Andrew Leigh

CHARITY SECTOR TOWN HALL MEETINGS

This week, I will hold a series of town hall meetings across Australia to meet with charity sector representatives.

The Australian Government values the expertise and the contributions of the charity and non-profit sector, which constitutes almost one-tenth of the economy, and over one-tenth of employment. We know how vital Australian charities are in building stronger, fairer communities.

IMPROVING INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE CHARITY SECTOR

The Albanese Government takes the integrity of the charity sector seriously and is acting to provide the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) with additional powers and resources.

Presently, secrecy provisions prevent the ACNC from disclosing whether it is investigating alleged misconduct by a charity, the outcomes of investigations, and/or the reasons for revoking the registration of a charity. This limits the ability of the public and charities to learn from ACNC regulatory activities.

Cut non-compete clauses and clear a creative path

The Daily Telegraph, 10 July 2023

In 1956, William Shockley shared the Nobel prize for silicon semiconductors. A brilliant scientist, he was also a bad boss. At his US company, he spied on employees and was both racist and paranoid.

So eight of his top engineers left, founding Fairchild Semiconductor. Shockley called them “the traitorous eight”, but couldn't stop them.

A decade later, two of them left to create Intel. Then another departed to create AMD. One reason why Silicon Valley came to dominate technology was that workers could walk out to create new firms.

Yet millions of Australian workers today don't have that freedom. New research from economist Dan Andrews at the thinktank e61 finds that 22 per cent of employees are bound by non-compete clauses.

Their contracts mean they can't take a better job if the company competes too closely with their current employer.

STREAMLINING THE DEDUCTIBLE GIFT RECIPIENT REGISTERS

Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status has been streamlined for organisations applying under four unique DGR registers. This is part of the Government’s commitment to boosting philanthropy and supporting a vibrant charitable sector.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) currently administers 48 of the 52 categories under which an organisation may be eligible for endorsement as a deductible gift recipient. The four deductible gift recipient categories presently administered by Ministers through departmental registers - environmental organisations, harm prevention charities, cultural organisations, and overseas aid organisations - will now benefit from the reforms to transfer administration of these DGR registers to the ATO.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SYDNEY DRIVE WITH JAMES VALENTINE
MONDAY, 26 JUNE 2023

SUBJECTS: Simon Crean; Unfair trading practices

JAMES VALENTINE (HOST): We were talking on Friday about the problems of unsubscribing. And so it's one thing where you might voluntarily subscribe to a streaming service or some kind of delivery service or whatever it might be, and it's going to charge you $10 a month and you decide to unsubscribe. And it's messy, it's awkward, it's all over the place. It's hard to do. It's a whole other thing, and this is what's happening in the US, where Amazon is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission, who are saying, you're signing up people to Prime who haven't even said that they want it. You go and buy something on Amazon and you suddenly find you're subscribed to Prime - subscribed to Prime, their television streaming service. We found people here who'd had this situation, they were subscribed to the US service, which is like $24 a month, and they can't even access it, let alone they didn't want it to start with. So, what can be done about this? And one of the things we discovered was that our laws are not particularly helpful here. Dr Andrew Leigh is Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and joins us this morning to explore this. Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, CHARITIES, COMPETITION AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, James. Great to be with you.

TREASURY LAWS AMENDMENT (MAKING MULTINATIONALS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE—INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY) BILL 2023

The Albanese Government is progressing work on its Multinational Tax Integrity package to improve the integrity, transparency, and fairness of the tax system.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share—Integrity and Transparency) Bill 2023 was introduced this week.

The Bill amends Australia’s thin capitalisation rules to limit the amount of interest expenses that entities can deduct for tax purposes from 1 July 2023. This tax integrity measure is estimated to result in a gain to receipts of $720 million over the 4 years from 2022-23.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA MORNINGS WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
TUESDAY, 20 JUNE 2023

SUBJECTS: New research on non-compete clauses in Australia

ADAM SHIRLEY (HOST): Last couple of jobs you've had, where did you work? Public or private sector? And if you were there for a bit, did you learn most of what you now know, the skills you have from the organisation or vice versa? Do you feel you brought the skills and the knowledge that added to them? I ask because not well-known, but pretty prevalent non-compete clauses cover a heck of a lot of people in this town and in others and they could well restrict what you can and can't do if you are an independent worker, self-employed when you've previously used those skills with another employer. Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, wants further attention on this. He's also the Federal Member for Fenner and he’s with us this morning. Dr Leigh, good morning to you.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, CHARITIES, COMPETITION AND TREASURY DR ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Adam. Great to be with you and your listeners.

SHIRLEY: Yeah. What struck me about this is many people might not understand just how common non-compete clauses are. In very basic terms, how do they affect a lot of people in Canberra?

LEIGH: Well, a non-compete clause prevents you from quickly moving to another employer. Their original rationale was to allow employers to protect trade secrets or client relationships. But increasingly, many economists take the view that they're being used by employers to reduce workers’ bargaining power and that non-compete clauses, by making it harder to switch jobs, might be reducing wage growth and dampening down productivity growth. Job switching is one of the best ways in which people get wage gains over a career. If you look at someone's career, the biggest jumps in pay tend to be when someone moves from one employer to another. So, anything that makes that harder potentially then dampens down wages and might be a factor in the sluggish wage growth we've seen over the last decade.

Try it and see

The Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2023

Last year, researchers published a study in which ten different job training programs were evaluated through randomised trials – the way medical researchers test new drugs.

For each program, participants were randomly allocated by the toss of a coin. Heads, they received job training. Tails, they were assigned to a control group.

The study found that just one program – YearUp – had a measurable impact on earnings over the medium term.

The good news is that YearUp increased long-term earnings by over US$7,000 per year. But the bad news is that the other nine programs didn’t deliver: perhaps because people didn’t complete the training, maybe because employers didn’t value it, or possibly because they weren’t able to find a suitable job.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SYDNEY MORNINGS WITH GERALDINE DOOGUE
SATURDAY, 10 JUNE 2023

SUBJECTS: Digital distraction in workplaces and its impact on productivity

GERALDINE DOOGUE (HOST): Now to one of the main economic themes of the week, which you just heard canvassed as well this week: productivity in Australia. I mean, it rarely goes away for long, this topic. It was certainly relaunched big time into the public conversation by Reserve Bank chief Philip Lowe after his higher interest rate announcement. Unless productivity rises, he said, wage rises would virtually inevitably yield higher rates. Now that's heralded a battle royal about what's behind our flagging labour productivity growth which is down to a 60 year low, according to the respected CEDA think tank. Then the OECD weighed in this week with research showing that corporate profits had been driving inflation. But is that merely exceptional iron ore export profits? Came the counter. Look, this is a conversation not to be finalised in one week and we will continue to follow the debate. Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Employment, has named an intriguing culprit, though, particularly for services sector workers, that the social media and the constant flow of workplace emails that interrupt us on average every six minutes and constitute at least part of the problem. I spoke to him earlier yesterday as he sat in a busy airport lounge.

LEIGH: Thanks, Geraldine, great to be with you.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE DRIVE WITH STEVE AUSTIN
TUESDAY, 6 JUNE 2023

SUBJECTS: How digital distraction is eroding community and reducing productivity, and what we can do about it.

STEVE AUSTIN (PRESENTER): I've been looking forward to speaking with my next guest. My guest says if workplaces were reshaped to allow deep and creative thinking rather than multitasking badness, the economy and you and me would be far better off. These are revolutionary words in my mind. They were the thoughts of Andrew Leigh, who is the Assistant Employment Minister in Australia. Andrew Leigh is a Federal Labor MP for a Canberra electorate known as the Electorate of Fenner. Andrew Leigh has a great book out some years ago now called Disconnected, which I still go to every now and then. Andrew Leigh, I still think it holds well.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT, COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH ANDREW LEIGH: G'day, Steve. Great to be with you.

AUSTIN: And you. Is it still selling? I mean, you keep pumping the books out. Are they selling?

LEIGH: Here and there. I mean, books are a challenging market in Australia, but one of the great things that gives you is a platform to talk about big ideas. And I think there's no bigger idea than screen addiction right now. Basically, among parents, there's two big conversations that seem to take place among my friends. What's going on with house prices? And how do we manage digital distraction for our kids and for ourselves?