Andrew Leigh

WHOSE SIDE ARE THE LIBERALS ON: AUSTRALIAN WORKERS AND SMALL BUSINESS OR MULTINATIONALS?

Despite occasionally pretending to 'get tough' with multinationals, the Liberals have repeatedly failed to ensure multinationals pay their fair share of tax.

Scott Morrison backed away from plans to address tax avoidance by multinational companies in the Budget by reducing the so-called “safe harbour” level in thin capitalisation rules.

This back down came despite journalists being briefed on the proposal before Budget night, while tell-tale signs remained in the budget glossy documents.

In April, Kelly O’Dwyer said, “there needs to be a registry of beneficial ownership in our country” and confirmed that Australia would establish a public registry of beneficial ownership for companies.

However, at the recent international summit on the issue Australia committed only to “exploring options” for such a register.

The Liberals again sided with big business when Josh Frydenberg defended loopholes that allow multinational companies to shift profits offshore at an industry conference last Friday.

CHRIS BOWEN
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

ANDREW LEIGH
SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER
MEMBER FOR FRASER

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DOORSTOP
MELBOURNE
FRIDAY, 13 MAY 2016

Media Release

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s positive policy on housing affordability; real estate industry’s scare campaign; negative gearing; tax havens; Malcolm Turnbull in the panama papers; education funding dividend.

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for coming. I'm here with the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh and we'll both make some opening remarks before taking your questions.

It’s Friday the 13th and Malcolm Turnbull and the real estate industry have chosen Friday the 13th to launch their not-very-scary scare campaign. Now let's be very clear. Labor takes to this election a housing affordability policy to help first-home buyers get into the housing market. Labor believes in the aspirations of young Australians to buy their first home. And we believe in not just talking about it, we believe in doing something about it, in dealing with the housing affordability crisis in Australia. And we did so knowing that vested interests would campaign and complain. And that's exactly what's happening. But we are more than happy to run this election campaign based on our positive policies to assist first-home buyers. The real estate industry makes it clear even in the article in News Ltd today. They accept they have a vested interest in keeping the current arrangements. Well, I'll tell you who doesn't have a vested interest in keeping the current arrangements – hundreds of thousands of first-home buyers who are being locked out of the market. 

SIX QUESTIONS FOR MALCOLM TURNBULL

Recent reports on the Panama Papers have revealed that during the mid-1990s Malcolm Turnbull was a director of Star Technology Systems Ltd, a British Virgin Islands subsidiary of the Australian-listed company Star Mining NL, administered by Mossack Fonseca.

To dispel any concerns that Australians have about this activity, Malcolm Turnbull should answer the following questions:

1.  Does Mr Turnbull agree that the British Virgin Islands is a tax haven? 

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RADIO INTERVIEW

3AW WITH TOM ELLIOT

FRIDAY, 6 MAY 2016

SUBJECT/S: 2016 Budget.

TOM ELLIOT, PRESENTER: On the line now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good Afternoon Tom, how are you?

ELLIOT: Good, thank you. Now I saw Mr Shorten’s budget-reply speech and I have seen a summary of the savings measures. You claim to have found $71 billion, but of that $71 billion, $49 billion is rejecting the plan to cut the company tax rate to 25 per cent. Now that’s not going to occur for ten years. So really, is it appropriate to be claiming that is actually a saving, because that’s not going to happen for a decade?

LEIGH: Tom, our big budget challenge is over the decade. The Government recognised this themselves when they said that they thought that their tax plan was going to be one that operated over a decade. We can’t have this sort of short-sighted approach that says, “We can fix things for the next few years, but after that we’re gonna kick the problem off.” That’s why we’ve been focusing our costings on the decade to come.

WHO GOT SCOMO TO DROP TAX LOOPHOLE ACTION?

This morning’s revelations in The Australian that at the last minute Scott Morrison backed away from plans to effectively address tax avoidance by multinational companies have raised further awkward questions about his budget for big business. Why did Scott Morrison get cold feet, and who bullied him into backing down?

 Prior to his first budget speech, the Treasurer’s Office was briefing journalists that the Government would be reduce the so-called “safe harbour” level in thin capitalisation rules from 60 per cent of total assets to 50 per cent to cut the amount of debt multinational companies can load into their Australian subsidiaries. In fact, a definition of “thin capitalisation law” still sits abandoned in the glossary of terms for the 2016 budget, published online by Treasury.

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TV INTERVIEW

CNBC SQUAWK BOX

TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2016

SUBJECT/S: 2016 Budget; Company tax cuts; Labor’s plan to clamp down on multinationals; Reserve bank meeting.

MATTHEW TAYLOR: Welcome back to the show, coming to you live from Canberra. Today of course we are counting down to the Federal Budget that will be handed down at 7:30 AEST tonight. It is the first Budget for Treasurer Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in their respective new capacities. In terms of what's coming out in the Budget, not a lot of detail ahead of time, we do know that the Budget will be centred on small and medium size business with company tax cuts for small and medium enterprise. The definition or the classification of small business is going to change as well, those with a turnover of $5 million or less are going to be included so the net is really being widened on these tax concessions that are going to come through for small business reduced to about 27.5 per cent. We also know there are going to be tax cuts for income earners over $80,000 that is of course to stave off bracket creep, scrapping the budget repair levy, taxes on superannuation contribution for high income earners, an increase in the tobacco excise and also multinational tax avoidance. 

But let's get a bit of a look ahead to what the opposition is thinking may or may not be in the budget and some reaction to those early leaks. I am joined by Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer out here on the lawn this morning. Andrew, pleasure to see you thanks very much for chatting to us. I want to kick off on the company tax side point of view, what is the Opposition's response to that? Because broadening the definition of small business so a greater number of small and medium sized organisations going to benefit from a lower tax rate has got to be positive?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well Matt, we'll wait and see exactly what the Government is proposing but the other dimension to this Budget is that it comes down at a time when Australian living standards have fallen and our debt position has worsened. Since the Government came to office, Australian net debt has increased by about $100 billion. Labor's concerned that a company tax cut that was purely funded by increased borrowing could well have an impact on Australia's creditworthiness. We believe it's absolutely critical to maintain Australia's three AAA credit ratings - not just for households but of course for businesses who'd see their interest bills rise under a credit downgrade scenario.

CANBERRA RUNNERS

At 71 years old, Dick Telford tells me that he ‘only’ runs twice a day. Whippet-thin and fluid in his movements, Telford’s sport career started playing AFL for Collingwood and Fitzroy. When he switched to running, he realised he was pretty good at it. He’s run a marathon in 2 hours 27 minutes, and helped train Rob de Castella, Lisa Ondieki, Martin Dent and Carolyn Schuwalow through the Australian Institute of Sport.

There are few better cities for runners than Canberra. Loping around Lake Burley-Griffin, you might see the sun rise, and watch the kayakers spreading ripples across the smooth surface. On the dirt trails of Mount Ainslie, you’ll dodge kangaroos and test your muscles against the hills. Local ovals are perfect for beginners just starting jogging, or sprinters keen to feel the wind in their ears.

With three young boys and an unpredictable job, I find there’s nothing better than running to clear the cobwebs and keep the mind in perspective.  It’s also a great way to get to know the active and unpretentious running community. For an energetic start to the weekend, try the Saturday morning 5 kilometre Parkrun events organised every weekend at Gungahlin, Belconnen and Tuggeranong. If you want a bit more of a challenge, sign up for the YMCA’s Half Marathon on 22 May. Most of us won’t run as far or fast as Dick Telford. But with a runners’ paradise on our doorstep, why not take the chance to check it out?

Andrew Leigh is the shadow assistant treasurer and Member for Fraser. 

This piece was originally published in The Chronicle.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS - THE LATEST WITH LAURA JAYES

MONDAY, 2 MAY 2016

SUBJECT/S: 2016 Budget; Labor’s plan to clamp down on multinationals; Higher education funding.

LAURA JAYES: Andrew Leigh thanks so much for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure.

JAYES: There has been a lot of talk about income tax cuts in the budget tomorrow and the talk is that it will be at a $80,000 level, will Labor support that?

LEIGH: Laura, there has been a lot of talk about a lot of things in this budget. It has had the suggestion that the Government was going to cut company taxes, remove funding to public schools, that it was going to give income tax powers to the states and raise the GST. Rather than speculating, why don't we wait and actually see what's in the budget. We do know that a tax cut which comes in at $80,000 would only go to the top quarter of Australian workers and that would be something which would see the typical Australian worker miss out.

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ABC NEWSRADIO BREAKFAST

TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Parliamentary Budget Office policy costings, Labor’s policies, Government’s protection of the big end of town, Interest rates

MARK TAMHANE, REPORTER: Andrew Leigh, Good morning.

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

TAMHANE: Treasury has found a $20 billion hole in your policy costings, is that the end of all that extra revenue Labor promised to see all the Gonski education reforms through in full if elected

LEIGH: Well Mark,  let's go back a little bit. We announced this important policy on tobacco excise, making a controversial decision, and were attacked at the time by the Government. But our numbers were determined by the Parliamentary Budget Office and we're confident that the Parliamentary Budget Office stands at arm's length from Labor. 

This is the same outfit that did the costings at the last election. The Parliamentary Budget Office works with Treasury, using their numbers, and of course Labor's numbers will be updated as we get closer to the election. But the Government's really just trying to cover up the fact they've spent months attacking Labor and they're now adopting Labor policy.

LABOR CONTINUES TO SHINE LIGHT ON THE DARK CORNERS OF MULTINATIONAL TAX

Making multinationals pay their fair share has always been a Labor agenda. In government, we closed loopholes and improved transparency, over the repeated objections of the Liberals.

From Opposition, we have led the debate, releasing strong policies to reduce excessive debt-loading and properly resource the tax office. The Government is still welcome to adopt our $7.2 billion package.

If elected to Government, Labor will introduce an additional comprehensive suite of new measures to increase transparency on the tax affairs of multinational corporations.

In Government, Labor will:

• Increase penalties for non-compliance with country-by-country reporting:

It is simply wrong that the current penalty for failing to file country-by-country reports is a mere $5400 – less than you get for streaking across the SCG. Labor will increase that penalty 50 times. Should a company continue non-compliance after the maximum fine is reached, the Commissioner of Taxation is empowered to conduct a broad review of the company’s tax affairs.

• Restore the $100 million threshold for reporting the tax affairs of large private firms bringing them back in line with public companies:

Labor’s original threshold was watered-down in a dirty deal between the Coalition and the Greens last year, with 600 companies being shielded from public scrutiny as a result.

• Obligation to disclose the beneficial ownership for Australian legal identities:

Labor will ensure that the G20 principles Australia committed to at the G20 summit in Brisbane in 2014, which are based on guidance from the Financial Action Task Force, are implemented fully and quickly to ensure that Australia cannot be used as a destination for money-laundering, tax evasion, terrorism financing or other criminal behaviour.

This will be achieved by establishing a publicly accessible central registry of the beneficial ownership of companies, trusts and other corporate structures.