Andrew Leigh

LABOR’S PLAN FOR THE SHARING ECONOMY IN INNER SYDNEY

 17 February 2016

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek and Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh today visited local start-ups to talk about Labor’s positive plan for cities and the sharing economy.

Meeting with Sydney start-ups SheSays and Maker’s Place, they discussed innovation and how important it is to create a fair and flexible framework of rules for emerging sharing economy services to ensure all Australians can share in the benefits. 

The sharing economy is changing the way we buy and sell things. It is also changing how we think about work and the line between private property and public goods.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC 774 MELBOURNE

MONDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Housing affordability; Labor’s plans to improve fairness in the tax system.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's a simple question: is negative gearing the tax break we need to change? Dr Andrew Leigh joins us to talk about this, he's the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and the Shadow Minister for Competition as well in Bill Shorten's Shadow Cabinet. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good afternoon Raf, how are you?

EPSTEIN: I'm good. Andrew, have you got a negatively geared property yourself?

LEIGH: I don't, no. Just the one home, I'm afraid.

EPSTEIN: Because there's a ton of federal politicians who do, including I think, one of the Nationals Senators who owns about 42 properties. I just wonder if it gets in the way of politicians considering this properly?

LEIGH: Lucky for some, yes. It's worth thinking about the fact, Raf, that some of these politicians wouldn't be negatively gearing because they would be living in a Canberra residence and a residence in their electorate. But put all that to one side, the reason we're doing this is because it has become harder than ever for young Australians to break into the property market. The share of young Australians owning their own home is down 25 per cent from where it was in the early 1980s, when it used to cost you three times the average incomes to buy a home, rather than six times average income as it does today. The typical Melbourne home now costs more than $700,000 and so many people are saying: well, even if I've got my own place, what about my kids? How are my kids ever going to break into a property market like this? So by encouraging investors to move into new housing if they want to continue negatively gearing, and by grandfathering the existing arrangements, we get a boost in housing supply but without making anyone worse off who has made a decision under the existing rules.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

2GB ALAN JONES SHOW

MONDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Australian Olympic athlete Peter Norman.

ALAN JONES: It's almost four years since I spoke to Dr Andrew Leigh. He is the Federal Labor MP for Fraser, a very bright fellow who is the former professor at the ANU in the School of Economics before he went into Parliament. He is now the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. But we weren't talking about matters economic, although one day we should. We were talking about the late Peter Norman. Peter Norman died in 2006, he was the man that won a silver medal at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 in the 200m event. Peter Norman had come in second place to the great American Tommie Smith, he ran 20.06 seconds which is unbelievable in 1968; it is still the Australian record. This was a time when black athletes in America when second class citizens. So the black athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 and the black athlete John Carlos won the bronze; Peter Norman, a white athlete, came a brilliant second. 

We Should All Give A Toss That There Aren't More Indigenous Faces on Our Coins - Huffington Post, 11 February 2016 

Depending on which historian you believe, the British monarchy may trace its roots back as far as the 9th century. It's an extraordinary legacy. It also means that when the monarchy first got started, Indigenous Australians had already forged at least a 38,000-year bond with the Australian continent.

The eighth anniversary of the apology to the Stolen Generations puts a national spotlight on the ongoing disadvantage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. It is right that we do this, just as this week has seen the government bring down the eighth Closing the Gap Report. In 2016, persistent racial gaps in health, employment and education are a national disgrace.

We should apologise for the wrongs that were committed, and recommit to closing the gaps that exist. But we should also be proud of our Indigenous people. How cool is it, I tell my kids, that we share this continent with a people who have the longest continuing link to the land in the world? Indigenous Australians have been here for at least 40,000 years, and perhaps as long as 125,000 years.

To celebrate the traditional owners, I believe it's time that we replaced the monarch's face on our coins with faces of some of our most significant Indigenous people. When we toss a coin and call ‘heads’, I believe it should be an Indigenous Australian face we're hoping to see.

IS THE GOVERNMENT OUTSOURCING TAX COLLECTION TO SNITCHES?

In their latest attempt to look busy on multinational tax, reports today suggest the Government is considering a plan to have employees snitch on their bosses in return for a cut of the returns.     

This comes from a government that has cut 4,700 jobs from the Australian Tax Office, including around 1,000 jobs specifically from its Audit area. 

It is finally realising two years too late that sacking the staff who monitor tax compliance is no way to ensure everyone pays their fair share of tax.

Companies have innovated, now it's government's turn, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 February

It can be hard to spot trends while they’re happening. But looking back on 2015, it’s pretty clear this was the year the sharing economy really took off in Australia.

Services like Uber and Airbnb went from emerging services to major market players, while new Australian companies like Airtasker and ParkHound grew from start-ups into fully-fledged firms.

As these services have expanded, there has also been an effort by some state governments to work out new rules and regulations that address issues like safety in the sharing economy without smothering its growth. The ACT became the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise ride-sharing services such as Uber in October, followed by New South Wales in December. The Tasmanian Government has promised to introduce a similar bill in the first half of 2016. Many local governments have also begun working out new rules for sharing things like homes and carparks. 

It’s been heartening to see some of the states and territories embracing the challenge of the sharing economy. But now we need the Federal Parliament to also step up. 

Malcolm Turnbull’s Government had the opportunity today to let tax authorities see inside the bank accounts of big companies sooner. Surprise, surprise – they blocked it.

The Common Reporting Standard is a hugely important weapon in the global fight against tax dodging, and one that has been several years in the making through the OECD.

For the first time ever, tax authorities will automatically exchange information about the contents of company and individual bank accounts held overseas.

When the Government introduced its bill to give effect to this measure in Australia, it set the deadline for disclosure of company accounts way off in the distance in 2019.

E&EO TRANSCRIPT

ABC NEWSRADIO

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

MONDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT/S: GST, negative gearing, income inequality, land tax, capital gains tax.

MARIUS BENSON: In the past 15 minutes, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has called on the Prime Minister to categorically rule out any increase in the Goods and Services Tax. For more on that, I’m joined by Andrew Leigh, the assistant Shadow Treasurer. Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Marius.

BENSON: We are, I suppose, waiting for the categorical, 100 per cent statement by the Prime Minister. But he has pretty much said: no GST. That's what he said yesterday on Insiders.

LEIGH: Well, at the same time we had Arthur Sinodinos out arguing that there ought to be an increase to the GST, Marius, so it is pretty unclear where the Government stands. All we know is that when they say they're in favour of agility, they've taken every possible position on the GST. Australians who don't want to see a rise in the GST have only one choice at the next election which is to vote Labor, because we have been absolutely clear that we wouldn't support a tax which would fail to add to growth but would worsen inequality.

BENSON: The Government has said it would make its position clear long before the election, so that won't be an issue if the Government now goes ahead as, universally expected, without a Goods and Services Tax increase. If that is the case, you would obviously welcome that decision.

LEIGH: Well clearly, but we'd also welcome a Government which engages in proper processes on tax reform. You well know, as a long-time watcher of politics, Marius, that process matters as well as outcomes. When they came to office, the Government announced a Tax White Paper in the first two years, and business and community groups put hundreds of thousands of dollars into preparing more than 800 submissions to that inquiry. That's now been junked in favour of a Prime Minister who seems to be spending more time listening to nervous backbenchers than going out there speaking to worried Australian families. It ought to be Australian families that are being heard in this process, and we ought to be allowing all that expertise in the community to flow into a tax reform process rather than simply floating thought bubbles so the backbenchers can shoot them down.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2016

TOPICS: GST; superannuation tax concessions; negative gearing.

KIERAN GILBERT: With me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. You've heard a bit of the debate thus far: the Prime Minister not yet convinced on the GST. Is this what a healthy, mature debate on public policy looks like?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: I think we're learning, Kieran, what being innovative and agile involves. It involves taking every position on tax reform and then not listening to Australian families, as Labor has been, but just listening to your backbenchers. This Prime Minister has lost more ministers than he's had positive clear tax proposals. I think increasingly Australians are wondering: what does this bloke stand for? He says he's serious about climate change but he's got Tony Abbott's climate policies; he says he wants to do marriage equality but he's kicking it off to a $160 million plebiscite; and he says he wants economic leaderships but on the core issue of tax reform can't articulate a clear plan for –

GILBERT: But isn't he saying – I put it you again – isn't this a mature way to go about a discussion on tax issues? You look at all the evidence, you don't rule things out before you've even begun, and then you get on with it – unlike Labor which did not allow the Henry Tax review to even look at the GST.

LEIGH: Well Kieran, a mature approach would have been to follow through the Tax White Paper which the Government announced in 2013. It took in 800 submissions; had a $600,000 advertising campaign; millions of dollars were spent by communities and business groups putting in submissions. Now it’s been completely junked in favour of the thought bubbles that are being floated. Two completely different thought bubbles yesterday: one from the Prime Minister saying maybe not, one from Arthur Sinodinos saying maybe. It's absolutely clear that if you don't want a GST the only way to make sure it doesn’t happen is to vote Labor at the next election.

We need to improve productivity, but not by cutting penalty rates, The Guardian, 6 February

Ever since Thomas Mortimer worried that the advent of the sawmill ‘would exclude the labour of thousands of useful workmen’, progressives have had an uneasy relationship with productivity. Everyone is pleased to see technology and process improvements that make jobs safer, cleaner and less stressful. But many worry that such improvements will also shrink the number of jobs going around and make life much worse for workers who end up displaced by machines. 

At its best, this anxiety manifests in close attention to who the winners and losers are in today’s changing workforce. At worst, it results in a rose-tinted yearning for the kind of back-breaking jobs few workers ever enjoyed at the time.