Andrew Leigh

LAUNCH OF THE CHINA STORY YEARBOOK

AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT HOUSE

TUESDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2016

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Let me start by thanking the Australian Centre on China in the World for inviting me to speak here today. Whenever I visit your premises at the Australian National University, I am reminded of two things. The first is the wonderful work that you produce, like the China Story Yearbook that we are launching here today. And the second, as a long-time occupant of the maze-like Coombs Building, is how much less snazzy my accommodation was than yours.

In these uncertain global times I am reminded of the Chinese proverb that ‘a single tree does not make a forest; a single string cannot make music’. It is in the spirit of the long history of collaboration between Australia and China that I thought we should start with a simple question. What would Australia be like today had China not opened its economy in 1978?

Based just on merchandise exports, Australia’s economy would be almost 5 per cent smaller. That’s $8,000 less for every Australian household every year.

Prices would be higher. Since 2007, the price of goods we import from China has fallen 20 per cent while the price of goods we produce at home has increased by 20 per cent.

Our universities would be nearly $6 billion poorer each year. They would educate almost 100,000 fewer students.

Our tourism sector would earn $6 billion less each year with 1.2 million fewer visitors visiting our attractions, eating in our restaurants and buying our souvenirs.

If China had remained in autarky, Australia would have had no mining boom, and not much of a dining boom. I’m guessing that if we removed from your home every item bearing a ‘Made in China’ sticker, you’d think you’d been robbed. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS WITH BEATTIE & REITH

MONDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: AAA credit rating at risk; Deloitte economic report; fixing the Howard Government’s mistakes; World trade outlook

PETER BEATTIE: Dr Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Andrew, thank-you for joining us.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It’s a pleasure gentlemen – good to be with you.

BEATTIE: We want to talk about the economy.

LEIGH: Excellent.

BEATTIE: The issue about the country's AAA credit rating. There's been speculation that it may be in danger. Can I ask you this; do you think – because you've been a professor of economics – that the AAA credit rating is in danger, and if it is, what do we need to do about protecting it?

LEIGH: It's certainly at risk, Peter. You've seen today analysis from Stephen Koukoulas- 

BEATTIE: Yes.

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

 MONDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2016

It is traditional at this time of year to acknowledge the many thousands of people who make the work of parliamentarians possible: the cleaners, the security guards, the Hansard operators, the library staff and, of course, our personal staff. But I want to acknowledge in particular a group of people for whom the next couple of months will be particularly challenging, and they are the staff at IHG. IHG recently was unsuccessful in renewing its contract for parliamentary catering and, as a result, most of the IHG staff in this building will not be here when parliament resumes next year.

Labor’s reforms to promote inclusive ownership and inclusive growth, Business Insider,       18 November 2016

In history’s page not much is recorded about events in the Scottish village of Fenwick, except in 1769 – when some members of the Fenwick Weavers Society, so their story goes, lugged “victuals” they’d purchased with Society funds to the front room of a small cottage.

From here the items were sold at a discount to fellow Society members while the profits went into the Society’s funds (deposited – literally – in a box).

This small community enterprise appears to be the first consumer cooperative of which there are records, while the fund the Society established to lend money for members to “purchase high cost items” seems very much like a primitive credit union.

However, equally important as these profit-orientated activities was the motivation of the Society’s members and their objectives.

COUNTING THE COST OF INEQUALITY

‘JUST IDEAS’ TALK #1

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

FRIDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2016

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One of the many things I love about Australia is our egalitarian ethos. We’re a nation that doesn’t have private areas on our beaches, and likes using the word mate. We rarely stand up when the Prime Minister enters the room, and prefer to pay a decent wage than have people relying on tips. Since the 1800s, when European migrants alighting from boats said that they felt they had entered a ‘workers paradise’, the spirit of Australian egalitarianism has burned bright.

Unfortunately, when there’s a bright light shining in your eyes, it can be hard to see anything else. Sometimes, I fear that we think that equality is merely about battlers and billionaires sharing the showers at Bondi Beach. An equality of manners is a lovely thing, but as many a homeless person has observed, you can’t eat politeness.

How much equality is there in Australia? One way of answering that question is to imagine that we divided up the population into five groups of about five million people each, and allocated the Australian land mass to them in the same way that wealth is distributed in Australia. For simplicity, let’s start from the bottom, and just draw lines of latitude across the nation that match the current distribution of wealth, as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Labor understands that Australians want more competition in the banking sector, and we know that stronger credit unions and building societies will open up more choice for customers.

That’s why we welcome KPMG’s annual review of Australia’s credit unions, building societies and mutual banks (“mutuals”) released today.

The review demonstrates the mutuals industry is flourishing in an environment of low economic growth with an asset growth of 7.8 per cent, compared to 5.1 per cent for the wider banking industry.

The review also called on the Turnbull Government to respond, as a priority, to the Senate Economics References Committee’s March 2016 report into the industry. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AM AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT

THURSDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Donald Trump’s tax plan; 457 visas; US alliance; Trans-Pacific Partnership.

KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me on the program now, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Mr. Leigh, thanks very much for your time. Jennifer Westacott from the Business Council of Australia will tonight – at their annual dinner – be making the case that our country, even more so with a Trump victory, needs those tax cuts to make our businesses competitive alongside the US. Mr. Trump is going to reduce corporate tax down to 15 per cent. 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: That's what his plan says Kieran. But don't forget that independent experts have that increasing US debt by somewhere between five and ten trillion dollars. It's a staggering amount of money. And whether or not Mr. Trump is willing to go down that path-

GILBERT: Under his plans is that what the forecast is?

LEIGH: That's under his plan. Whether or not Mr. Trump chooses to go down that path, I'm not sure it’s right for Australia to massively blow out the deficient in order to get a very small economic growth pay-off. And this is under the government's own modelling, which suggests that the benefit for households will be trivial, but we know the impact on the debt would be massive. 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good Afternoon. Thanks very much for coming along today – my name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. I’ve just enjoyed a very productive round-table with my Tasmanian Labor colleagues. Colleagues who are focused on the long-term interests of Tasmania and making decisions that don't just focus on the next election, but on the needs of Tasmania over the next generation.

We've been speaking about the importance of investments in health and education. The importance of investment in infrastructure. There is a clear lesson out of the last federal election, in which the three Liberal amigos were replaced by three federal Labor members who are deeply engaged in their community and deeply committed to the long-term future of this great state.  

Bend back Ag's U-shaped employment curve, The Land, 15 November 2016

Five years ago, a family in NSW took the plunge and started a company called Rise Above, which specialises drone technology, including precision agriculture, farming and crop management. This technology is an example of where innovation in agriculture has made it in practice, cutting the cost of jobs such as spraying and data collection. Taking innovation through to implementation, including as new businesses, is an area in which Australian agriculture can perform much better.

However, one innovator’s disruption is another person’s job loss. One of the most common questions politicians like us are asked is “where will the jobs of the future come from?” While all of us welcome the prospect of increased crop yields, greater productivity and improved efficiency in our agricultural sector, they create inevitable pressures on farm employment.

As a share of total employment, agricultural work has halved during the past 20 years. Not only is this a worse result than manufacturing, it also bucks the trend that we normally see across the Australian economy. A recent study by economists Roger Wilkins and Mark Wooden looked at employment changes across 43 Australian occupations and found a ‘U-shaped’ outcome: employment has grown in the low-paid and high-professions, but contracted in the middle-paid professions. Not only are farm workers relatively poorly paid – the number of these jobs on offer is shrinking rapidly.

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

BRYAN GREEN

LEADER OF THE TASMANIAN OPPOSITION

MEMBER FOR BRADDON

SCOTT BACON

TASMANIAN SHADOW TREASURER

MEMBER FOR DENISON

LIBERAL GOVERNMENTS IN HOBART AND CANBERRA ARE NEGLECTING TASMANIA

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh has today met with Tasmanian Labor Leader Bryan Green and Tasmanian Shadow Treasurer Scott Bacon to discuss the importance of federal and state collaboration on crucial regional development and infrastructure projects.

Andrew Leigh said the Federal Government had neglected Tasmania when it came to budget priorities.

“The Liberals failed to address Tasmania’s infrastructure needs in the lead-up to the last election and paid the price by losing all three of their lower house seats,” Mr Leigh said.

“In contrast, Labor committed $75 million to water and sewerage upgrades in Launceston, $150 million for the redevelopment of UTAS and a to $44 million tourism infrastructure fund.

“In government, Labor would work collaboratively to deliver Tasmania’s infrastructure, creating much needed employment across the state.”