Andrew Leigh

When red tape strangles our charities, we all lose

The Herald Sun - 17 September, 2018

“It has been a nightmare”, reported one charity worker. “It was extremely time consuming to research all the different requirements state by state... each of the states need something different to satisfy the requirements for an application. It is such burden for organisations like ours who are doing our best to help those most in need of help.”

What nefarious activity was the charity involved in? Nothing more than a nationwide online fundraising campaign. Yet because our fundraising laws were written in the pre-internet era, they require charities to seek permission from six states plus the Australian Capital Territory (only the Northern Territory does not have fundraising laws).

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AGENDA

MONDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2018
 
SUBJECTS: The Coalition’s civil war on climate change, US-China trade, Peter Dutton’ eligibility, the divided and dysfunctional Coalition.
 
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Joining me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Thanks so much for your time. Before we get into the politics of the day, I know Labor wants to focus on Peter Dutton quite a bit in terms of the various questions around the Home Affairs Minister. But in terms of Labor's policy questions right now, a challenge for you is where do you go to climate change and the mechanism that will be put in place, because the NEG as it was known - the National Energy Guarantee - is not only dead, it's been pronounced dead it seems you know a handful of times in the last week.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It's a challenge for the nation, Kieran. This was a policy supported across business and its dumping by the far right of the Liberal Party again shows how extreme the Liberal Party has become. It's been nearly a decade now since the British conservatives and the New Zealand conservatives dealt with climate change in a sensible market based approach using the advice of the experts. The Liberals have had multiple chances – the emissions intensity scheme, the clean energy target, the national energy guarantee - and every time the far right has dragged them off into the wilderness. It's a real problem for households. The government's own modelling said that the NEG would see power prices go down by $550 and in its absence power prices would rise $300. So we'll be continuing to engage with stakeholders. Mark Butler is doing a series of roundtables, I've been part of some of those business roundtables to work out a policy which is detailed, carefully calibrated, brings down emissions and brings down power prices.

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TV INTERVIEW

ABC NEWS BREAKFAST

SUNDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2018

SUBJECTS: Wagga by-election, GDP figures, migration debate, Labor's plan to level the playing field for first home buyers, gender pay gap, the Coalition's civil war over energy policy.

HOST: We're speaking with Dr Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Thank you for joining us this morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Absolute pleasure.

HOST: Before we touch on the issues relating to your portfolio, let's start with this morning's news and the likely loss by the Liberals in the state by-election in Wagga. What message do you think this sends to Canberra?

LEIGH: This was Scott Morrison’s first test and he’s failed it. A 30 per cent swing against the Liberals, they're certain now to lose the seat. It really does reflect the fact that the Liberal Party at a federal level now makes the Addams Family look like The Brady Bunch. So much infighting, focused on themselves rather than on the big problems facing the Australian people, whether it's energy prices or climate change, a squeeze on household expenditures or flat wages. There's all kinds of issues that Australians want their politicians to be focused on. This sort of shenanigans we have seen from the Liberals has now been punished at the ballot-box in Wagga.

HOW THE TAX SYSTEM CAN NARROW (OR WIDEN) THE GENDER GAP

WOMEN IN ECONOMICS NETWORK SEMINAR 

NSW STATE LIBRARY, SYDNEY

7 SEPTEMBER 2018

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay respects to their elders past and present. My thanks to Leonora Risse and Danielle Wood for your hard work establishing the Women in Economics Network. It’s an honour to be hosted by you today, and I’m looking forward to the inaugural Australian Gender Economics Workshop in Melbourne next February.

It’s not often that you speak on a topic that many people don’t even think is worth discussing. Earlier this year, Scott Morrison opined that ‘The tax system doesn’t discriminate by gender. It’s an absolutely ridiculous proposition.’ He went on to say ‘You know, you don’t get pink forms and blue forms to fill out your tax return… So it’s just a nonsense of an argument.’ The Centre for Independent Studies called the conversation ‘absurd’. The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance said it amounted to ‘shamefully using women as political pawns’.

So, I feel I should start by explaining why we need to discuss gender and tax.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC CODE FOR CAR DEALERS AND MANUFACTURERS: THIRD PARTY ENDORSEMENT

“We believe an industry specific code regulating behaviour between new car Dealers and offshore vehicle manufacturers is necessary to protect consumers, dealerships and their employees. Currently new car Dealers are locked into one-sided agreements with vehicle manufacturers which restrict our ability to run a profitable business and protect our consumers” - The Australian Automotive Dealer Association CEO David Blackhall

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

FIONA PHILLIPS

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR GILMORE
 
NOWRA RECONNECTED FORUM A SUCCESS

Today, we held a successful ‘Reconnected’ forum with South Coast charities and not-for-profits, exchanging ideas on how to reverse the decline in community engagement and social capital across Australia.

Australians are less likely to join community organisations or play organised sports than they were several decades ago and it’s this trend that Labor is trying to reverse.

Today‘s was the sixteenth Reconnected forum, following on from successful forums in places such as Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle, Hobart, and Darwin.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC CANBERRA DRIVE

WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2018

SUBJECT: Pension age.

JAMIE TRAVERS, HOST: Dr Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Member for Fenner and he's with me now. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good afternoon, Jamie. Great to be with you.

TRAVERS: What did you make of the PM's announcement this morning?

LEIGH: Look, it’s terrific — if you can believe it. But let’s face it – this is a bloke who was Treasurer for a thousand days and every day he wanted to increase the pension age to 70. He supported five Liberal budgets that increased the pension age to 70. He is really willing to say absolutely anything right now in a desperate attempt to hang on to the job that he slid into.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

FIONA PHILLIPS

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR GILMORE
 
LABOR TAKES THE WHEEL FOR MECHANICS IN NOWRA

Labor has taken the wheel for car owners and independent mechanics with a roadmap to make timely access to technical information a reality.

No matter what vehicle you drive, everyone should be able to choose where they get their car serviced. But independent repairers are struggling to get fair access to the standard service information they need.

Under Labor, car manufacturers will have to share the same technical information with independent mechanics that they currently provide to authorised dealers.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

2GB MONEY WITH ROSS GREENWOOD

TUESDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER 2018
 
SUBJECTS: Housing, the Liberals’ civil war over energy, ACCC, Labor’s plans to level the playing field between multinational manufacturers and Australian car retailers.
 
ROSS GREENWOOD, HOST: Right now, a man is always great with his time - the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Dr Andrew Leigh is on the line right now. Thanks for your time Andrew.
 
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure, Ross. Great to be with you.
 
GREENWOOD: Let's go first to that issue of property markets because it could be argued that intervention by regulators and also the actual market conditions themselves has caused the housing market to come off the boil more rapidly than many expected. The question is if you implemented your changes to capital gains tax and or negative gearing over the top of what's already happened, it could really have a more significant impact on the falling property prices which in turn could start to hurt the Australian economy.
 
LEIGH: You're absolutely right that we don't want to set policies based on where a particular market is a particular time. You've got to think about the long term interests for Australia when you're setting policy and that's absolutely what we did with our capital gains tax and negative gearing policy. We made the judgment that these the tax concessions weren't affordable at a time when debt has doubled. We needed to make sure we're rebalancing the market away from investors and towards first home buyers given that the home ownership rate now is the lowest it's been in six decades. We don't think it's going to have a massive impact on prices and that's because the policy is grandfathered. So if you’re negatively gearing right now an existing property, you'll continue to do that. You've got a particular asset, then you'll pay the current capital gains tax rate tax rate. These policies are prospective. Gradually they'll help rebalance the housing market so first home owners aren't finding themselves beaten out by investors Saturday after Saturday.

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DOORSTOP
GOLD COAST
TUESDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER 2018

SUBJECT: Labor’s plans to level the playing field between multinational manufacturers and Australian car retailers.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning everyone. My name's Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Minister for Competition. Thank you for coming along today. Today at the Australian Automotive Dealer’s Association conference, Labor made an important announcement. We announced that under a Shorten Labor Government, we would implement an industry-specific code governing the relationship between automotive dealers and car manufacturers. We haven’t taken this step lightly. But when the competition watchdog brought down a report on new car retailing, it outlined significant areas of concern. The power imbalance between multinational manufacturers and Aussie car dealers, many of whom are small businesses and family owned firms, has gotten out of control. We've seen instances in which manufacturers have enforced dealership terms as short as a year, in which they haven't dealt appropriately with issues of recalls and haven't ensured that the Australian Consumer Law is adequately complied with. We need to make sure that our automotive dealers get a fair deal. That we ensure that they can operate as family businesses, as small businesses. Automotive dealing is one of the most competitive areas of the Australian economy. Many parts the Australian economy are heavily concentrated, but auto dealers aren't that. They are a diverse set of businesses, employing nearly 70,000 people across Australia. Australians bought around 1.2 million cars last year and we want to make sure that Australian motorists get a fair go, that their consumer rights are respected and that auto dealers are looked after. This policy is based on the evidence from the ACCC report and based on our engagement with the Australian Automotive Dealers Association. I’ll now ask David Blackhall from the AADA to say a few words.