Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
FRIDAY, 28 APRIL 2023

SUBJECTS: Establishing a centralized evaluation unit, Stage 3 tax cuts, JobSeeker.

ADAM SHIRLEY (HOST): I wonder whether at work you’ve had a consultant come in before, whether you are a consultant yourself? Because often when things could be improved, when there’s a problem or whether organisations, large and small, are looking to sharpen, sharpen up what it is they do, consultants come in. It’s been a part of the landscape in federal government for many a year, to quite a tune as well, tens of millions of dollars can be paid to the big boys and girls from places like PwC, EY and others, McKinsey, to name a few. And the current federal government reckons that there’s a bit too much money historically that’s been going to those consultants.

Dr Andrew Leigh is Assistant Minister for Treasury and the Member for Fenner here in the ACT, and he’s talking about a new Treasury evaluation unit which is aiming, amongst other things, to identify all the consultants and maybe cut back on the spending on them. Dr Leigh, good morning to you.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Adam. Glad to be with you.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR 882 AM WITH KARALEE KATSAMBANIS
WEDNESDAY, 12 APRIL 2023

SUBJECTS: SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES, COST OF LVING, COMPETITION LAWS, ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, MULTINATIONAL TAX AVOIDANCE

KARALEE KATSAMBANIS: I am delighted to welcome my next guest – Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, the Honourable Dr Andrew Leigh. Good evening.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good evening, Karalee. Great to be with you and your listeners.

KARALEE KATSAMBANIS: It is lovely to have you on board. Now, look, Dr Leigh, the reason why I’ve got you on this evening is you’ve recently been calling for business to get a fair go and fair competition. You recently spoke at the COSBOA National Small Business Summit, and you’ve called for the shifted narrative on, you know, unfair contract terms and trading practices in a bid to spark what we could call market stimulation and greater productivity. How is this going to have a good impact, especially here in Western Australia?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Karalee, any sports fan knows that fair competition is really fundamental to the game. You don’t get a good football game unless you’ve got a fair set of rules. One of the things we’ve been worried about recently as a federal government is that the economy isn’t dynamic enough because there’s not enough fair competition taking place.

There’s too many sectors where there’s just one or two big firms completely dominating things. And the small guy just doesn’t get a look in. What we want to do is ensure that there’s more start-ups and that there’s more market dynamism, more people switching jobs to get those useful pay rises and more productivity growth, which ultimately is the foundation for living standards.

Unfair Practices Hurt Consumers, Businesses, Profits

The Daily Telegraph, 11 April 2023

In the economy, just as in sport, there are winners and losers. Sometimes you just play better on the day. But the rules of sport are set up to ensure fair play, and that's how the economy should function too.

When the Albanese government came to office, unfair contract terms were legal. That meant multinationals could put terms in their contracts that provided for automatic renewal, excessive exit fees and unilateral price increases.

Unfair contract terms let multinationals exploit the power balance between them and local businesses. We changed that last year by banning unfair contract terms.

Now we're turning our attention to unfair trading practices. For example, unsubscribing from a digital streaming service often involves confusing menus, skewed wording and urges to stay a bit longer.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC 1206 AM WITH BRIAN CARLTON
THURSDAY, 6 APRIL 2023

SUBJECTS: MULTINATIONAL TAX AVOIDANCE CRACKDOWN; NATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS SUMMIT; INLAND RAIL FIASCO; ACT UNEMPLOYMENT; ENERGY BILL RELIEF.

BRIAN CARLTON (HOST): The thing we're about to talk about is a position, Government position that came out of the last budget, and it's one of those ones that probably didn't get a lot of attention at the time, but it's a worthy issue. The issue is the large corporates, largely multinational corporates, who offset a bunch of their accounts to what you might call low‑tax jurisdictions, and they're claiming a whole bunch of things called "intangibles", and we'll find out what they are in a minute, intangibles, to reduce their overall tax bill here.

Now, the Federal Government to its credit is having a bit of a crackdown on this and has produced some draft legislation that they want some feedback on. To have a bit of a chat about exactly what that legislation contains, let me bring in here, if I can, Andrew Leigh, who is the Federal Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Minister, good afternoon, how are you? 

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Brian. Great to be with you and your listeners.

CARLTON: I appreciate your time today. This is one that probably didn't get a lot of attention on budget day or in the reviews of budget, so to speak. The issue is largely as I've described, isn't it, they're sort of shifting their business operations around so that they can claim a whole bunch of deductions here in Australia based on activities overseas, in a nutshell? 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH TOM CONNELL
WEDNESDAY, 29 MARCH 2023

SUBJECTS: INTEREST RATES, INFLATION, HOUSING AUSTRALIA FUTURE FUND, DGR STATUS FOR ORGANISATIONS CAMPAIGNING ON THE REFERENDUM FOR AN INDIGENOUS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT REFERENDUM

TOM CONNELL (HOST): We have had retail spending figures out this week that show Australians are spending only the same amount they were spending in September last year. In other words, spending’s been flatlining since then. So, have Australians heeded the warnings or perhaps unable to spend anymore? Is this the end of rate rises? Joining me live now, Andrew Leigh, Competition, Charity and Treasury Assistant Minister. Thanks for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Always a pleasure, Tom.

CONNELL: We’ll know the figures soon enough. I kind of just want to fast‑forward 12 minutes and have it, but retail spending we know; does it feel like the rates have basically done their work? Do you think Australians can look forward to no more rate rises maybe even from here on in?

LEIGH: We certainly hope that the worst of inflation is behind us, Tom. But it does speak to the independence of the Australian Bureau of Statistics that I’m their responsible Minister but I get no heads‑up on the figure.

 AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION TRIBUNAL APPOINTMENTS

Today the Albanese Government is pleased to announce seven important appointments to the Australian Competition Tribunal (the Tribunal).

• Justice Michael O’Bryan has been appointed as the part-time President of the Tribunal for a five-year period;
• Justices Sarah Derrington AM, Kylie Downes, John Halley and Mark Moshinsky have been appointed as part-time Deputy Presidents of the Tribunal, each for a five-year period;
• Daniel Andrews and Ray Steinwall have been appointed as part-time members of the Tribunal, each for a five-year period.

Justice O’Bryan was appointed to the Federal Court in 2019, and then appointed as a Deputy President of the Tribunal in the same year. In 2014, Justice O’Bryan was appointed as a member of the panel that conducted Australia’s last major competition law and policy review, the Harper Review, in 2015.

LEGISLATION TO HELP CHARITIES AND SMALL BUSINESSES

This week, the Albanese Government has introduced the Treasury Laws Amendment (Refining and Improving Our Tax System) Bill 2023 (the Bill) into Parliament.

The Bill transfers administration of four unique Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) categories to the Australian Taxation Office, and repeals provisions relating to maintenance of departmental registers.

The ATO currently administers 48 of the 52 categories under which an organisation may be eligible for endorsement as a deductible gift recipient. Four deductible gift recipient categories – Environmental Organisations, Harm Prevention Charities, Cultural Organisations, and Overseas Aid Organisations – are currently administered by Ministers through departmental registers.

How Uncompetitive Markets Reduce Wages

The Australian, 23 March 2023

Folk music is replete with songs about struggling employees in company towns. In Sixteen Tons, Johnny Cash sings ‘You load 16 tons, what do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt / St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go / I owe my soul to the company store’.

Company towns were the extreme example of monopsony power. While monopolies hurt consumers, monopsonies hurt suppliers.

Today, company towns are rare, but monopsony power is growing. New research from economist Jonathan Hambur uses rich de-identified tax data. To measure concentration in labour markets across the country, it splits Australia into 290 working zones and 190 industries. For example, it might look at the concentration of employers for grocery workers in Wagga Wagga.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
JOY DRIVE WITH EMMA & WARREN
THURSDAY, 16 MARCH 2023

SUBJECTS: Topics for the 2026 Census

WARREN ANDREW (CO-HOST): The Australian Bureau of Statistics has opened the first phase of public consultations on topics for the 2026 Census of Population and Housing. What sort of topics could be added to the census and how do we go about submitting them? Dr. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Andrew, welcome back to the programme.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Warren. Good to be with you both.

WARREN ANDREW: Now, how do you go about selecting topics for inclusion in the census?

LEIGH: Well, it's important that the Bureau of Statistics go through a really open consultation process. What we saw last time round was that cut short by political intervention from the former government. And we really want the Australian Bureau of Statistics to be able to do a deep dive, talk to people in the community, work out what should be added and also what needs to be taken off the Census. Obviously, you can't just keep on adding questions forever. And so in the past, the Census has had questions taken off it about what sort of material your walls are made out of or whether you've got an indoor toilet. And that makes room for some of the important questions that can be added. Last time, veteran status and long-term health condition were added.

Making It Fairer For All

The Daily Telegraph, 17 March 2023

My first music purchases were records. Mostly, I bought 45 RPM singles. But when I could afford them, I splurged on 33 RPM albums. The money from my newspaper delivery job didn’t go far, which meant that I listened to the same songs again and again. Pick a Midnight Oil song from the 1980s, and it’s a fair bet that I know every word.

A generation later, my three sons listen to music through Spotify. They have access to virtually everything ever recorded, and jump happily through artists and genres. My boys literally have access to a million times as much music as I did.

Something else has changed. When I was buying vinyl, there were plenty of indie record labels. Today, Spotify dominates the streaming market. As a result, musicians and songwriters are feeling the squeeze. Cellist Zoë Keating estimates that Spotify pays her just one-third of a cent per play. For most artists, streaming doesn’t pay the bills.