Andrew Leigh

In great news for New South Wales charities, I joined Deputy Opposition Leader Linda Burney and Shadow Consumer Affairs Minister Tania Mihailuk to announce that a Foley Labor Government will harmonise the state's rules to match up with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. This will make life much easier for NSW not-for-profits because they'll only have to register and report to one government agency.

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

NSW LABOR SIGNS UP TO NATIONAL CHARITIES SCHEME

A Foley Labor Government will cut red tape for New South Wales charities by allowing them to register and report just once through the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.

Deputy NSW Opposition Leader Linda Burney and Shadow Minister for Fair Trading Tania Mihailuk joined the federal Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh at NSW State Parliament today to announce the new approach for local not-for-profits.  

There are over 18,000 charities operating across the state, and they must currently register with NSW Government authorities if they wish to collect donations and receive state tax concessions. But to qualify as a tax deductible gift recipient, they must also register with the national charities regulator.

With the Abbott Government scoping out selling the Treasury and John Gorton buildings, I took to the op-ed page of the Canberra Times to explain why that's a bad idea on several scores. 

When governments sell out, Canberra Times, 17 February 2015

Sometimes a policy announcement provides a little window into the heart of a government. Last Friday's announcement that the Abbott Government is thinking about selling off the Treasury and Finance Buildings is revealing – and not in a good way.

Let's start with the basics. A well-run government needs a strong public service. In most countries, the central agencies are located close to the parliament, to ensure that the legislature stays in touch with the executive. In Australia, departments such as Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister’s, Treasury and Finance are located within walking distance of Parliament House. Pay a visit to Ottawa, London, Paris or Washington and you’ll see a similar arrangement.

As the countdown to the Abbott Government's second budget shortens, I joined Chris Hammer on Breaking Politics to talk about Labor's alternative approach to their cuts and unfairness. Here's the transcript:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ONLINE INTERVIEW

FAIRFAX BREAKING POLITICS

MONDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2015

SUBJECT/S: National security; Budget savings

CHRIS HAMMER: Andrew Leigh is the Labor MP for Fraser here in Canberra, he's also the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Andrew Leigh, good morning.

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

HAMMER: I’m well. Where are you?

LEIGH: I'm just in Braddon in the Northside of Canberra, a part of Canberra that's really turning into hipsterville. The rapid transformation of this area is fabulous, lots of new apartments, great cafes – anyone visiting Canberra should come by and have a coffee here.

HAMMER: Ok, now the issue of the day is national security and terrorism. The Prime Minister has issued a statement saying that bad people are playing Australians for "mugs", there's been too much benefit of the doubt about borders, for residency, for citizenship and Centrelink. What do you make of these comments and, if you like, moving the emphasis to national security?

LEIGH: Labor doesn't play politics with national security, these are bipartisan issues. For example, in…

HAMMER: Let me interrupt you there, you say Labor doesn't play politics with national security. Do you suspect that the Prime Minister is?

LEIGH: No, I'm just making it absolutely clear that this is a bipartisan issue. Last year on the question of the character test for the immigration system, Labor supported the Government's changes. Certainly, there are serious threats. The national security alert level is now at High. The horrific events that we've seen in Copenhagen, the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the events in Martin Place do highlight the very real concerns that exist in this area. So any proposals the Government puts forward, we will look at seriously and in good faith.

Paul O'Grady MLC 

12 February 2015 

I rise to pay tribute to former New South Wales MLC Paul O'Grady, who passed away on 18 January this year at the age of 54. At Paul's farewell ceremony his brother, Tony O'Grady, spoke about what an extraordinary family Paul grew up in. His parents were devout Catholics, who, Tony said, probably voted DLP until 1972. Tony described Paul as being irascible, brilliant and loving. His sister, Kerrie O'Grady, talked about him as being mercurial and eccentric, thoughtful and haphazard, tolerant and open—and a gypsy. Paul, it was pointed out, had many families—not just his biological family, but the many people across Sydney and across Australia who drew on his support. Father Graeme Lawrence pointed out to many of those in attendance that perhaps some did not realise that Paul was a devout Catholic. He said that Paul's Christianity always caused him to be asking the questions such as: how many people did you feed at Sunday lunch? What do we do to feed more?

After the 1989 earthquake he spoke up in favour of getting the necessary resources to rebuild the cathedral in Newcastle—causing not a little angst among insurance companies. John Faulkner spoke about how he had first read of Paul O'Grady in the Parramatta Advertiser under the headline 'Political chief at 15'. He was a young man in a hurry. By 18 had become the youngest ever New South Wales organiser in the Australian Workers Union's history. As John put it, he had a habit of turning up at the doorstep and moving in.

The Australian Honours System has been acknowledging the contribution of amazing Australians for 40 years now. I was proud to join a great many of them for the anniversary celebrations at Government House this week.

40^th ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUSTRALIAN HONOURS SYSTEM

Government House, Canberra

Your Excellencies Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove, ladies and gentlemen.

I am delighted to be here today representing the Leader of the Opposition the Honourable Bill Shorten on this special anniversary.

One of the great privileges of being a parliamentarian is that you get to meet so many remarkable people. Over the past week, I’ve spoken with a woman who runs a technology start-up, a teacher who works with newly arrived migrant children, the head of an international aid organisation, and a mental health campaigner. In a job like this, it’s impossible not to be an optimist about Australia’s future.

Parliament today debated a motion respectfully urging the Indonesian Government to grant clemency to convicted drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, 12 February 2015

For three years as a child I lived in Indonesia—a year in Jakarta and two years in Banda Aceh. It had a profound influence on me as a little boy seeing a country with a great sense of generosity. I remember very warmly the celebrations at the end of Ramadan; the willingness of people in homes in northern Sumatra to welcome us in and offer us a drink—often heavily sweetened coffee which would set my little brother and I off for the next few hours—and to give to us, even though they had so little. I have also seen what it is like on the inside of a jail—not Kerobokan Prison but other prisons in Indonesia. I am aware of the hardships there and that is also relevant in thinking about the role that Andrew Chan has played since his imprisonment.

I have seen, too, the impact of drugs and I understand why, for Indonesia, cracking down on drug smuggling is an important issue. Drugs can ruin young lives. Just as those who traffic drugs tend to be poor and underprivileged, those who use them tend to be poor and underprivileged. And so Indonesia's work to reduce the scourge of drugs in its community has my full support.

Tom Uren 

10 February 2015

It is a pleasure to follow the Father of the House in speaking on this motion. One of the most brutal tests of national identity was described by Gavan Daws in his study of prisoners of war. Looking at men who had been starved and beaten down to what he called 'barely functioning skeletons' weighing less than 40 kilograms and surviving on less than 1,000 calories a day, Daws imagined that perhaps the national characteristics would all disappear, but it was not so, he found. He wrote:

The Americans were the great individualists of the camps, the capitalists, the cowboys, the gangsters. The British hung on to their class structure like bulldogs, for grim death. The Australians kept trying to construct little male-bonded welfare states … Within little tribes of Australian enlisted men, rice went back and forth all the time, but this was not trading in commodities futures, it was sharing, it was Australian tribalism.

Kep Enderby 

February 11 2015 

Jonathan Swift once said that vision is the art of seeing the invisible. The ability to see through the fog of the present to the clarity of tomorrow exemplifies the great progressives of our age. From early on in his life and legal career it was clear that Keppel Enderby, known as Kep, was something of a master in this art. Initially drawn to a burgeoning Canberra in the early 1960s to lecture in law at the Australian National University, Kep wasted no time making his presence felt in the bush capital. By 1970 he had secured Labor preselection for the Australian Capital Territory electorate—and he entered parliament in the same year.

As it happened, my parents knew him through a mutual friend. They recall him as a whirlwind of ideas. Apparently, I even stayed at his home in 1972. It was a few months before I was born, so my memories of it are a little hazy.

There's a great deal of uncertainty in the global economy right now. On ABC NewsRadio, I joined Marius Benson to talk about why it's important that Australia's government addresses this uncertainty, rather than adding to it. Here's the transcript:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

THURSDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Economic summit proposal; Global economic outlook

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, there's been a call for a summit on Australia's economic future. That call has been backed, in part, by Tony Abbott but it came from Clive Palmer and also Rupert Murdoch. Echoes of Bob Hawke there – are you in favour of a summit?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Marius, Labor is always happy to talk economics. But you've got to worry when you hear calls for bipartisanship, because let's face it: expecting bipartisanship from Tony Abbott is like expecting humility from Malcolm Turnbull. He turned down the opportunity to be involved in the multi-party committee on climate change when Labor was in government, and he turned down the opportunity to be part of the tax forum. If this is a conversation about how we deal with the challenges of the future, including things like climate change and inequality, then we're happy to be part of that conversation. But if it's just a fig leaf to cover cuts to the most vulnerable, then Labor isn't going to support measures which harm the Australian social contract.

Katrina Dawson

February 10 2015

One of the things that strikes me about the job of a parliamentarian is how often we touch tragedy—how often we find ourselves speaking in our communities or in this place about those who have passed. Sometimes there is, amidst the sadness, a sense of satisfaction—of a full life lived well—as there will be shortly, when this House pays tribute to Tom Uren. But at other times the pain is overwhelming, as it is in the case of young lives cut short in the midst of their success.

The member for Robertson has spoken movingly of Tori Johnson, one of the two victims of this tragedy. I want to speak about Katrina Dawson. Katrina Dawson was at Sydney university law school a couple of years after me; I was closer in cohort to Sandy Dawson, her brother. But Katrina's brilliance shone strongly. She scored a perfect hundred in her HSC. She was a star of the Sydney bar. She had three extraordinary young children and she touched so many lives.