Andrew Leigh

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

 THURSDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2016

Those of us who sit in this House are here because people put their faith in our undertaking to represent their best interests. This bill, the Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing Cohort) Bill 2016, would permanently exclude any person who comes here by boat from ever entering Australia. In proposing this measure, the government has made a political gesture that is in no-one's best interests—not those sitting in Manus and Nauru, not those refugees who have come to Australia in the past and not those Australians who are concerned to see that our tax dollars are spent wisely and our migration program is an orderly one.

This is gesture politics at its worst, with all of the effectiveness of the pledge by candidate Trump to build a wall along the Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it. That is how effective this proposal would be. It asks people to make peace with the pettiest and meanest instincts, by dressing up those instincts as strength and certainty. It trades on fear and demonisation of the other, aiming to set up a dichotomy between us and them, hoping that Australians will forget the refugees who have come here in the past, who have helped to make Australia richer, more diverse and more interesting; refugees—from Anh Do to Frank Lowy to Les Murray—who have enriched our country.

It is a bill that demeans the elements of the coalition who have instigated it, and it is a bill that has incensed my electorate. As one of my electors wrote to me:

"I was so disheartened today to read of Mr Turnbull's plans to introduce legislation to the Parliament in the next session that any person seeking asylum who has travelled to Australia via a boat will be banned from ever entering this country...One of our dearest friends, who sadly died last year, was a boat person. He, with his family, escaped Hungary in the 1950s and made his way to Australia...Please do not bend to the far-right bigotry that is holding this government to ransom and do not vote for this ghastly piece of legislation." 

The Turnbull Government has broken its promise to Australian small business owners to hold an independent review into a key automotive repair industry agreement within three months of the 2016 federal election.

It has been reported today that independent car service and repair businesses are complaining that they get limited access to standard servicing information from car manufacturers, despite the 2014 Agreement on Access to Service and Repair Information for Motor Vehicles.

As a result, their ability to offer competitive or even cheaper car servicing prices to consumers faces significant restrictions. 

Today the Turnbull Government has taken its attack on the public servants at the Australian Bureau of Statistics to the next level.

Agency management have just announced to its staff that up to 150 jobs need to be cut in the next few months.

The ABS is announcing these job cuts just two weeks after admitting to a Senate Economics Committee that it will be spending an extra $30 million trying to fix the 2016 Census – the worst census ever and one of Malcolm Turnbull’s biggest stuff-ups.

Now the very public servants who have worked so hard to rescue the census disaster are being forced to pay the price for the Turnbull Government’s mismanagement with their jobs. 

WHEN BUSINESS DOESN'T PAY ITS BILLS, The Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2016

Yesterday, I rang my supermarket. It was just a courtesy call, letting them know that from now on I would be paying for my groceries 60 days after scanning them at the checkout. I assured them it was nothing personal – simply a matter of improving my cash flow.

Alright, I’m pulling your leg. But you can only imagine a company’s reaction to getting such a call from a regular consumer. Yet this is exactly what many large Australian companies are doing to their suppliers right now.

Earlier this year Rio Tinto told many of its suppliers that, with no compensation, it would now pay its bills after 90 days instead of 45 days (in 2014  it was 30 days). This followed BHP’s decision last year to pay its suppliers after 60 days instead of 30 days. Woolworths is also reportedly increasing its payment terms from 30 days to 60 days. Mars, Kellogg, Procter & Gamble and Heinz are also pushing for more generous payment terms. In April, Murray Goulburn retrospectively cut the price it paid to farmers, then asked them to pay back the difference.

Vale Chris Stokman, The Chronicle, 1 November 2016

In 2005, a group of community activists at the Canberra City Uniting Church established an Early Morning Centre to provide breakfast to those sleeping rough or doing it tough. For nine years, until her unexpected passing earlier this month, the Early Morning Centre has been run by Chris Stokman, one of Canberra's great community activists.

Chris loved Canberra. She had worked in the federal public service, she knew the nooks of our city, and she never wanted to live anywhere else. And she was the best of Canberra: a woman who was always more interested in helping others than looking after herself.

Under Chris's leadership, the Early Morning Centre grew from providing breakfast to offering legal support, basic medical care, shower facilities and laundry - critical services for those sleeping rough. 

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

ACTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE

MEMBER FOR FENNER

E&EO TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC DARWIN MORNINGS WITH ADAM STEER

TUESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Andrew Robb working for Landbridge

ADAM STEER: Andrew Leigh is the Opposition's Assistant Treasury spokesman. Andrew your Labor colleagues in the Northern Territory don't seem concerned. Are you?

ANDREW LEIGH, ACTING SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE AND SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well I'm concerned that Malcolm Turnbull sets high standards for his ministers and his former ministers, Adam. I think it's really important that Territorians know that Malcolm Turnbull's out there on their side, not standing by someone else's profit-making activities after politics. 

STEER: Are you really suggesting the former minister might disclose classified information to the Chinese?

LEIGH: I think that's why the ministerial standards require that ministers don't lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, public servants or defence force for 18 months after leaving the job. One wonders about the value that Andrew Robb is able to bring to Landbridge if he's not engaged in any of those lobbying activities. I think it is incumbent upon Malcolm Turnbull to be very clear about how he's making sure that his former minister abides by that code of ministerial standards.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOOSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Andrew Robb’s appointment to Landbridge; Asylum seeker policy.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. The ministerial code of ethics is the stamp of honesty that a Prime Minister puts on their Government. Compliance with that ministerial code of ethics says everything about the ethical bar that a Government sets for itself. 

We've learnt today that although Julie Bishop and Scott Ryan were aware of Andrew Robb's appointment to the Landbridge role two months ago, Malcolm Turnbull has only just found out. We have seen considerable concern within the Government. One senior Defence official was said to be ‘unprintably’ surprised about the decision that Mr Robb has taken. 

This raises serious questions for the Turnbull Government. Malcolm Turnbull has to answer why he was only informed today about the fact that Mr Robb has taken this role, shortly after being a key negotiator for the China Free Trade Agreement. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 

TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Asylum seeker resettlement; front page of The Australian – CFMEU officials.

KIERAN GILBERT: This is AM Agenda with me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasure Andrew Leigh. Dr Leigh thanks very much for your time. First of all, the asylum seeker permanent ban. The Government has basically said it’s insuring that any pathway or hope of a pathway to Australia is blocked. What's Labor's position on that? 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, the key for the 800-odd people who are on Manus and the 800-odd people on Nauru is third country resettlement. This bill won’t resettle a single refugee, it won't save a single dollar from the budget, it won’t create a single job for Australians. It's just another step in the steady metamorphosis of Malcolm Turnbull into Tony Abbott.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC RN DRIVE

TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Senate’s Census Inquiry; Solicitor-General’s resignation.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. This falls very much in his portfolio. Welcome to RN Drive.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks Patricia, good to be with you.

KARVELAS: You say Labor wants answers. You got them today though haven't you? IBM's systems failed – they've admitted that today. How can you blame the Minister, or even the Prime Minister, given it seems very clearly now that IBM's systems were at the centre of all of this.

LEIGH: One way of answering that question is to flip it around and ask who'd be taking the credit if the Census had gone well? I think the answer very clearly is that Malcolm Turnbull would be standing up crowing about how successful his Census was. When things go badly in a Westminster system Ministers need to take responsibility.

It's still quite unclear what oversight procedures were put in place by the four ministers who over the course of three years were responsible for the Census. It’s unclear what impact having the position of Chief Statistician unfilled for nearly a year had on the Census. The cost of trying to fix-up the botching of Census night is at least $30 million, perhaps more. That's money that could easily have been spent on schools or on hospitals or indeed on other parts of the Bureau of Statistics. So this has come at a heavy cost for Australia – the worst run Census since we began taking them.