Andrew Leigh

Over the weekend the ACT Labor family was rocked by news that one of our brightest young activists, Kurt Steel, was killed in a sudden accident while travelling overseas. In Parliament this morning I paid tribute to Kurt and the enormous contribution he made in his all-too-short life.   

REMEMBERING KURT STEEL

It is fair to say that political staffers do not get a lot of love in the Australian public debate. But we who have the chance to serve in this place know how invaluable staffers are. It is not just the many long hours they give us; it is that many of our staff are impressive in their own right. They crack jokes, read deeply, love ideas and use their spare time to do community service or travel the world.

Kurt Steel, the media adviser to ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr, was such a man. Kurt was Canberra through and through. He attended Melrose High, Canberra College and the University of Canberra and barracked for the Raiders.

Anyone involved in ACT politics at the federal or territory level knew Kurt. He worked first for New South Wales parliamentarian Steve Whan, before switching to work with Andrew Barr. Within the ACT, Kurt seemed to be at every committee meeting, trivia night and party event. My enduring memory of him is the man with a smile, looking for the next problem to solve. As Andrew Barr put it: ‘Kurt was a professional, highly respected and dedicated leader’

On Saturday, Kurt died in a bus crash in Bolivia, aged just 25. He had been on a six-week trip around South America—a trip that he had more than earned by dint of working many long hours and weekends.

Kurt's death has shaken the whole Labor family. Opposition leader Bill Shorten spoke of his 'truly awesome' passion for the Labor cause. ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has remembered him as a person ‘who always went beyond what was required of him’. ACT Labor Secretary Elias Hallaj has called him ‘one of our brightest stars’. National ALP Party Organiser Nathan Lambert said, 'Kurt was so valuable in the last national campaign, we had already begun working out how to poach him… again.'

As the face of the Right faction at ACT Labor conferences, I know Kurt would have got a chuckle out of the fact that tributes to him have come not only from ACT opposition leader Jeremy Hanson – but even from the Left faction of the Labor Party.

Many of his friends have told me how much they will miss him and how strange it is to look at Facebook updates from his trip and realise they will not be able to share a beer with him ever again. Many in the media have also added tributes to Kurt, with whom they worked closely. I extend my condolences to Kurt's siblings, Chris and Yasmin, and to his parents, Jayne and Phillip.

As Mark Parton tweeted: ‘Kurt Steel seemed like one of nature's true gentlemen.’ Adam Collins tweeted 'such a lovely and happy bloke'. As Kurt's friend Todd Pinkerton put it over the weekend: ‘Heaven has gained one hell of a community organiser today.’

 

 

1 September 2014

Today I spoke on my Private Members Motion to retain the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission by again highlighting the great work it does and how this benefits our nation.

Private Members Motion

That this House:

(1) recognises that the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) was established in 2012 after external inquiries in 1995, 2001, 2010, Parliamentary committee reviews, issues and discussion papers, exposure drafts and consultations with experts, and is operating efficiently and effectively, helping charities, donors and taxpayers;

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) the vast majority of submissions to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (Repeal) (No. 1) Bill 2014 speak positively of the ACNC’s work and urge the Government to retain the charities commission as a one-stop shop;

(b) the evidence to this inquiry provided by eminent Australian, Mr Robert Fitzgerald AM, strongly supports the retention of the ACNC;

(c) in a survey, four out of five charities support keeping the ACNC, while only 6 per cent like the Government’s idea of returning the regulation of charities to the Australian Taxation Office;

(d) in an open letter, more than 40 charities, including Lifeline, Justice Connect, ACOSS, Social Ventures Australia, Save the Children, St John Ambulance Australia, Community Colleges Australia, Sane Australia, the Sidney Myer Fund, the Myer Foundation, Danks Trust, the RSPCA, Youth Off the Streets, the Ted Noffs Foundation, Music Viva Australia, Wesley Mission Victoria, the RSPCA Australia, World Vision, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Odyssey House, the McGrath Foundation, the Australian Council for International Development, Changemakers Australia, Volunteering Australia, YWCA Australia, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the Consumer Health Forum of Australia, Hillsong Church, Churches of Christ Victoria and Tasmania and Wesley Mission Australia, called on the Government to keep the ACNC; and

(e) the Australian Capital Territory and South Australian governments are already working to reduce the paperwork burden on charities and not-for-profits by cooperating with the ACNC to reduce duplication in reporting;

(3) notes that some of those who the Minister for Social Services claims to have consulted with have written to the Government to make clear that they have never been consulted on the ACNC repeal; and

(4) calls on the Government to drop its ill-considered and unpopular plan to axe the ACNC.

On 16 June, this House debated a motion quite similar to the one that is before us today, and it is a mark of the deep concern among many members of this House that the selection committee has seen fit to choose this motion for debate so soon afterwards. As the famous line goes in Monty Python's Life of Brian:

… what have the Romans ever done for us?

1 September 2014

The Labor Party's tradition of competition reform has strengthened markets, fostered innovation and benefited Australian consumers. I spoke of this tradition in the Parliament today to remind the House which party truly believes in the benefits of competition.

I am pleased to rise to speak on the important issue of competition as Labor's shadow minister for competition. We, on this side of the House, have a proud tradition of reforms in the competition space. Through the long salad years of the Menzies government, little was done on competition policy. The Restrictive Trade Practices Act was regarded as relatively weak and it was not until the Whitlam government that Australia, for the first time, had a Trade Practices Act. As Kep Enderby said in introducing that bill to the House for the first time, 'The effect of empowering consumers themselves to take private action to enforce their rights.' And it was a Labor government, under Paul Keating, which put in place national competition policy. 

As part of launching my new book 'The Economics of Just About Everything', I sat down for an interview with my good friend Dr Tim Harcourt, also known as The Airport Economist. In this video, we to talk about the economics of dating, dieting and designing policy. Take a look: 

At the end of Parliament's first week back, I joined the panel on The Nation to talk about the budget big picture, the future of Qantas and the terrible humanitarian situation in Iraq. You can watch the full discussion here:

...I'm not sure they meant it as literally as this.

I was proud to join with members of the activist group Vocal Majority in launching a photo album showing Australian families in all their forms and guises. I also had a few words to say about love overcoming prejudice:

ADDRESS TO THE VOCAL MAJORITY FAMILY ALBUM LAUNCH

THURSDAY, 28 AUGUST 2014

 

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, my parliamentary colleagues Claire Moore and Larissa Waters, and ACT MLA Yvette Berry.

Thank you to the Vocal Majority organisers, including its founders Melanie Poole and Courtney Sloane, and Nikki and the team who run the organisation today.

My words today are not just for the people who have travelled halfway around the world to bring a message of intolerance and exclusion into the building behind me.

And they are not just for Coalition parliamentarians who think their personal prejudices should guide our nation’s policies.

My words today are for Australia’s mums and dads; its mums and mums; dads and dads – and anyone else who considers themselves to be part of a family bound together by love.

I want you to know that the love you feel for your family, the love which you give and receive in return, will rise above the hostility of those who seek to deny it. A love as strong and universal as yours demands recognition, and on a day not very far from now, I know that recognition will be given.

27 August 2014

Labor has a proud tradition of standing up for the interests of consumer's. The Government's Future of Financial Advice reforms weaken protections for those who receive financial advice. Here is my speech to Parliament about why is vital we offer adequate consumer protection when it comes to financial advice and people's life savings.

In 2009, Cecily and Robin Herd had their life savings destroyed in the collapse of Storm Financial, a Townsville based financial adviser. The Herds, both in their 70s, had borrowed against their home to invest in Storm's equity products, thinking it was a safe investment in their future. After the Commonwealth Bank forced Storm into administration, Robin said:

… we sold our house and everything else to pay back our margin loan.

The couple now live, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review, in a flat in Caboolture. Robin said:

We only wanted a comfortable retirement. We had no idea about the size of commissions and risk to everything we had. The nightmare is still with us.

Like many communities around Australia, the Fraser electorate was devastated by the shocking loss of life in the MH17 air disaster. One of our own, Liliane Derden, died in that disaster, and in Parliament today I paid tribute to her life.

When Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 went down, it took with it someone who was from around here; someone who will leave a great gap where she lived; someone who resembled the rest of us in many ways.

Liliane Derden was a citizen of the world and a servant of the public.  Like so many locals, she could tell you what year she moved here; like so many Canberrans, she could tell you where she worked when she met her closest friend.  For many years, she lived not far from my family home, and indeed, not so very far from where we meet today.

Liliane Derden was a person entirely characteristic of this city and we all feel the effects of her loss.  But she was also a person with a private “life entire” whose death brings her closest friends and family inexpressible pains. 

Today I acknowledge Liliane – and we acknowledge the people who miss her most.

Her partner Craig.

Her daughters Cassandra and Chelsea.

Her family, in Australia and Belgium.

The Canberrans she worked with at the NHMRC and at Calvary Hospital; the communities of Ainslie and Hall where her loss is so deeply felt.

Chelsea wrote to me this week about her Mum: “she is very loved and missed by us all”.

Canberra is a considerate community.  We would never intrude, but we will never forget either, and we are here if you need us.

This was tragic, but it was not a tragedy; this was a crime.

Let the guilty be brought to justice, let the innocent rest in peace, and let those who remain know they are not alone.

27 August 2014

Today I spoke in the Parliament about the importance of fighting multinational profit shifting and amendments to Australia's tax treaty arrangements with Switzerland.

We have just had two of my colleagues stand up and point out that bills before the House were essentially Labor measures now being implemented by this government. This bill is little different. It amends the International Tax Agreements Act 1953 to give force to a double taxation treaty signed with Switzerland in Sydney on 30 July 2013 under the previous government. Once in force it will replace the agreement between Australia and Switzerland for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and protocol, which is the existing Swiss agreement which entered into force on 13 February 1981.