Tackling inequality in Tasmania
The Abbott Government's first budget is a disaster for communities around Australia, but Tasmanians will feel the impact more than most. I joined my colleague Senator Lisa Singh in Hobart to hear firsthand from community groups about how Tasmanians will be affected by changes to income support, pensions and healthcare spending, and plan for how we'll keep fighting the government on these.
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TACKLING INEQUALITY IN TASMANIA
Community groups and grassroots activists have come together to talk about tackling inequality in the wake of the most unfair budget in Australian history.
Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and Senator for Tasmania Lisa Singh today met with representatives of Anglicare, the Grandparents Advisory Council and other local groups to hear about how Tasmanians will be affected by cuts to income support and pensions, as well as new taxes like the $7 GP fee and higher fuel excise.
“The Abbott Government’s first budget chipped away at the very pillars that support the Australian fair go,” said Dr Leigh, who last year authored a book titled Battlers and Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia.
"Over the past generation Australia has seen a rise in inequality, with a widening gap between those on high incomes and those struggling to make their pay last from week to week," he said.
"Tony Abbott's first budget will make us a more divided society, because his cuts hurt those on low incomes, while his giveaways help those at the top.
The GST isn't a magic pudding - Capital Hill, 3 November
With plenty of speculation around about the Abbott Government's plans on the GST, I joined Capital Hill to talk about the implications of changing any one state's share of the pie. Here's the transcript:
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ONLINE INTERVIEW
ABC CAPITAL HILL
MONDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2014
SUBJECT/S: GST distribution; interest rates
LYNDAL CURTIS: Joining me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Member for Fraser, Andrew Leigh. Andrew Leigh, welcome to Capital Hill. Do you believe Western Australia has a real problem?
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well Lyndal, certainly all states and territories are struggling after the $80 billion cut to health and education that Tony Abbott delivered in his last budget. That has made it harder for the states and territories – whether they be governed by Labor or Liberal governments – to make ends meet.
CURTIS: But Western Australia had a problem even before that; it's been complaining about this for some time.
LEIGH: There's a strong case being made by the Western Australian members of parliament. But the problem is that Tony Abbott wants to have it both ways. He wants to send smoke signals out in the west that he's open to giving them a greater share of the GST, but then to say to people in the east that they won't lose out. But Lyndal, the GST is not a magic pudding. If one state gets a larger amount, then it is either because another state has got a smaller amount, or because they've raised the rate or the base.
The numbers Australians are really worried about - Breaking Politics, 3 November
I'm not much of a believer in polls, but I know there's one set of numbers Australians are pretty worried about right now. I joined Fairfax's Breaking Politics program to talk about what they are; here's the transcript.
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ONLINE INTERVIEW
FAIRFAX BREAKING POLITICS
MONDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2014
SUBJECT/S: Ipsos poll; Royal Commission into union corruption; UN climate change report
CALLUM DENNESS: Joining me now is Andrew Leigh and Andrew Laming, good morning to you both.
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning.
ANDREW LAMING, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BOWMAN: Good morning.
DENNESS: Andrew Leigh, if I could start with you first: new polling today shows that the Prime Minister remains unpopular and there are key policies that are unloved, yet the government has moved into an election-winning position. That would be pretty worrying for the Opposition, wouldn't it?
LEIGH: Callum, I don't place much store on poll numbers. But I do think there are certain numbers that are worrying Australians. There's the $7 Tony Abbott wants them to pay to go to the doctor, the $6,000 he's taking away from the poorest single parents, and the last-placed ranking we've achieved in the global Green Economy Index for leadership on climate change. They're the kinds of numbers that are of deep concern to me, and which resonate whenever I'm out on street corners talking to my electors.
Australia's stance on tax avoidance out of step
This morning I've got a joint op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald with Bill Shorten, explaining why the government is going the wrong way on tackling multinational profit shifting. It follows on from the very useful tax round table I convened at Parliament House this week to generate some new ideas on what else Australia can do to ensure companies are paying their fair share.
Read moreAustralia's stance on tax avoidance out of step, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 November
The "Double Irish Dutch sandwich" sounds like something questionable you'd find on the menu at backpacker-run cafe.
But it's actually a notorious tax loophole in Ireland which allows huge multinational companies to get away with paying tiny amounts of tax through shifting money between multiple countries. For almost 30 years, some big global firms - including companies operating in Australia - have been using this loophole to pay tiny amounts of tax.
So while ordinary people are expected to pay their fair share of tax every year, some companies earning billions of dollars can get away with hardly paying a cent.
In Ireland, they are finally seeing sense and closing this loophole. Unfortunately, Australia is going in the opposite direction. While other countries are their closing their tax minimisation loopholes, the Abbott government has spent the past year opening them up.
One of Treasurer Joe Hockey's first acts in office was to roll back Labor's measures to tackle profit shifting and improving tax transparency - effectively handing back $1.1 billion to big global firms. That's money that could have gone to helping struggling families with cost of living pressures, or improving our schools and hospitals.
Royal Commissions and renewable energy - Lateline, 31 October
At the end of a very busy two weeks of Parliamentary sittings, I joined Emma Alberici on Lateline to look at where we're up to on the national security and renewable energy legislation, as well as point out what's wrong with the government's anti-red tape crusade. Here's the transcript:
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TELEVISION INTERVIEW
LATELINE
FRIDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2014
SUBJECT/S: Royal Commission into unions; national security; red tape; Renewable Energy Target
EMMA ALBERICI: The week began with Tony Abbott calling for a mature and sensible debate about the GST, but that's almost where that conversation ended. It was drowned out by the fuel tax, climate policy and national security. Joining me to discuss a busy week in federal politics from Melbourne, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Josh Frydenberg, and in Canberra we have the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh.Gentlemen, welcome to what I'm confident will be a very mature debate.
JOSH FRYDENBERG, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE PRIME MINISTER: (Laughs)
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good evening, Emma.
ALBERICI: So, Julia Gillard has been cleared of all wrongdoing. Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission says she has committed no crime. Josh Frydenberg, what's your reaction?
FRYDENBERG: Well this is a preliminary submission from Counsel Assisting, so I don't want to get into a running commentary, Emma, on individual cases other than to say that what the commission has found so far is there are examples of thuggery, intimidation, physical violence, threats, secondary boycotts...
ALBERICI: But specifically, when we're talking about the former Prime Minister, it should end there?
FRYDENBERG: Well I've never thought that this Royal Commission has been about Julia Gillard. It's a much more systemic problem within the union movement and in particular some of those construction unions and that is why the Prime Minister has announced today with Denis Napthine this combined Federal Police-Victorian Police taskforce because there are very serious issues. And it has to be pointed out that the Commissioner, Justice Heydon, wrote to the Prime Minister very recently and indicated that there were serious problems and that they needed to be dealt with and that there were powers that the police had that the Royal Commission didn't have and that's why the Prime Minister has acted now when he has.
ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh?
LEIGH: Emma, I think it's good that we've finally got tonight the bottom of Julia Gillard's renovations last century, and not surprisingly, the Royal Commission's found that Julia Gillard didn't commit any criminal acts and wasn't aware of any criminal acts. And in those circumstances, I think it might be appropriate for someone like Julie Bishop, who had accused Julia Gillard of criminality, now to issue a formal apology.
Better tax transparency under Labor
Transparency is critical when it comes to tackling multinational profit shifting. That's why I've announced we'll bring forward plans to have the Australian Tax Office release more data about how much tax companies pay, and do it sooner. Here's the details:
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BETTER TAX TRANSPARENCY UNDER LABOR
Labor will introduce a Private Member’s Bill to give Australians access to more information than ever before about the tax affairs of major corporations.
If enacted, this bill will bring forward the release of data about the tax paid by companies with total income over $100 million.
Launch of 'A new Australia-China Agenda: Experts on the Australia-China Relationship'
Read moreSpeech at the launch of 'A new Australia-China Agenda: Experts on the Australia-China Relationship'
Parliament House
28 October 2014
This week and last, federal parliament has been resounding with tributes to the late Gough Whitlam. Many people have noted his bravery – more than four decades ago – in travelling to China to announce that a Labor Government would initiate ties with the mainland.
At the time, Whitlam’s critics said of the visit that his Chinese hosts had ‘played him like a trout’.
I thought of this recently when looking at statistics on our exports to China – now our number one destination for Australian fisheries exports.
There are many ways of summing up the importance of the Australia-China relationship.
Condolence motion for the Hon. Gough Whitlam, AC, QC
Vale Gough.
Read moreCondolence motion for the Hon. Gough Whitlam, AC, QC
House of Representatives
28 October 2014
GK Chesterton once said that "Tradition means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead."
Progressives are at our best when our reforms draw out the golden threads of history.
The notion that society is a contract between the past, the present, and unborn generations is as powerful a guide for progressives as it is for the other side of politics.
No-one better understood the value of tradition than Gough Whitlam.
When Prime Minister McMahon set the date for the 1972 election as December 2, Whitlam noted that it was the anniversary of the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz, when Napoleon defeated the Russian and Austrian armies. It was, he said, "a date on which a crushing defeat was administered to a coalition - another ramshackle, reactionary coalition".
Fuel tax increase another regressive move
Following word that the Abbott Government is going ahead with plans to increase the fuel excise tax, I joined David Speers on Sky PM Agenda to explain why Labor can't support yet another regressive move which will hit to poorest hardest.
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E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY PM AGENDA
TUESDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2014
SUBJECT/S: fuel excise tax slug; Tony Abbott’s plans to raise the GST; Rupert Murdoch’s comments on inequality
DAVID SPEERS: Well the main political story here in Canberra today has been the Government's surprise announcement that it's going to go ahead with an increase in fuel excise even though it's been unable to get this through Parliament. How's it doing it? Well it's changing the tariff. It then has 12 months in which it needs to legislate that. So for 12 months it can collect the higher tax – it will go up from 38.1 to 38.6 cents, half a cent a litre. It will cost, the Government says, the typical family using about 50 litres of fuel a week only 40 cents a week in additional cost. Over time, of course, that will go up. Labor is still opposed to the increase in the fuel excise, however it's done. Joining me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Thank you for your time.
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure David.
SPEERS: Why is this such a bad idea, to put up fuel excise by a tiny amount?
LEIGH: Well it's another measure that hits the poor the most, David. We've had a big rise in inequality over the last generation, the most regressive budget we've ever seen brought down, which smashes the poor while including giveaways to the most affluent. And now another measure which we know will hit those on the lowest incomes the hardest, because in fact Joe Hockey is wrong when he says the poor don't drive. If you look at fuel as a share of income, it's six per cent of disposable income for the poorest fifth, and just two per cent for the top fifth. So an increase in fuel taxes is a regressive tax and that deeply concerns us.
Protecting our egalitarian federation
Tony Abbott has announced that he wants to radically alter the relationship between the federal government and Australia's states and territories. In response, I held a press conference outlining why Labor will never back proposals which alter the egalitarian character of our federation.
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DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
MONDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2014
SUBJECT/S: Tony Abbott’s plan to increase the GST; boat turnbacks; Abbott Government inaction on Ebola; flawed Direct Action climate plan
ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Over the weekend we saw Tony Abbott give a speech on federalism in which he resorted to coded language rather than being straight up with Australians. He talked about increasing the indirect tax burden and raising states' revenue capacity. Let's be honest: when you talk about indirect taxes, you're talking about wine taxes, fuel taxes, car taxes and the GST. What Tony Abbott wants to do ought to cause the hairs on the back of Australians' necks to stand up. Because after bringing down the most regressive budget in Australian history, he now wants to raise the GST. Mr Abbott very clearly wants to engage in the same sort of cheap politics that he did last year. He wants to pretend to Australians that he can deliver better services and not put in place tax increases. But federalism isn't a magic pudding. To the extent that Mr Abbott is promising more payments to one state, that's got to involve taking away from other states. Federalism is a fundamentally egalitarian institution, and Labor is going to work to prevent more unfair cuts being put in place through the excuse of a federalism review. Happy to take questions.