Andrew Leigh

AUSTRALIA RICHER FOR GREATER INSIGHTS INTO CHARITIES AND NON-FOR-PROFITS SECTOR

Joint media release with Shadow Minister for Communities Claire Moore

Labor welcomes the Australian Charities and Non-for-profits Commission’s release of the Australian Charities report – the commission’s first comprehensive analysis of financial data on the local charity sector.

Labor believes that the charities and the not-for-profits sector is the backbone of Australia’s community life. The commission’s report confirms their enormous contribution, revealing the sector represents $103 billion of activity around the country. Over 2 million people now volunteer with a charity or not-for-profit, and these organisations also employ another 1 million Australians.

The commission’s good work in registering and monitoring charity activity means we now know more about where and how they do good than ever before. For example, the report finds the greatest number of charities are operating in the areas of education, research and health, while religious charities also play a significant role.  

As we come closer to Christmas, the contribution of some charities and not-for-profits will be particularly clear as they support thousands of Australian families with food, shelter and the festive cheer so many of us take for granted.  

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY PM AGENDA

THURSDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Dodgy Liberal Party-Greens deal to water down tax transparency measures; Mal Brough.

DAVID LIPSON: Labor are fuming today over a deal the Government has struck with The Greens to get its multinational tax bill through the Parliament. It led to one member of the Coalition offering to 'take it outside', and other attractions –a lot of raised voices and gesticulations as well because Labor are not happy with this deal at all. To explain why, I'm joined by the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Thanks very much for your company this afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure, David.

LIPSON: This deal, as well as forcing multinationals to disclose their tax arrangements, will also mean around 300 companies, big companies worth over $200 million in earnings a year, will have to disclose their tax arrangements. Why then is it a bad deal?

LEIGH: David, it's important to go through the history on this. If we go back to 2013, Labor put in place transparency laws that would have seen companies with turnover above $100 million have the ATO report on their tax paid. That information was set to flow in just a couple of weeks' time. The Greens supported that right up until a fortnight ago, but have now back flipped and raised the threshold to $200 million. What that means is that about two-thirds of the private companies whose tax would have been disclosed will now be kept secret. The Greens have done a deal with the Government for tax secrecy and Australians will pay the bill.

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DOORSTOP - CHRIS BOWEN & ANDREW LEIGH

CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Dodgy Liberal Party-Greens deal to water down tax transparency measures.

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Well thanks for coming.

Overnight the Liberal Party and the Greens Party engaged in a backroom deal to let Australia's large private companies continue to avoid tax transparency.

Let's be very clear; the Turnbull Government has been for whatever reason desperate to see large private companies continue to avoid scrutiny and transparency when it comes to the amount of tax they pay.

Now they have a new Coalition partner in Richard Di Natale’s Greens. The Australian Greens under Richard Di Natale’s leadership are the tax transparency traitors of Australian politics, traitors to those Australians who want to see everybody paying their fair of tax.

They've become the gutless Greens.

RICHARD DI NATALE’S GREENS: COALITION PARTNERS IN GUTTING TAX TRANSPARENCY

Joint Media Release with Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen

Richard Di Natale’s Greens have today teamed up with the Liberal Government to help Australia’s richest companies keep their tax dealings secret, selling out ordinary Australian taxpayers in the process.

In a closed-door deal between Richard Di Natale and Scott Morrison overnight, the Greens have walked away from reinstating tax transparency for private companies earning over $100 million. They will instead team up to double this threshold to $200 million.

Kippax Christmas Gift Appeal, The Chronicle, 1 December

For several years now, Kippax Uniting Church has been running a ‘Let’s Give everyone a Christmas’ campaign – providing hampers and gifts to needy families. One year, a mother turned up a day late for her scheduled appointment to collect the toys and food. Deeply apologetic, the mother explained that she had been giving birth to her fourth child the previous day. Without the gift appeal, she explained, there would have been no Christmas in the family that year.

Christmas should be a time of celebration, but for many families it can be a time of stress. One in twenty Australian families say they cannot afford Christmas gifts. Relationship counselling services report that financial worries negatively impact families, and Lifeline has documented a spike in calls during late-December. 

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Blow-out in Budget deficit; Paris climate conference.

KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me on the program now is Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Andrew, the Deloitte Access Economics Budget Monitor has quite a dire forecast here. Chris Richardson, a respected economist, is saying the Budget bottom line will be $30 billion worse off given the softening in commodity prices and the shift in the Chinese economic trajectory. What do you make of this analysis? It is quite a worry.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, it certainly is. It points to many of the things we have been pointing to in the economy over recent years. Unemployment is now at around 6 per cent; growth is 2 per cent. That’s well below the 3 per cent that you need to start getting people into work. We have consumer confidence 8 points down from where it was at the election and, Kieran, the Deloitte report was written before last week’s atrocious capital expenditure figures came out which showed a 9 per cent drop in capital expenditure. That’s the biggest drop we have seen since 1987. So it does point to the fact that we need a clear economic plan as to where we go next.

COMPETITION INSIDE THE COALITION TORPEDOES GOOD COMPETITION POLICY

Joint Media Release with Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen

Sooner or later Malcolm Turnbull is going to have to make a decision on the economy.

Today’s presentation by the rookie Treasurer on the Harper review and the effects test in particular, was embarrassing. [Shorter Morrison: after a two year review process, we’ve decided to have another review!]

The fact is, Malcolm Turnbull had to do deals to be elected Leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister and we’re seeing that play out today in the Government’s response to the Harper review.

This is Government economic policy paralysis writ large.

TURNBULL'S MOMENT OF TRUTH ON TAX TRANSPARENCY

Malcolm Turnbull has the chance to show his true colours today: is his priority tackling multinational profit shifting or helping big companies hide their tax affairs?

The Senate will today vote for a second time on the Government's multinational tax avoidance bill.

Two weeks ago, Labor and the crossbench teamed up to amend the bill to ensure private companies earning more than $100 million have to disclose how much tax they pay.

Want to help developing countries? Make it cheaper to send them money, Business Spectator, 23 November

Few things are more admirable than a worker going without so they can send money back home to their family. Chances are that within a short distance of you right now, there’s someone working long hours to send money back to relatives in Manila, Port Moresby or Mumbai. According to the World Bank, remittances to developing countries are worth half a trillion dollars annually – twice the value of foreign aid.

Yet many of those hard-earned dollars never get back home. On average, someone who tries to send $1000 to a developing country will see $77 eaten up by transaction fees and exchange rate spreads. A full-time worker who wanted to send half her salary home would be toiling away for more than a week every year just to pay financial middlemen. 

Over the weekend I got together a group of runners to tackle Hobart's Point to Pinnacle half-marathon and raise money for World Vision. The team was named after my grandfather, Keith Leigh, who died while running up Mt Wellington in 1970. 

ABC Hobart came along to follow our progress; check out their story here...