Andrew Leigh

How to make innovative co-ops work better, The Canberra Times, 19 October 2016

A few years ago, a group of community activists in one of the most disadvantaged parts of Canberra decided to set up a bulk-billing medical practice. They chose to make it a cooperative – recognising that its purpose wasn’t to make a buck for the shareholders, but instead to address a social need. 

Speech to Anglicare Research Report Launch - Anti-Poverty Week

Dickson, Canberra

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Can I of course acknowledge that we're meeting on the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people and pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and just to say how delightful it is to be in a room full of passionate, engaged social justice campaigners. Jeremy Halcrow, Simon Rosenberg, Claire Lloyd-Jones - the author of the report, we've now learned - and of course my friend and colleague, Jenny Macklin. No one in the parliament has done more than Jenny to fight the great fight against inequality and poverty in Australia and to have her in the room is a special treat for all of us today. 

Dr LEIGH (Fenner) (16:16):  When Isam Gurung first came to Amaroo Primary School he was in an unfamiliar environment. Isam is deaf, and had moved from a specialist school in Sydney to a mainstream school in Canberra. He found it difficult to adjust and was initially very shy. That was before he befriended Ross Kelly: a boy who decided, after passing notes forwards and backwards, that he would go a step further and learn sign language to help his friend. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT

MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Unions and inequality; Royal Commission into the banking sector; ACT election.

KIERAN GILBERT: The Government is attacking Labor over the contributions of the CFMEU to the Labor Party upwards of $2 million since 2010 and arguing that's why Bill Shorten is turning a blind eye to the poor behaviour of many unionists within the CFMEU?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran there's nothing wrong with unions, individuals or businesses donating to political parties. We draw the line at tobacco firms, something that our Coalition colleagues haven't always done but when it comes to donations, when it comes to a $2 million donation, let's focus on the $2 million that the Prime Minister gave the Liberal Party at the last election and hasn't yet disclosed.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Reelection of the ACT Barr Labor Government; Kimberley Kitching’s Senate appointment; ABCC bill.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning everyone, I'm Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. A couple of weeks ago we had Malcolm Turnbull launching the Canberra Liberals campaign - planting his flag very firmly on the side of the Canberra Liberals. Over the weekend, we saw the repudiation of that view, with Andrew Barr's Labor Government convincingly re-elected. 

What was striking about the platform that the Barr Labor Government ran on was that Old Malcolm would have found a lot to like about it. Old Malcolm would have liked the fact that ACT Labor was committed to renewables, committed to action on same-sex marriage. ACT Labor believes that governments should invest not just in roads but also in rail. Old Malcolm would have liked the fact that ACT Labor is leading the nation in making the transition from stamp duty - a tax on mobility - to a much more efficient land tax base. But New Malcolm decided he would put himself on the side of the Canberra Liberals who were thumped on the weekend and will spend another four years in Opposition. 

ANDREW LEIGH:  Thank you for coming along today, my name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer.

From the Abbott and Turnbull Governments we've seen nothing but dysfunction when it comes to Australia's statistical collections. Prior to the last Census, there was significant community concern about the Turnbull Government's proposal to increase the retention period for names and addresses - effectively doubling it. The Government did nothing to allay those community concerns. Three Ministers did nothing. Then we had the incompetence of the 2016 Census, a pretty good contender for the worst managed Census anywhere in the world in 2300 years.

Malcolm Turnbull’s Government is threatening cuts to the collection of some of Australia’s most important statistics, with statistics on housing finance, retail sales, early childhood, foreign ownership and crime victimisation in the firing line.

Dr LEIGH (Fenner) (19:16):  This is a government which is pretty strong when it comes to taking on the weak. If they are taking on the pensioners, those with disabilities or carers in the community, then they are pretty tough. But when it comes to taking on some of the biggest companies in the world, this government goes weak at the knees. For years they have been arguing against Labor's attempts to shut down multinational tax loopholes. When we said we wanted to close debt deduction loopholes and the Leader of the Opposition put together a carefully crafted package on debt deduction loopholes, where were they? Are they standing on the side of the little guy? No, they were standing on the side of multinationals.

GOVERNMENT VOTES TO CALL ON ITSELF TO EXPLAIN WHY IT HAS FAILED ON TAX TRANSPARENCY

The House of Representatives has this afternoon voted in favour of my amendment to the International Tax Agreements Amendment Bill 2016.

The amendment “calls on the Government to explain why it has failed to close tax loopholes and increase transparency in Australia.”

Dr LEIGH (Fenner) (18:42): I was 11 years old when I bought my first computer. It was back in 1984 and the machine called an Aquarius. It had rubber keys, a cassette drive, a black and white television was its monitor and it held a little less than four kilobytes in memory. Back then, the machine was, well, not start of the art, but pretty close. We have come a fair way from that to the advent of the iPad Air.

We didn't get there by settling for second best. We did not get there by saying, 'Well, the technology of today will do us for the course of the next generation.' That is the lesson that this government has failed to learn with its National Broadband Network. It is a government that thinks that investing in the future involves buying millions of metres of copper. Since the change of government, we have seen Australia fall from 30th to 60th in global internet rankings.