Andrew Leigh

Today’s effects test announcement shows the extent to which Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have sacrificed good economic policy in order to keep the National Party on side.

As a member of the Abbott Government, Malcolm Turnbull opposed an effects test in Cabinet. So did Julie Bishop and George Brandis.

The only reason the Turnbull Government is announcing an effects test today is that it was a condition of the secret agreement between the Liberals and Nationals for Mr Turnbull to become Prime Minister.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2016

SUBJECTS: G20; Multinational taxation; Foreign political donations; Negative gearing; Superannuation reform; Inequality.

TOM CONNELL: You're watching AM Agenda, joining me now in the studio is Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Andrew thanks for your time this morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure, Tom.

CONNELL: We're at the G20 in China this time around, a couple of years ago it was Brisbane we had that 2 per cent growth target that now we're hearing from the IMF has pretty much failed. How big a role could you really argue Australia had in that pretty small proportion of the economy?

LEIGH: Well there were some pretty big promises made back then by the Coalition, Tom. A promise of 2 per cent above expectations. I went back last week and had a look at how we're tracking on that, we're not 2 per cent ahead, we're 2.5 per cent behind where we were forecast to be at that stage. So the Government's achievements on growth are exactly the opposite of what they pledged. That's why I'm sceptical that not much is going to come out of this G20 from a Government that has been so much on the side of multinational tax avoiders rather than on the side of the Australian middle class.

This weekend the Coalition will again schlep off to the G20 summit without a strong plan for confronting the global epidemic of tax avoidance by multinational companies.

In the aftermath of the decision taken by the European Union against Apple’s international tax liabilities, as well as the revelations within the Panama Papers, now is the time for an effective Australian multinational tax strategy.

But on this critical budget problem, like so many others, Malcolm Turnbull and his government are compromised, in chaos and making it impossible for Australia to provide moral or legislative leadership.

Today in the House of Representatives I called out the Turnbull Government's inability to deliver a tax cut it had promised to Australians that Labor supports!

AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT HOUSE 

MEMBERS' 90 SECOND STATEMENT

THURSDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER, 2016

Dr LEIGH (Fenner) (13:41):  Thank you Deputy Speaker.

On Budget Night the Treasurer said, 'From the 1st of July this year, we will increase the upper limit for the middle-income tax bracket from $80,000 to $87,000 per year.' 

And then the Treasurer trampled to an election, stamping on the way the tax cut that he had promised to Australians earning over $80,000 a year. 

CHRIS BOWEN MP

SHADOW TREASURER

MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

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

MEMBER FOR FENNER

Government legislation today confirms that the benefits of income tax cuts scheduled for 1 July 2016 won’t be fully implemented until after Australian taxpayers complete their tax return after 1 July 2017.

This comes in a week where the Treasurer has been shown that he had a $107 million black hole in his omnibus legislation, got rolled in Cabinet with the PM on negative gearing reform, and continues to delay legislating the Government’s superannuation package. 

GIVING THE CONSUMER WATCHDOG MORE TEETH - PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION SUBMISSION

At the election, the Turnbull Government made no commitments to strengthen consumer protections or to clamp down on scammers and shonks.

Shorten-led Labor took a comprehensive suite of policies giving the consumer watchdog more teeth.

The re-elected Government has no Minister for Competition or Consumer Affairs.

Labor has a Shadow Minister for both.

Below is my submission on behalf of the Australian Labor Party to the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Consumer Law Enforcement and Administration.

Labor is committed to protecting consumers.

A PDF version is available HERE.

PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION SUBMISSION - AUGUST 2016

Statement

The Australian Labor Party welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into the enforcement and administration of the Australian Consumer Law.

The Labor Party is the party of the Trade Practices Act 1974, the National Competition Policy, the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and the criminalisation of cartels.

The ACL is a vital piece of legislation that protects consumers from things like unconscionable conduct, unfair contracts, unsafe products, misleading conduct and scams. The ACL has brought together State, Territory and Federal governments, and was implemented by the previous Labor Government.

Ensuring the ACL operates as intended, and to address opportunities for improvements in administration and enforcement, is considerably important.

In the 2016 federal election, the Australian Labor party announced a suite of policy measures regarding the ACL. That policy suite is designed to deter and punish anti-competitive and anti-consumer conduct by increasing penalties, using some of the increased revenue from these penalties to increase the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) litigation budget, and give the ACCC formal powers to conduct market studies in the public interest.

This submission details the implications of that policy suite for enhancing the enforcement and administration of the Australian Consumer Law as per the Productivity Commission’s terms of reference.

The Case for Action

There is a broad public concern about the lack of competition and anti-consumer conduct in Australian markets. This concern is not limited to banks, supermarkets and petrol retailers. Many people are worried that Australia’s markets are not sufficiently competitive or consumer friendly in a range of areas.

At the same time, penalties for engaging in anti-competitive and anti-consumer conduct and for breaching the rights of consumers are inadequate. Penalties are too small to act as a deterrent, are low by international standards and are seen by transgressors as a mere “cost of doing business” according to the Federal Court[i]^,[ii], the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission[iii], and consumer advocates[iv]. This clearly has implications for the efficacy of administration and enforcement of the Australian Consumer Law.

For example, the ACCC has appealed the $1.7 million penalty imposed on Reckitt Benckiser for misleading or deceptive conduct regarding Nurofen products. The penalty was small relative to company turnover and the profits made on the products, and is unlikely to have a deterrence effect[v].

ACT JEWISH COMMUNITY GALA DINNER AND CAMPAIGN LAUNCH 

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE

CANBERRA

TUESDAY, 30 AUGUST 2016

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY*** 

Thank you David Reiner, for the honour to address you all tonight. Can I too acknowledge that we’re meeting on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

I want to acknowledge some of the dignitaries in the room, including but not limited to Yael Cass, Jillian Segal, Alon Meltzer, my parliamentary colleagues Mark Dreyfus, Mike Kelly, Julian Leeser, Michael Danby and ACT Leader, Andrew Barr.

As you’ve just heard, the contribution of Jewish Australians to this nation began with European settlement, with at least eight Jewish convicts transported on the First Fleet. The first Jewish wedding in Australia is thought to have been held in 1832. The first synagogues in Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide were founded in the 1840s. 

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWSDAY

TUESDAY, 30 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECTS: Labor’s positive plans for the budget.

PETER VAN ONSELEN: I'm joined now by the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh, live from the nation's capital. Thanks for your company.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Pleasure Peter, great to be with you.

VAN ONSELEN: We'll get to some of your portfolio areas in a moment but I just wanted to ask you about the story across the top of the Financial Review – China donor says Australian MPs, quote, "Not delivering". You must have read this piece. It's unbelievable to my way of reckoning. He's the chairman of a property development group and he's given more than $1 million to both major parties over the last four years. And this is his quote from an editorial that he wrote in the Global Times newspaper. It's been translated into English. Quote, "The Australian-Chinese community is inexperienced in using political donations to satisfy political requests." How does that make you feel? That sounds to me like cash...for outcomes.

LEIGH: It was a strange quote indeed, Peter. The gentleman is not somebody who I've met before. But certainly my philosophy with political donations has always been that people should give because they want to contribute to the democratic process, not because they want to buy an outcome for themselves. As you say, doing so is to subvert what democracy is all about – which is politicians executing the will of the people who put them there.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
774 ABC MELBOURNE
MONDAY, 29 AUGUST 2016

SUBJECT/S: Marriage equality; Budget repair.

JON FAINE: Dr Andrew Leigh, good morning to you.

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

FAINE: On behalf of the Labor Party, the issue in particular of marriage equality is a vexed one for the parliament. Malcolm Turnbull campaigned with a clear unambiguous promise to put it to a mass vote of the Australian people – a plebiscite. Do you not respect that that was what he was elected to do?

LEIGH: Mr Turnbull was against a plebiscite last year. Before the election he said one would happen this year, and now he's saying it might possibly be happen next year. And who knows whether that promise will actually come to fruition. But I'm guided very much by my former employer Michael Kirby, who said that a plebiscite would be alien to our traditions, unnecessary under the constitution and dangerous in the hostility it would cause to young LGBTI people.

The politics of hate is on the rise. A week before the Brexit vote, UK Labour MP Jo Cox was shot by a man shouting “death to traitors, freedom for Britain”. In France, Marine Le Pen draws parallels between Muslim migrants and the occupation of her country during World War II. In the US, Donald Trump wants to bring back torture, has called women “pigs” and made fun of a reporter with a disability.

In Australia, the share of voters who hate their opponents has risen from under one in six in the late 1990s to over one in four voters today. In the US, the share of people who say they would be unhappy if their child married someone from another political party has risen from 5 per cent to 41 per cent.

You can imagine the scene here in Australia. “Oh, thank goodness, sweetheart — when you said your girlfriend was a lesbian, I thought you said a Liberal.”