Andrew Leigh

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS RADIO
MONDAY, 20 MAY 2019

Subjects: The federal election result.

JOURNALIST: What went wrong?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It was certainly a heavy blow. We worked extraordinarily hard putting together our Fair Go Action Plan, more positive policies than any opposition has taken to an election in the post-war era. We're very proud of the solutions we had around climate change, around wages, around tackling our education issues and the schools, investing in health care. But we were up against a ferocious scare campaign run by a guy whose main track record is in advertising and he was able to successfully scare Australians into thinking that it was better to stick with the current approach – whatever that is.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 16 MAY 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan for the ACT, Labor’s plans to make multinationals pay their fair share, Labor’s plans to make childcare more affordable for Australian families. 

ANDREW LEIGH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FENNER: Good morning. My name's Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and federal Member for Fenner. We’re here today with the ACT Labor team, launching Labor's Fair Go Action Plan for Canberra. There's a huge amount in it, so we’re going to take it in turns to go through each of the important parts of what Labor would do for Canberra. We have here our full complement of ACT House candidates, Dave Smith and Alicia Payne, as well as myself, and our two Senate candidates, Katy Gallagher and Nancy Waites. 

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DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
WEDNESDAY, 15 MAY 2019

Subjects: Labor’s $40 million investment in training for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the decimation of the public service during the Liberals’ time in office.

ALICIA PAYNE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CANBERRA: Hi. I’m Alicia Payne, Labor's candidate to Canberra, and it's wonderful to be here today with Andrew Leigh and Nancy Waites to make this really important announcement about the NDIS. In my previous job, one of the really big parts of my work was to talk with people with disability and their families and providers about the NDIS. For many people this has made a really positive difference in their lives, but for too many it's been a bad experience and hasn't delivered what was promised. People with disability and their families have waited so long for the NDIS and only a Labor Government can get it right. We created the NDIS, and if we form government I know that we will get the implementation right, particularly by providing more staff and proper training. And that's what today's announcement is about. It's wonderful that Canberra will be a trial site for this investment in training for NDIS workers. And I'll hand over to Andrew Leigh to provide a bit more detail.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks so much, Alicia, and it's great to be here with Alicia Payne, Labor's terrific candidate for Canberra, with Nancy Waites, Labor's second Senate candidate, Natalie Lang from the Australian Services Union and Jack, a disability support worker who will speak to us in a moment.

BETTER TRAINING FOR NDIS WORKERS IN CANBERRA

Canberra will be one of the first places in the country to benefit from Labor’s plan to invest $40 million in training locals for jobs in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government, which will fix the NDIS and create local jobs in Canberra, or more of the Liberal’s cuts and chaos.

We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough.

The NDIS is expected to create up to 1,200 new jobs in Canberra and Labor will make sure locals can get the quality training they need to work in the NDIS.

HELPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS

A Shorten Labor Government will commit almost $50,000 to local projects in schools in North Canberra, helping students learn and play.

This election is a choice between Labor’s plan for better schools, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $16,000 towards science equipment at Melba Copland Secondary School, so students can learn to assemble and program droids. 

The seat of Fenner is named after legendary Australian scientist Frank Fenner, and Andrew Leigh hosts an annual Fenner Lecture to raise the understanding of science among young Canberrans. 

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DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 13 MAY 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s $6 million commitment for ACT students, Labor’s plans for affordable housing.

ALICIA PAYNE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CANBERRA: Good morning. I'm Alicia Payne, Labor’s candidate for the seat of Canberra. It's great to be here at my former workplace the University of Canberra with Andrew Leigh, Carrie Graf and Michelle Lincoln to talk about this great investment that a Shorten Labor Government will make in a sports program here at UC to boost disadvantaged students, to be able to access higher education and using sport as a pathway into that. I'll hand over to Andrew to give a bit more detail about the announcement.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Terrific. Thanks, Alicia. It's a great day to be talking about a great program. Two strengths of the University of Canberra have been reaching out including more disadvantaged students in higher education and their capacity in elite sport. There’s 132 elite sports players currently enrolled at the University of Canberra, playing for the Capitals and the Brumbies. Triathletes, power lifters, cheerleaders. And the University of Canberra is keen to provide opportunities to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to engage in higher education. We know across Australia there are ‘Lost Einsteins’ and ‘Lost Curies’, brilliant young people who don't get a chance to do those studies that will benefit them and the nation. New research out today from RMIT University highlights the importance of boosting education levels in Australia in an increasingly technologically engaged era. We know it's vital to increase university places and that's why a Shorten Labor Government would uncap university places, ensuring over the course of the next decade another 200,000 Australians have a chance to attend university.

Today we're announcing that under a Shorten Labor Government, we would provide $6 million to the University of Canberra for the Sport and Health Empower Program, a program which would bring high school students - Years 10, 11 and 12 – on to campus twice a year. It would give them exposure to some of the best sports science that’s being done, provide tips for their own sporting lives so they’re able to combine studies and their sporting careers, and set them up with mentors - elite sportspeople, sports researchers - so they can better understand what they can achieve by going to university. It's a program that will then work with students in their own communities, to reach out to students in the ACT and the region from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It's absolutely vital if we're to become a more prosperous society, a more equal society, a society that uses the talents of all its members, that we boost university attendance among disadvantaged people and disadvantage populations. So I'm very pleased to be here with my friend and colleague Alicia Payne, making this announcement today. I hand over now to Michelle and then to Carrie to say a few more words about the specifics of the proposed program.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 13 MAY 2019

Subjects: Five years on from the Liberals’ horror 2014 Budget, Labor’s plans for affordable housing, the Liberals’ scare campaign on negative gearing.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much for coming out today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Five years ago, the Liberals brought down their horror 2014 Budget. They said there'd be no cuts to health. They lied. They said there’d be no cuts for education. They lied. They said there'd be no cuts to the pension. They lied. They said there'd be no cuts to ABC or the SBS. They lied. The 2014 Budget was a horror show in Australian politics and if Scott Morrison is re-elected on Saturday it'll be his blueprint for the next three years.

Scott Morrison is a man bereft of ideas, a failed ad man who’s given up on reform. But he was as enthusiastic a backer for that 2014 Budget as you could find in the Parliament. Scott Morrison was a man who was very happy for the Liberals to go out and break their pledges to the Australian people to look after the social safety net. If the Liberals are re-elected on Saturday, you will see more tax breaks for the top end of town, tax loopholes for multinationals, and cuts to health and education – which we know from Grattan Institute modelling amounts to some $40 billion of secret Morrison cuts. Secret Morrison cuts that could be even worse than the 2014 Budget.

LABOR WILL GIVE CANBERRA STUDENTS A $6 MILLION SPORTING CHANCE

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $6 million in a boost to disadvantaged school students who are seeking higher education.

This election will be a choice between a Shorten Labor Government that will help empower disadvantaged students to access higher education or more of the Liberal’s cuts and chaos.

If elected, Labor will co-fund the University of Canberra’s Sport and Health Empower Program, helping local students work towards a career in sport, health, and wellbeing.

The program will use sport as a pathway for participants to enrol in university and raise aspirations for higher education among school students from Canberra and the surrounding region.

A SHORTEN LABOR GOVERNMENT WILL CLEAN UP GINNINDERRA CREEK

Ginninderra Creek has been named as a priority project under Labor’s Urban Rivers and Corridors Program, designed to bring urban waterways and habitat corridors back to health.

A Shorten Labor Government will commit $600,000 to help fund woody weed removal and revegetation with native plants along the waterway, as well as facilitate community education about local ecology.

The proposal to restore Ginninderra Creek was first elaborated upon by the local catchment peak body - comprised of more than 17 Landcare groups - which has long standing expertise in the ecology and stewardship of waterways in the area. Local waterways are one of the delights of living in the bush capital, and North Canberrans have heartily thrown their support behind the campaign to see this project prioritised.

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CHARITY AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT SECTOR PRE-ELECTION DEBATE OPENING REMARKS

TRANSFORM CONFERENCE

MELBOURNE

FRIDAY, 10 MAY 2019

Subjects: The Liberals’ war on charities, the Liberals’ no show at the debate, Labor’s 10 point plan for the charities and not-for-profit sector.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS: Well, thank you very much David and I’ll weave into my remarks the origins of this place, it will come up in just a moment. I acknowledge that we meet on the land of the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation and pay my respects their elders. David [Crosbie], thank you for organising today and for your leadership. The charitable sector owes you a great debt for all that you do. I recognise Rachel Siewert and acknowledge the empty chair for a Coalition representative, with David’s invitations having been turned down by Zed Seselja, Kevin Andrews and Paul Fletcher. It's a pity not to have them here. I think the sector is owed the kind of charity debate that we had in the previous two elections, and it’s a shame the Coalition is a no-show today. I also acknowledge the range of charity and not-for-profit leaders here today, including Sue Woodward and Adrienne Picone.

When I think back to my teens and twenties, some of the most important memories are volunteering. I helped build walking tracks in Lane Cove and Nowra with the Australian Trust for Conservation Volunteers. I dressed up in a clown suit to sell juggling balls to raise money for Oxfam. I volunteered as a law student at Redfern Legal Centre, at the Welfare Rights Legal Centre in the ACT. When I think about my three boys and when they’re at their best, it's often when they’ve joined me on one of my regular park clean ups. Doing something for the community, rather than doing something for themselves. A life lived in service to others is a life well lived. In that, I'm following somewhat in the footsteps of my grandfather, a Methodist minister who worked here in Melbourne and who passed away in 1970 doing a run up Mount Wellington in Hobart to raise money for overseas aid.