Andrew Leigh

With the release of a new report from the Tax Justice Network showing that some companies in the ASX200 have an effective tax rate of 10 per cent or less, I joined Sky's AM Agenda to talk about what we can do to tackle multinational tax avoidance. Here's the clip:

My father, Michael Leigh, has been working on Malaysia for the past half-century. In a series of articles for the New Straits Times, he's delved into recently declassified UK diplomatic cables to explore the intrigues behind Malaysia's formation. The articles are here, and they're well worth reading for anyone interested in this important country.

This week I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at the OECD-NBER Conference on Productivity Growth and Innovation in the Long Run in Paris. My theme was the relationship between inequality and social mobility; here's the details.

DOES TOO MUCH INEQUALITY PREVENT SOCIAL MOBILITY?

 OECD, PARIS

FRIDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2014

For much of the time we’ve been on the planet, humans have led a static existence. We lived where our parents lived. We did the jobs our parents did. The chances of moving up or down the ladder were limited.

 Indeed, that era was so recent that most of us still carry the mark of it. Most Anglo-Saxon surnames denote occupations (Smith, Archer, Miller) or places (Marsh, Hill, Lake), reflecting a time when few left their village or rose above their station.

 There’s nothing wrong with living in the same town as your parents, or following them into the same career. But for many of our forebears, this wasn’t a choice: it was a necessity. As recently as a few centuries ago, virtually everyone on the planet was consigned to a caste system.

 The lack of mobility wasn’t just unfair – it was extraordinarily inefficient. Imagine how many talented youngsters from poor backgrounds lived and died without a chance to use their skills. How many potential Mozarts were lost because they never got to hold an instrument? How many would-be Darwins were denied a decent schooling? How many budding Bill Gateses languished because they couldn’t get financial backing for their entrepreneurial idea?

Curtin University has just released the most comprehensive study of the Australian not-for-profit sector ever. The research tells us plenty that is useful about how the sector works. But if Kevin Andrews gets his way in scrapping the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, we'll lose that opportunity again.

MEDIA RELEASE

CHARITIES COMMISSION REVEALS MORE ABOUT NOT-FOR-PROFITS THAN EVER BEFORE

Thanks to the creation of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, we now know that the charity sector generates income of around $100 billion a year and employs over 900,000 Australians.

These findings are detailed in the first comprehensive report on what makes Australian charities tick, released today by Curtin University.

The report was made possible because in 2013 the charities commission began collecting Annual Information Statements from every registered not-for-profit detailing their finances and operations. 

I'm looking for a full-time electorate officer to join my team, working out of my electorate office in Braddon. The job entails lots of community engagement and solving local problems. In a typical day, you might be helping someone at the front counter with a Centrelink issue, assisting with a 2000-letter mailout, or arranging a community forum at the local football club. 

Fraser is not only the most populous electorate in Australia (with around 140,000 electors), but also one of the most engaged. One of the great things about Fraser is that people are keen to write in about issues big and small, from climate change to the local postbox. But it means that I need hardworking electorate staff to manage it all. 

The electorate team consists of 4 full-timers, plus a bevy of part-timers, volunteers and interns. There's a good sense of camaraderie, and it's a great way to help the community. 

If you're interested in grassroots politics, community organising and love Canberra, this job is likely to be a good fit. It won't involve policymaking or speechwriting, but a lot of writing, problem-solving, and digital engagement. 

The current incumbent is Damien Hickman, who is off to do great things with the National Rural Health Alliance. If you have queries about the job, you can call him on 6247 4396. 

The salary range is $48,017 to $64,532 (EO-A in the parliamentary jargon). 

Applications close Sunday 28 September. If you're interested, please send a covering letter, a CV and a writing sample (100-800 words) to [email protected]. 

The first day of the G20 finance ministers' meeting saw Joe Hockey engage in a pretty obvious attempt to pull the wool over our eyes about his (lack of) actions tackling multinational tax avoidance. Here's hoping the second day of negotiations today results in some real outcomes, not more bluster from the Treasurer.

MEDIA RELEASE

HOCKEY MISLEADING ON MULTINATIONAL TAX

Joe Hockey's G20 weekend is not off to a good start, with the Treasurer blatantly misrepresenting where Australia stands in the battle against multinational tax avoidance.

 

In a statement issued earlier today, Mr Hockey claimed that Australia has kicked off moves towards better financial transparency by committing to a 2017 start date for the Common Reporting Standard on banking information.

Over the weekend the G20 Finance Ministers will meet in Cairns to discuss multinational tax and profit shifting. This is an important opportunity for Treasurer Joe Hockey to show that he's serious about making major companies pay their fair share.

MEDIA RELEASE

THREE TESTS FOR JOE

When Joe Hockey emerges from the G20 Finance Ministers meeting on Sunday, he’ll be full of big talk about multinational profit shifting and tax avoidance.  

To date, the Treasurer’s only real action on multinational taxes has been to reopen the loopholes that Labor closed, gifting multinational tax companies tax breaks worth more than $1 billion.

So because we all know that Joe’s bluster dissolves faster than aspirin when any kind of scrutiny is applied, here’s three quick ways to tell if the Treasurer is simply spouting empty rhetoric yet again:   

The OECD has released an important report on action to tackle multinational profit shifting and tax avoidance. It's a welcome step forward, but now we need the Treasurer to step up and get its recommendations delivered both in Australia and around the world.

MEDIA RELEASE

OECD TAX PLAN MEANS CRUNCH TIME FOR HOCKEY

With the release overnight of a pioneering report on tackling multinational tax avoidance, it is time for Treasurer Joe Hockey to stop talking big and start taking real action.

The report outlines the first set of concrete multilateral initiatives to block base erosion and profit shifting. It has been prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in consultation with representatives of more than 110 tax jurisdictions globally.

The release of these initiatives comes ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting this weekend in Cairns. At that meeting Joe Hockey will have a much-needed opportunity to show he can deliver more than rhetoric when it comes to making major companies pay their fair share of tax.

To date, the Coalition’s only real actions on this have been to walk away from closing $1.1 billion in tax loopholes, and to stall on signing Australia up to new bank transparency measures.

There's been a lot of concern around recently about charity scams and 'front' not-for-profit groups which channel money to illegitimate purposes. It's a timely reminder that we need a central agency to monitor and regulate the charity sector.

Charity scammers prey on our goodwill, The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 16 September

THE charities had weighty names such as Friends of the Disabled Children’s Task Force, Friends of the Underprivileged Children’s Task Force and the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease of Australia Incorporated. Inspired by a deep sense of generosity, Australians donated more than a million dollars to them.

But it turned out that there wasn’t much evidence of that money going to the disadvantaged or needy. These charities have since been shut down.

All scammers are dodgy, but I’ve always regarded charity scammers as a particular form of low-life. While other scammers exploit greed, lust and ignorance, charity scammers prey on our goodwill. They take the great Aussie tradition of wanting to help the vulnerable, and use it to line their own pockets.

Today I've got an opinion piece in The Australian, supporting Chris Bowen's call for the independent Parliamentary Budget Office to be tasked with preparing budget forecasts and figures. 

The Coalition has already shown a worrying tendency to cook the nation's books, so it's time that power was taken out of the hands of governments altogether. 

Treasurer Joe Hockey trashes economic forecasts, The Australian, 16 September 

THEY called it “political monetary policy” — the tendency for interest rates to be cut in election years, fuelling a bubble that then had to be contained. In a series of important research papers in the late 1980s and early 90s, Harvard’s Alberto Alesina and co-authors showed that allowing politicians to set interest rates was causing a political business cycle.

Research such as this has underpinned the move across the developed world — including in Australia — to have interest rates set by independent central banks rather than by politicians.

Alesina argues that having an independent agency set interest rates and keep an eye on inflation brings two important benefits. First, independent central banks are less sensitive to sudden and short-term political pressures than elected governments. As a result, they tend to behave far more predictably — something that promotes economic stability. In particular, central banks have no incentive to manipulate monetary policy in the run-up to an election. They also don’t alter policy dramatically in the way that often happens after a change of government.