turnbull into Tony Abbott.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC RN DRIVE

TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Senate’s Census Inquiry; Solicitor-General’s resignation.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. This falls very much in his portfolio. Welcome to RN Drive.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks Patricia, good to be with you.

KARVELAS: You say Labor wants answers. You got them today though haven't you? IBM's systems failed – they've admitted that today. How can you blame the Minister, or even the Prime Minister, given it seems very clearly now that IBM's systems were at the centre of all of this.

LEIGH: One way of answering that question is to flip it around and ask who'd be taking the credit if the Census had gone well? I think the answer very clearly is that Malcolm Turnbull would be standing up crowing about how successful his Census was. When things go badly in a Westminster system Ministers need to take responsibility.

It's still quite unclear what oversight procedures were put in place by the four ministers who over the course of three years were responsible for the Census. It’s unclear what impact having the position of Chief Statistician unfilled for nearly a year had on the Census. The cost of trying to fix-up the botching of Census night is at least $30 million, perhaps more. That's money that could easily have been spent on schools or on hospitals or indeed on other parts of the Bureau of Statistics. So this has come at a heavy cost for Australia – the worst run Census since we began taking them.

SENATOR CHRIS KETTER

CHAIR, SENATE ECONOMICS REFERENCES COMMITTEE

SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

PARLIAMENT HOUSE

TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Senate Census Inquiry; Ministerial responsibility; Bob Day’s vote

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER:  My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. With me is Labor Senator Chris Ketter. 

We are here today to talk about the inquiry into the botching of the Australian Census. Let’s be clear, the 2016 Australian Census was mucked up worse than any other census in Australian history. This inquiry is one the Liberals fought against tooth and nail until it finally became clear that an inquiry was needed. 

But the seeds for the failure of the 2016 Census were sown years ago. There was a three year period during which the Turnbull and Abbott Governments had a total of four Ministers responsible for the Census. They left the position of Chief Statistician unfilled for nearly a year. Their Ministers failed to properly scrutinise what was going on in the department and did virtually no engagement of the broader public about the concerns the broader public had. And then they were surprised when on Census night the website went down, costing millions of dollars and wasting millions of hours of Australians’ time who were left frustrated on Census night by the botching of the Census by the Turnbull Government. 

Now a strong government would have stepped up and taken responsibility. Because that’s the tradition of ministerial responsibility in this country. When public servants do good work behind the scenes, Ministers are entitled to stand up and claim credit – whether it is for a trade deal or for a Budget. But when things go wrong Ministers also have to accept responsibility under the Westminster system. Yet what we have seen from the Turnbull Government is less personal responsibility than Donald Trump.

Weaker competition widening the wealth gap, The Australian, 21 October 2016

Paying more for your pint? You’re not alone. Lately, beer prices have risen significantly faster than most other prices. Over the past decade, the cost of a beer has gone up 42 percent, meaning we’re paying as much for a middy today as a schooner ten years ago.

So naturally my ears pricked-up when I recently heard of a merger between the company that makes Carlton, Fat Yak and VB (SABMiller) and the company that makes Corona, Budweiser and Stella Artois (Anheuser-Busch InBev). If it goes ahead, the merger will create the world’s largest beer manufacturer.

There are many reasons why beer might have become more expensive, including taxes, the rise of craft brewing, and an increased appetite for premium beers. But one factor could be a lack of competition. Beer is one of the most concentrated markets in Australia. The four largest beer manufacturers control a whopping 90 per cent of the market. This has increased significantly over the last decade when the largest manufacturer (SABMiller) bought Fosters in 2011 and the second largest manufacturer (Lion) bought James Boag in 2007.

Wait, I hear you shout. Having fewer competitors doesn’t necessarily mean reduced competition. True, but it certainly doesn’t help, either. As any economics textbook will show, reduced competition means higher prices, less production, less innovation and ultimately less growth and fewer jobs. It might also be worsening inequality. 

The Age of Ambition, New Matilda, 20 October 2016

Globally, these are tough times to be a social democrat. The cumulative social democratic vote share in Western Europe has fallen by one-third, to its lowest in 70 years. Angry politics is alive and well in the person of Trump and Le Pen, Farage and Wilders. It’s a politics that emphasises differences within the community, and urges citizens to jump at the shadows of trade, immigration and foreign investment.

Amidst secular stagnation, fear of terrorism, and a hate-filled politics, a message of inclusion, egalitarianism and multiculturalism doesn’t always resonate. In that environment, what is the best approach for the left’s party of government, the Australian Labor Party?

Labor is now in our 125^th year – the seventh age for Australia’s oldest political party. Some have argued that we need to defend the status quo, and tweak our way to a better world. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of this. Indeed, there’s a bit of me that’s temperamentally technocratic – desiring to defend against cuts, and fight for better indexation.

But it’s not a whole program. Labor’s story has always had a touch of élan, a bit of vision, a sense of excitement. Ours has always been the party of ambition. 

Documents from the Prime Minister’s own department confirm what Treasury officials revealed yesterday – the Treasurer is on track to break his promise of introducing a Diverted Profits Tax before the end of the year.

Speaking on Radio National this morning, Mr Morrison repeated the explicit promise he made immediately prior to the federal election to introduce a Diverted Profits Tax by the end of this year to tackle multinational tax avoidance:

"We have budget revenue measures which are about improving the integrity of the tax base, whether it be our diverted profits tax legislation which comes in later in the year.”

–     Scott Morrison, 20 October 2016.

This is where it starts to get awkward. Because according to two excellent sources – the Treasurer’s own department and the Prime Minister’s department – Mr Morrison will not keep that promise.

Brian Mitchell & Andrew Leigh, "Aussie Economy Starting to Look Like a Game Show", Hobart Mercury, 19 October 2016

Growing up, we were both fans of the television show Sale of the Century. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, millions of Australians tuned in to the quiz show, to see contestants try their hand at winning cars, holidays and cash. Guided by hosts like Tony Barber, Glenn Ridge, Delvene Delaney and Jo Bailey, some contestants won big. In 1992, Robert Kusmierski took home cash and prizes worth $676,790. But most who chanced their hand went home with next to nothing.

It made for a terrific gameshow, but today, as Labor parliamentarians, we’re worried that our society is starting to look too much like a gameshow. If you compare wages in 1980 (when the first episode of Sale of the Century went to air) with today, then you see a labour market where earnings have growth three times as fast for the top tenth as for the bottom tenth. It’s been a great generation for lawyers and landlords – not so much for retail workers and renters.

To some extent, success in life is determined by hard work, but luck matters too. Billionaire Warren Buffett likes to reflect on his good fortune at being born in an era when his investing skills can be put to work. For most of human history, those skills wouldn’t have been much use. We also know that the labour market pays more to men, tall people and right-handers. That’s luck, not skill.

During last night’s Estimates hearings the Australian Statistician admitted to Labor Senators how much extra money the Turnbull Government will spend rescuing the 2016 Australian Census – universally known as the ‘Worst Census Ever’ – from complete failure.

“(A)s a result of some of the remedial activities we took in terms of the Census we have to date probably incurred additional costs of around $20 million…and we anticipate possibly spending another $10 million.”

–     David W. Kalsich, Australian Statistician, Senate Economics Legislation Committee [10.05pm, 19/10/2016]