Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

CANBERRA

WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2018
 
SUBJECTS: Turnbull’s comments telling aged workers to get a better job; Labor’s plan for bigger, better, fairer tax cuts for working Australians; Telstra job losses; US leaving Human Rights Council.
 
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Good morning everyone. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner and I'd like to welcome you to this aged care facility in Ainslie. We've been here meeting today with a range of aged care workers. Among them, Abbie, Kerul, Lorraine and Lise. They're among the thousands of aged care workers across Australia; talented, hardworking and deeply caring. Aged care workers that deserve the respect of every Australian.

I'd like to thank this aged care facility for taking the time to have their staff meet with Bill Shorten and Julie Collins and I today. We greatly admire the work that they do, the support that they provide to the residents here and recognise that all of us need great aged care workers because any of us could well finish up in a facility like this and we would want to be looked after by people of the calibre of Abbi, and Lise and Lorraine and Kerul.

Let me hand over now to Bill Shorten.

LABOR'S PLAN TO TACKLE TAX HAVENS

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

In 2012, the Coalition voted in the House and Senate against laws to close a multinational tax avoidance loophole. Last year, we saw that very same law being used to secure a $340 million judgement against Chevron. But, extraordinarily, we didn't see the Turnbull Government saying: 'Mea culpa. We got it wrong in 2012. If we'd had our way back then, the budget would now be hundreds of millions of dollars worse off, net debt would be rising even faster than it is today'—hard to believe given that net debt is rising faster than it did even under the global financial crisis. We saw none of that apology. Instead, we saw the government patting themselves on the back for the Chevron decision, patting themselves on the back for a court decision based on a law they had voted against.

CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL PHOENIX ACTIVITY

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

In May 2017 Labor announced that a Shorten Labor government would take significant action to tackle illegal phoenix activity. We said, in particular, that we would put in place a director identification number, dealing with the problem that, right now, it is tougher to open a bank account than to register as a company director. One of the consequences of this was brought home through media reports which noted that a member of this House was registered multiple times as a director. That, I assume, was inadvertent, but the fact that it could occur at all illustrates the problem in our current system.

THE SECRET GST DISTRIBUTION REPORT

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

Another critical issue that the government is failing to act on is the GST distribution report. The Productivity Commission handed its report on GST distribution to the government on 15 May. The government has to table the report in parliament 25 sitting days after receipt. There will be only 15 sitting days between receiving the report and the date of the by-elections in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia that occur during the winter break.

TACKLING THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS
 
MASTER BUILDERS NATIONAL LEADERS SUMMIT
 
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
 
WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2018 

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and thank Hedley Davis and Denita Wawn, as well as my ACT colleague Zed Seselja.
 
As you know, Australia is facing a housing affordability crisis. We now have the lowest home ownership rate that we've had in 60 years. There are over 500,000 Australians in rental stress and almost no housing that is affordable for low-income Australians. In the early 1980s the ratio of house prices to incomes was 2:1. Now, it's over 5:1. We're a nation that is increasingly struggling to house our young people.

TURNBULL MUST ACT ON POOR CHOICE AND ROTTEN APPLES

Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop focusing on giving big business a billion dollar handout and instead ensure they are playing by the rules.
 
Apple has been fined $9 million by the Federal Court for making false or misleading claims to customers with faulty iPhones and iPads in a case that backs Labor’s calls for increased fines for breaches of consumer law.
 
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had taken the tech giant to court amid complaints it had told customers they weren't entitled to a repair or replacement after they had a third party fix devices that were disabled by an iOS software update.

Federation Chamber

18 June, 2018

Over the years, the Liberal Party has accepted a number of significant foreign donations, including $14,000 from Kazumasa Ikoma of Japan, $50,000 from Kin Chao Sun of Hong Kong and $1.5 million from British citizen Michael Ashcroft. For over a year, Labor has refused to take foreign donations, but the Liberal Party still remains open to taking foreign cash.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 18 JUNE 2018
 
SUBJECTS: Dividend imputation reform, Income tax cuts.
 
KIERAN GILBERT: With me now, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Thanks very much for your time. The Labor Party, a spokesperson has advised or pointed out this morning that the individual author within Treasury of this report which has questioned Labor’s numbers is a former staffer of Mitch Fifield and Kelly O’Dwyer and a former Vice President of the Young Liberals Student Association. The point though that Angus Taylor has made and others have made, Simon Birmingham, is that this has been ticked off by senior levels of Treasury. So is Labor really impugning the reputation of the Treasury in this?
 
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, you’ve got to take a step back and recognise how Labor does our costings. We do them through the Parliamentary Budget Office, which is an equal status coster to the Treasury. And the whole purpose of the Charter of Budget Honesty, in setting up the Parliamentary Budget Office, is we wouldn’t have the kind of debacle we’re seeing from the Coalition today. Our policies have been costed by a body which has an equal status to the Treasury. To spend taxpayer money attacking Labor policies is a terrible waste. Why aren’t they spending resources working out how to scrap the tampon tax? This should be paid for Liberal Party funds if they want to attack Labor policies.

Alex Hutchinson's Endure explores the mind-body influence on sports performance

Andrew Leigh

The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 June 2018

PHYSICAL ENDURANCE

Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

Alex Hutchinson

HarperCollins, $39.99

Humans are amazing. Members of our species have held their breath for 24 minutes, deadlifted 500 kilograms, free dived deeper than 200 metres, and pulled a 99 tonne truck. Humans have long jumped nearly 9 metres and high jumped almost 2½ metres. A person has swum 225 kilometres. Another skydived at 1300 kilometres an hour.

And we keep getting better. Cycling and swimming were among the sports that saw new world records set at the Commonwealth Games. There have been 100 metre races in which almost everyone finished in less than 10 seconds. Sometimes the improvement is remarkable, as when competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi doubled the hot dog eating record in 2001, devouring a gut-churning 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE OF INEQUALITY

ANDREW LEIGH

Inside Story, 15 June 2018.

When Jane found herself jobless, homeless and separated from her partner, she began staying in her campervan in Hawkesbury, on the Sydney fringe. There was a time, she said, when she had 11 cents in her bank account and wouldn’t have more for another nine days. She survived off charity. “Most Australians don’t know what real hunger feels like,” she says. Sometimes, men would approach her campervan to ask for sexual favours.

For another group of Sydneysiders, life looks very different. Later this month the Art Gallery of New South Wales will host its inaugural ArchiBall, the most expensive and exclusive gala dinner it has ever hosted. Sitting under Nolans and Drysdales, guests will sip Moët, enjoy a meal designed by celebrity chef Matt Moran, and listen to a famous Australian singer whose name is being kept secret. Tickets are $2000 each.

Australian inequality has risen markedly over the past generation. Homes on Point Piper’s Wolseley Road can cost $50,000 per square metre; and if you’d like to park Australia’s most expensive sports car in your garage, Pagani’s Huayra Roadster — powered by a 562kw engine — will set you back $5.5 million. Many stores are struggling, but luxury retailing in Australia has surged.