Andrew Leigh

The Australian Financial Review has put together an end-of-year feature on underrated virtues - here's my contribution:

Generosity

Some years ago, William Muir, an evolutionary biologist at Purdue University, decided to study the productivity of chickens. The control group was an average flock of chickens, which Muir simply left to breed and produce eggs as usual.

His treatment group were specially selected, by taking the top performers each generation. These chickens were then bred, and the process repeated to create a race of ‘superchickens’.

After six generations had gone by, the control group were happy, healthy, and reasonably productive. In the treatment group, six of the nine superchickens had been murdered. The remaining three had pecked each other so brutally that they were nearly featherless.

Writer Margaret Heffernan has told this story to dozens of audiences. Many tell her: ‘That superflock, that’s my company.’

GHOST OF ERIC ABETZ HAUNTS CHRISTMAS WAGE OFFER AT IMMIGRATION

Joint media release with Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations Brendan O'Connor

The Abbott-Turnbull Government has taken the Liberals’ attack on the public service to a new low with its latest enterprise agreement offer at the Department of Immigration.

At the last election, the Abbott-Turnbull Government promised that there would be no more than 12,000 public service job losses. Having broken that promise by sacking 17,700 public servants in the past two years, the Government is now proposing to dismiss a further 680 staff from Immigration as part of a pay deal that already offers workers below-inflation pay rises and cuts to conditions.

Suggesting 680 workers have to go in order for their colleagues to receive such a meagre pay deal shows just how much the extreme industrial relations approach of Eric Abetz continues to infect the Government’s public service bargaining.   

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

RN DRIVE

THURSDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Tax transparency report; MYEFO; U.S. interest rates; polls.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Qantas, Virgin Australia and Vodafone – they're household names – and nearly 600 more of the largest companies in Australia paid zero tax the year before last. On top of that is a long list of big businesses that paid a far lower rate of tax than most of us mere mortals. All has been revealed in a tax transparency report handed down by the ATO today. Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and he's been a regular on Drive for a long time. We're welcoming him back for the last time this year; how are you, Andrew?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Very well Patricia, how are you?

KARVELAS: I'm well. Are the rest of Australia's taxpayers getting ripped off by these big public and multinational companies?

LEIGH: Patricia, it certainly starts a conversation about tax fairness, which I think is the important thing about transparency. When the Liberal Party voted against tax transparency in 2013, they said: it doesn't matter, the tax office has the information so the public doesn't need to see it. But I think the advantage of having this information out in the public is that we get to have a conversation about whether our tax laws are keeping up with the very well-paid accountants who are looking for the next tax loophole, and whether there are tax loopholes that we ought to be looking to close.

KARVELAS: Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer says that just because these companies didn't pay tax, it doesn't mean they're avoiding tax – is she right?

LEIGH: I was a little surprised that Kelly O'Dwyer's first instinct was to jump to the defence of these firms. I think you need to recognise that you can be strongly supportive of business without necessarily being supportive of loopholes. When firms are taking advantage of loopholes, that's more tax the rest of us have to pay. It's more tax that small businesses have to pay, and more tax that working Australians have to pay. With the plans that Labor has on the table, one of the ways in which we would look at budget repair is through our multinational tax plan which would raise $7.2 billion over the course of the next decade by closing down debt deduction loopholes that multinationals are using. That's one of the ways in which some of these firms have reduced their tax bill: by having internal debts and internal borrowings, whereas they owe very little to the banks. They're just borrowing between different arms of the same multinational entity. We don't believe you should be able to do that if you don't owe any debt to the banks.

Putting the spotlight on company tax dodgers, Business Spectator, 18 December

Every year, the International Tax Review nominates its ‘Global Tax 50’ – the people and organisations who are most influential in improving tax systems around the world. Two years ago, David Bradbury made the list, for being ‘a vocal and pro-active voice on a variety of tax issues’.

One of Bradbury’s award-winning reforms was tax transparency – laws that required the tax office to report the tax paid by firms with total income above $100 million. The Liberals didn’t like the change, and voted against it at the time. After winning government, they set about trying to repeal it – first by warning of kidnap risk, and then by suggesting that it might embarrass some firms if the public knew how little tax they paid. 

Farcically, the government said that it wouldn’t pass its own multinational tax package unless the parliament agreed to wind back secrecy. In effect, Scott Morrison was holding a gun to his own head, but the Greens Party fell for it. On the last day of parliament for 2015, the Greens Party agreed to amendments that kept two in three private companies out of the tax transparency net. 

This week’s release of tax transparency data has shown the value of letting the sunlight in. The 1300 economic groups covered by the report had a combined taxable income of $170 billion, and contributed $40 billion in tax towards funding Australia’s schools, hospitals and roads.

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

 

DOORSTOP

 

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

 

THURSDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2015

 

SUBJECT/S: Tax paid by $100 million companies; Government in hiding on tax secrecy 

 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: On Tuesday this week we saw the Government bring down a mini-budget which contained cuts so harsh that even Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey wouldn't countenance them. We saw cuts to aged care; to childcare; to family daycare; we saw cuts to the Federal Police's international deployments; and we saw cuts to Medicare bulk billing.

In bringing down those cuts, Scott Morrison said, "Well, if you don't like these, show us your alternative." Today's release of tax data on Australia's largest firms points to exactly where that alternative might be. 

The tax data that has been released today is data the Liberal Party didn't want you to see. The Liberal Party voted against the tax transparency laws when Labor announced them in 2013. Then, when they got into office they tried every excuse to wind them back, including suggesting this would lead to kidnap risk - an explanation described by one tax expert as the stupidest excuse for non-disclosure he'd ever heard. 

ATO REPORT HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR BETTER TAX TRANSPARENCY

For the first time ever today, Australians have the opportunity to see how much tax some of Australia’s largest publically listed companies pay thanks to laws introduced by Labor in 2013.

 

The Australian Tax Office’s reportpublished this morning detailed the tax contribution of over 1500 major multinational and Australian public companies.

 

The Liberals voted against Labor’s laws back in 2013. If they had their way, none of today’s information would have been published.

 

Worse still, the Liberal deal with the Greens last month to reduce tax transparency means that large private companies will not be subject to the same scrutiny we’ve seen today

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Government fails on debt and deficit with MYEFO. 

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, the Treasurer was not claiming they were great figures he was dealing with yesterday but do you claim that Labor would be delivering better figures on debt and surplus?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Marius, you could hardly do worse than this. Debt and deficits were set as the main task of economic management by the Coalition from opposition. Most economists wouldn't say that was the hallmark of great economic management, but they did. On that mark they are failing spectacularly. This year's budget deficit has blown out by $33 billion. Total debt, when the Government came to office, was projected to peak at 13 per cent of national income and now it is projected to peak at nearly 19 per cent. So the debt and deficit blowout has been spectacular. I was struck by the fact that Joe Hockey kept on blaming Wayne Swan, and now Scott Morrison seems to be adopting a budget strategy of putting everything on to Joe Hockey. Australians just want a government that stops the blame game and starts acting to make sensible decisions in the long-term national interest.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

RADIO NATIONAL BREAKFAST

WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 201

SUBJECT/S: Government fails its own economic test with MYEFO. 

ALISON CARABINE: Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning Alison, how are you?

CARABINE: Very well, thank you. Scott Morrison is trying to be positive; you are an economist so with the deficit increasing to $37 billion and the return to surplus pushed out by yet another year, how much trouble are we actually in here?

LEIGH: Alison, economists wouldn't argue that debt and deficit is the number one test of economic management. Most economists would talk about things like growth or inequality or jobs. But the Coalition did say that this was their signal test of economic management from opposition. They said they'd have the budget in surplus in their first year and every year after that. On that call, they've spectacularly failed. We can see that peak debt was forecast, when the Government came to office, to peak at 13 per cent of national income but now it is forecast to peak at nearly 19 per cent of national income. When the Government came to office, the budget was forecast to be back in surplus in the next fiscal year; now it is deficits as far as the eye can see. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

MELBOURNE

MONDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s positive plans for the sharing economy; government set to fail its own economic test with MYEFO 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It's a real pleasure to be here today with Labor's candidate for the seat of Melbourne, Sophie Ismail. We've been here at Uber talking about Labor's ideas for the sharing economy.

Labor's plan for the sharing economy recognises the value that building innovative companies has for Australia. Bill Shorten and I announced this plan at an incubator centre in Canberra back in October, and it focuses principles such as the idea that primary property is yours to share; that the sharing economy should support good wages and conditions; that all firms should pay their fair share of tax and that we make sure that the sharing economy assists vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities.

Unfortunately, the sharing economy has been entirely left out from the Government's Innovation Statement which means it also misses the potential that comes from the growth of local sharing economy businesses in Australia - companies such as Camplify, Parkhound and many others.

I might just make a couple of comments on MYEFO before I throw to Sophie. The Government's economic update tomorrow will likely fail both its own test for the economy and Labor's test for the economy. When they came to office, the Abbott-Turnbull Government said that they would pay down debt faster and make sure that Australia was running a surplus in the first year and every year after that. Well we've seen deficits blowing out; doubled over the course of the last year alone. And the mini-budget is also likely to fail Labor's test and that of the Australian community. With sluggish growth, falling living standards, and high inequality, Australia now has a Prime Minister and a Treasurer that are looking to slash the best-targeted social safety net in the world. We know that this will not only hurt the most vulnerable but will also potentially impede growth because those in the middle and bottom of the distribution spend all of their pay packets. So the cuts to family support that remain on the table are a signal threat to growth in the years to come. I'll hand over now to Sophie. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Paris climate conference; savage cuts ahead in MYEFO; John Bannon.

DAVID LIPSON: Joining me now, Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Thank you very much for your time. 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TRASURER: Pleasure, David.

LIPSON: Was the deal in Paris a good one?

LEIGH: I think it is. I think it sets that target of 1.5 degrees which we know is absolutely vital to keeping the Great Barrier Reef.

LIPSON: Well 2 degrees, but an ambition, I suppose, of one and a half.

LEIGH: Yes that's right. Certainly though it leaves Australia out from the pack with the rest. We know Australia's targets are now well in excess of what other countries have. We're failing to demonstrate the level of ambition that Britain, the United States, and now Canada - with their change of government - are showing. We're going to have the highest emissions per head amongst developed countries, and that really is going to challenge Australia's ability to make the change in a way that is economically responsible. We know that if we put off the task of dealing with dangerous climate change, it will hurt the economy more and it will hurt the environment more.