Andrew Leigh

MORETON COMMUNITY ON GUARD AGAINST RISING INEQUALITY

Joint Media Release with Graham Perrett MP

Representatives from local community centres, multicultural groups and the disability sector today joined Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and Member for Moreton Graham Perrett at a roundtable discussion on inequality at Brisbane’s Sunnybank.

Community groups in Moreton are concerned about tackling the issue of inequality and the lack of direct services for the most vulnerable in our community.

“People in the Moreton community are really feeling Tony Abbott’s cuts to childcare, aged care and education. Along with cuts to welfare and training programs, all of these decisions will increase inequality in the Moreton community,” said Mr Perrett.

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh said that the Abbott Government’s first two budgets were full of policies that would lead to Australia becoming a more unequal country.  

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RADIO INTERVIEW

TRIPLE M GRILL TEAM

WEDNESDAY, 15 JULY 2015

SUBJECT/S: National Rifle Association lying about the success of Australia’s gun buyback.

MATTY JOHNS: It seems like every couple of weeks we hear about shootings in America that just leave you shaking your head. Now, the National Rifle Association laughs at Australia's gun laws. They view them as pointless and ineffective but an absolutely brilliant article in The Age newspaper showed the gun laws had been anything but in this country. Andrew Leigh worked as a summer clerk at a Sydney law firm in 1995 and his mentor was a 28-year-old woman named Zoe Hall. Zoe was Martin Bryant's second-last victim in the Port Arthur massacre. The National Rifle Association of America's constant criticism and disregard for our gun laws inspired Andrew to do a bit of digging into the stats on whether our gun buyback scheme that John Howard brought in has actually worked. Andrew joins us on the line right now – g'day Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Morning gentlemen, how are you?

JOHNS: Good thanks. Now Andrew, is it fair to say straight off the top that these laws have been a stunning success?

LEIGH: Absolutely. In the decade before Port Arthur, we had, on average, one mass shooting every year. In the two decades since, we've had just a single mass shooting in Australia. We've got the firearms homicide rate down, but interestingly we've got the firearms suicide rate down as well. It turns out that the person most likely to kill you with a gun is yourself – we have four gun suicides for every gun homicide. So we've actually saved something in the order of 200 lives a year as a result of the gun buyback, and most of those come from fewer gun suicides.

Why the NRA has Australia in its sights, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 2015

In 1995-96, I worked as a summer clerk at the Sydney office of law firm Minter Ellison. Each of us was assigned a mentor. Mine was 28-year-old Zoe Hall. Whip-smart, generous and perpetually smiling, Zoe was the perfect mentor. Surrounded by egos and timesheets, I felt like Zoe always had time to chat, and wanted to help me feel welcome in the firm.

That autumn, Zoe took a holiday to Port Arthur. She was filling the car at a petrol station when she was shot by Martin Bryant – the second-last of his 35 victims.

In the decade leading up to the Port Arthur massacre, mass shootings (in which five or more people are killed) had been a regular feature of Australian life. Between 1987 and 1996, a total of 94 victims were killed in mass shootings. Australia averaged a mass shooting every year, with places such as Strathfield, Hoddle Street and Canley Vale becoming synonymous with gun violence.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 13 JULY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Government gutting clean energy investment; Barnaby’s Law; Tony Abbott’s Royal Commission.

KIERAN GILBERT: This morning I’m joined by the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Steve Ciobo. Steve Ciobo first to you, you heard a bit about what Tim Flannery had to say. This debate about clean energy, you've copped a fair bit of flack – the Government – for excluding windfarms, and now the most popular form of alternative energy, rooftop solar. Is the Government trying to get rid of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation by stealth?

STEVEN CIOBO, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Well, no, not by stealth. We have said all along, Kieran, that we are opposed to the CEFC. But let's be clear about what's taking place here because there seems to be, and I do intend the pun, a lot of hot air around this for no particular reason. What the CEFC is focused on doing, what its mandate to do, is to invest in new, emerging technologies. Solar and wind are not new, emerging technologies. These are commercial-level investments. We see massive increases predicted for both solar and wind over the next five years. Now, for anybody to suggest for one moment that because of the mandate that we have given, or the directive I should say, to the CEFC, that that is somehow going to jeopardise wind or jeopardise solar is absolute rubbish. I mean frankly, from an alarmist like Tim Flannery, I am not surprised to hear it. But the fact is there is absolutely no basis in fact at all, nor, more importantly, is there a financial basis for making that statement because it is completely false.

GILBERT: So you believe that these industries, these sectors, can stand on their own two feet, basically, Steve Ciobo?

CIOBO: We've got something like 1.4 million solar panels rolled out across Australia on rooftops. More importantly, the renewable energy target – the RET – will drive continued investment both in terms of wind and in solar. I think, frankly, some people need to calm down. Tim Flannery should calm down, some of the journalists should calm down because there is absolutely no way at all that the directive that has been given to the CEFC is going to have a detrimental or in fact a negative impact, in terms of both wind and solar, over the next five years. So, you know, people just need to be focused on what the reality is.

GILBERT: Ok, let's hear Andrew Leigh, your response to that? I guess the argument that the Government is making through Greg Hunt and Steve Ciobo this morning is that it's better to be investing taxpayer money in emerging technologies and in the large-scale solar projects which the Government is still committed to.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well Kieran, let's be clear about what the CEFC mandate is. It is not, as Steve has suggested, just to invest in new technologies. It is very clear that if you look at its act, if you look at the CEFC mandate published on its website, it has a mandate to deal with the market failure, that there is not sufficient investment for both proven technologies and for new technologies. So, you have seen the CEFC make a return that is three per cent over the bond rate, by investing in things such as wind farms in Victoria, solar in Alice Springs, energy efficiency in other contexts. The problem is this Government has never seen an expert panel it doesn't want to nobble – just ask the curriculum authority, just ask the Australia Council if you want evidence of that. They're trying to narrow down what the CEFC can invest in, and at the same time they want it to produce a higher return. 

On Sunday 15 November, a team of us will be doing the 21 kilometre Point to Pinnacle run in Hobart to raise money for World Vision.

The team will be running in honour of my grandfather, Keith Leigh, a Methodist Minister who died while running up Mt Wellington in 1970. Keith was raising money for the “Methodist Million”.

Registrations for the run opened on 1 August, and are likely to fill up within a few weeks. If you would like to join the run, please register here (choosing 'Keith Leigh Runners' as your team), and then email [email protected] to let me know you're on board.

A Mercury writeup of the story is here, and more information about Keith is below.

My Chronicle column this month is on mental health.

Help closer than ever in muzzling that black dog, The Chronicle, 7 July 2015

At age 22, my friend Andrew McIntosh took his own life. Andrew was a high school mate, a gifted athlete who could quickly pick up any new sport, a bloke who was there to share a laugh. He drove a yellow Valiant Charger, loved AC/DC and was always up for a night out. Andrew was studying at the time of his death. We all thought that he was on his way to becoming a great sport teacher. But none of us caught sight of the fact that the black dog had found its way inside him. 

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO BREAKFAST

WEDNESDAY, 8 JULY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Failures with myTax online systems; Greek economic crisis; Tony Abbott’s Royal Commission.

STEVE CHASE: Andrew Leigh, good morning.

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

CHASE: Good. I looked at the ATO website this morning and they're still looking to resolve the problems. They've urged patience – is that good enough?

LEIGH: I think it's pretty disappointing for many people who are looking to file a tax return early. We have the tried and tested eTax system which is being phased out and the poor ATO staff - after 4,700 job cuts - are now being asked to deliver this new myTax system. They've got an IT system that really seems to be struggling to keep up. I don't blame the tax office; I blame a Government which expects agencies to roll out new systems while slashing the public service.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NEEDS URGENT REVIEW BEFORE TPP IS AGREED

Joint media release with Shadow Minister for Trade Penny Wong

With intellectual property set to be an important issue in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Abbott Government should urgently complete a Productivity Commission inquiry on this before any deal is signed.

Reports suggest the Government is preparing to task the Productivity Commission with reviewing intellectual property holders’ rights and user conditions.

This was a key recommendation of the Harper Competition Review which delivered its report to the Government many months ago. The Harper panel called for a review both of Australia’s current IP laws and the process for negotiating IP clauses in international trade deals.

We won't beat homelessness without tackling inequality, joint op-ed with Jan McLucas, Homelessness Australia Magazine

Glenn Tibbitts was born at 26 weeks in the back of an ambulance because his mother had endured yet another beating. Glenn’s first recollection of abuse he suffered was between the ages of one and two.

Around the age of seven his parents broke up and as Glenn describes it: ‘the door of the cage was left open and that was my opportunity to go’. 

Both of us have parented seven year-olds. On a good day– with a bit of cajoling – they might eat breakfast and get themselves dressed for school. There is something horrifying about such a child having to choose homelessness in order to survive.

Glenn slept in car parks and under bushes and bridges. This was interspersed with short periods in refuges and shelters. As a child he experienced the indignity of having scraps of food thrown at him by strangers. Not given. Thrown.

As he describes it: ‘You are always constantly hungry, you are always constantly cold’. Dealing with the abuse and trauma he suffered was a constant struggle that kept him on the streets.

As heart-wrenching as Glenn’s story is, it is also a story of hope.

I’m worried that young Australians are being locked out of home ownership.

Joe Hockey seems less worried - his advice for affording a home is to ‘get a good job that pays good money.’

We all know housing affordability is a lot more complicated than that.

Here in Canberra, plenty of people have great jobs yet struggle to put together a deposit when the median house price is over $635,000.

Those who can find a way into the market will carry mortgages multiple times the size of their yearly income.

There’s no quick fix to housing affordability. But my party is determined to look for solutions.

We’d like to hear from you about your priorities and ideas.

You can tell us what you want done to improve housing affordability by following this link.