Andrew Leigh

I spoke in parliament today about higher education reform (thanking Michael McCormack at the outset for filibustering long enough to let me get out of the chair and over to speak!).

Higher Education Support Amendment (Further Streamlining and Other Measures) Bill, 12 March 2013

At the outset, I acknowledge the comments of the member for Riverina, who has demonstrated his passion for his constituents with his ability to speak for an appropriate length about an issue of importance to him and to the chamber.

I was pleased when I was an academic at the ANU to work alongside Bruce Chapman, one of the architects of HECS, who put in place a truly world-leading piece of policy. It is easy to forget now that HECS, now known as HELP, has become so much part of our social fabric. The notion of income-contingent loans was one in which Australia was stepping out as a world first. Milton Freeman mentioned the notion of income-contingent loans in the 1960s but it was Professor Chapman who really picked it up, put flesh on its bones and suggested it as a way of ensuring two big things.

The first was, because a student receives a private benefit as well as the public benefit from a university education, they should contribute a little bit back into the public purse. University education boosts earnings significantly, and HECS, now HELP, recognises that private benefit. But, secondly, it was the recognition that we needed to expand the sector. We needed to ensure that university education was not something just for elites but was attainable for all Australians. The only way of getting those additional resources into the sector was to ask students to give a little bit back.

So now, when we look at policies in which Australia is leading the world I think we should also look to the HELP policy—a policy which has proven its worth and is now being adopted by a suite of other countries around the world. The UK, Germany, Israel, Thailand and Chile are all adopting or considering adopting the HELP policy. I suspect that will be the case down the track with policies such as plain packaging of tobacco and putting a price on carbon pollution—we are moving with other countries in the world to put in place policies that future generations will thank us for. What we are doing with this policy is ensuring that the thresholds are indexed at appropriate levels. When HECS was originally introduced, repayment did not start until you reached average weekly earnings. That was based on the simple notion that you should not have to pay back your HECS debt until your university education had begun to pay off in earnings for you. When the Howard government came to office, that model was changed and the repayment thresholds were brought down substantially. I am pleased that now the HECS repayment threshold have been restored so that they are around average weekly earnings.

This bill is a part of a major university investment by this government. Since Labor has come to office there have been more than 150,000 extra Australians studying at university and total funding for the sector has been increased substantially. At the Australian National University, just to pick one of the many excellent universities in my electorate, there has been an increase in enrolments from 6,350 students to 7,086 students, significant investment in education and significant investment in improving access to youth allowance and the quality of student learning and living areas through our investment in housing. That matters, because high-quality university accommodation improves the learning experience.

Recently, we had the ANU alumni awards recognising extraordinary alumni. I acknowledge Alumni of the Year joint recipients Anne Gallagher and Martin Parkinson; Vice-Chancellor's Special Commendations Adam Ford, Danny Bishop and Chris Duffield; International Alumnus of the Year Cheong Choong Kong; Young Alumnus of the Year joint recipients Sebastian Robertson and Jennifer Robinson; Student of the Year joint recipients Katrina Marson and Ray Lovett; and Student of the Year finalists Aditya Chopra, Julie Melrose and Georgia Majoribanks.

In closing, I also note some important reforms being put in place by the government in teacher education courses. This government recognises that it is important to improve the academic aptitude of new teachers. When I was at the Australian National University I did work with Chris Ryan looking at the academic aptitude of new teachers and those entering tertiary education, and what we found was deeply disturbing. From 1983 through to 2003 the share of teachers who were in the top fifth of their class for literacy and numeracy had halved. Over the same period, the share of teachers who were in the bottom half of their class had doubled.

So we had seen a fall in the academic aptitude of new teachers from the 70th percentile to the 62nd percentile, and we had seen a fall in the academic aptitude of those entering teacher education courses from the 74th percentile to the 61st percentile. It is a development that had also been seen over that period in the United States and it is a development that concerns this government. Literacy and numeracy does not guarantee you are going to be a great teacher but, all else equal, we want those who are at the whiteboard to have strong literacy and numeracy skills themselves. So, as the minister has announced, we will be putting in place literacy and numeracy testing, a more targeted admission process for teaching courses and more assistance to help all teachers over every stage of their career, recognising that there is no more important job in Australia than teaching students, particularly disadvantaged students. With those remarks, I commend the bill to the house.

On Sky AM Agenda, I spoke with host Kieran Gilbert and Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield about the Western Australian election, Labor's strong record of reforms, and Canberra's Centenary.

MEDIA STATEMENT
Andrew Leigh MP
Labor Spokesperson on Coalition Costings
Member for Fraser
12 March 2013

The Australian people have a right to see the Coalition’s costed policies, said Labor Spokesperson on Coalition Costings Andrew Leigh.

In a doorstop interview this morning, Opposition frontbencher Scott Morrison said “we’re obsessed with putting our plans and policies to the Australian people to ensure that if we are elected later this year we are ready to hit the ground running”.

“If the Coalition’s policies are as good for Australia as they claim, they shouldn't be hidden in Andrew Robb’s desk drawer”, said Dr Leigh.

“The fact is, the Opposition are obsessed with keeping their policies secret. That’s because they know that filling their $70 billion costings gap will require radical cuts – equivalent to stopping Medicare for four years or cutting the pension for two years.

“The Opposition aren’t even sharing their policies with each other. That’s why the Opposition Leader has had three positions on WestConnex in a single week; why Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey disagree on how much they will cut household assistance; and why Mr Hockey and Mr Robb cannot agree on their revenue gap.

“Providing costed policies to the Australian people is a fundamental issue of openness and honesty. If the Coalition cannot level with Australians about their cuts, why should Australians trust them to govern in the national interest?”

ENDS

On the ABC Capital Hill program, I spoke with host Lyndal Curtis and Liberal MP Russell Broadbent about the opportunity for the new Victorian Liberal Government to reverse its savage cuts, and about the importance of treating asylum-seekers with dignity in our public debates.

On ABC 666 yesterday, host Genevieve Jacobs asked me to remove the politician's hat temporarily, and speak about my research with Pamela Katic on wealth inequality in Australia. Here's a podcast.

Rachel Baxendale in the Australian and Katie Walsh in the AFR have neat write-ups today of my research with Pamela Katic on wealth inequality. Here's the abstract:

Combining data from surveys, inheritance tax records, and rich lists, we estimate top wealth shares for Australia from World War I until the present day. We find that the top 1 percent share declined by two-thirds from 1915 until the late-1960s, and rose from the late-1970s to 2010. The recent increase is sharpest at the top of the distribution, with the top 0.001 percent wealth share tripling from 1984 to 2012. The trend in top wealth shares is similar to that in Australian top income shares (though the drop in the first half of the twentieth century is larger for wealth than income shares). Since the early twentieth century, top wealth shares in Australia have been lower than in the UK and US.

Update, 6 March: Here's the audio from a doorstop interview I did on the topic this morning.

MEDIA STATEMENT
Andrew Leigh MP
Labor Spokesperson on Coalition Costings
Member for Fraser

5 March 2013

Hockey Exposed Over Cuts

Joe Hockey has been exposed on the Coalition’s plans to lower the tax-free threshold after an embarrassing press conference this morning.

At the press conference, Joe Hockey shamelessly attempted to justify his commitment to scrap low and middle income tax cuts.

Yet, mysteriously, the transcript distributed to the parliamentary press gallery had this exchange omitted from the text.

“Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott are at odds over the Coalition’s policy to scrap income tax cuts for over 7 million hard working Australians”, said Labor Spokesperson on Coalition Costings Andrew Leigh.

“Lifting the tax free threshold delivered tax cuts to all taxpayers with incomes of up to $80,000, with most receiving at least $300 a year, and many part time workers receiving up to $600.

“It’s bad enough that the Coalition are hiding their policies. Now they’re trying to hide their own words.”

THE ‘EDITED’ TRANSCRIPT

JOE HOCKEY: We have said, repeatedly, it is one of the initiatives that we cannot afford because it is based on the proceeds of the mining tax and the mining tax has been a complete failure. Now the Government is borrowing money to pay those things. It is unsustainable. You can’t hand out money that is being borrowed from the next generation. It is not what people want.

[The following two lines were omitted from Mr Hockey’s distributed transcript]

JOURNALIST: The tax free thresholds changes (inaudible)

JOE HOCKEY:  $3 dollars. That is what you said? [Turning to Lib candidate for Parramatta] $ 3 dollars!

JOURNALIST:[inaudible] It is part of the compensation package for the carbon tax. You have said you [inaudible].

JOE HOCKEY: You will see our final tax proposal after we see the books ten days into the election campaign.

On Sky Lunchtime Agenda, I spoke with host David Lipson and Liberal Senator Scott Ryan about the importance of treating asylum-seekers with dignity and compassion, and the value of making sure we have more and better-trained workers in the aged care sector.http://www.youtube.com/v/SuePSI9bkqQ?version=3&hl=en_GB

MEDIA STATEMENT
Andrew Leigh MP
Labor Spokesperson on Coalition Costings
Member for Fraser

3 March 2013

Abbott’s Costings Soar With the Eagles

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has made another unfunded promise, pledging up to $70 million for the redevelopment of Brookvale Oval, home of his beloved Manly Sea-Eagles.

Mr Abbott made the pledge at a function for Manly’s season launch at Brookvale Oval on Friday night.

“Mr Abbott needs to explain where the money to redevelop Brookvale Oval would come from”, said Labor Spokesperson on Opposition Costings Andrew Leigh.

“When Warringah Council estimated the cost of adding 7,000-10,000 undercover seats to Brookvale Oval, they put the cost at $70 million.”

“Would Mr Abbott take money from Western suburbs teams? Would it come from other sporting codes? Or would he raise taxes on all Australians to pay for it?

“Mr Abbott said last Tuesday that everything the government does should be subject to cost-benefit analysis.* Has he done such an analysis on Brookvale Oval? Or is this just another case of fiscal rectitude in public, and pork-barrelling in private?

“Mr Abbott’s willingness to play favourites with taxpayers’ money contrasts with his refusal to level with the Australian people about where his $70 billion of cuts will come from.

“The Coalition owe it to the Australian people to take all their policies to the Parliamentary Budget Office immediately.”

ENDS

* “Now, it’s more important than ever that everything the Commonwealth does that involves new spending which is subjected to rigorous cost benefit analysis and I guess that’s what I’d like to see. I’d like to see careful, objective, disinterested cost benefit analysis of this proposal and that would make it much easier for the Coalition to come to a hard and fast position.”
TONY ABBOTT, ABC NORTH QLD – 26 FEBRUARY 2013

MEDIA STATEMENT
Andrew Leigh MP
Labor Spokesperson on Coalition Costings
Member for Fraser

2 March 2013

Abbott Serves Up Stale Leftovers

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has re-announced one of his old ideas for the fifth time, Labor Spokesperson for Coalition Costings Dr Andrew Leigh said today.

“The Coalition today promised $50 million to fund closed circuit television cameras in Sydney”, said Dr Leigh.

“This is the same policy previously announced by the Coalition on 24 July 2010, 30 August 2011, 8 October 2012 and 14 February 2013. John Howard took a similar policy to the 2007 Election.”

“Mr Abbott’s policies are staler than leftovers in a bachelor’s fridge”, said Dr Leigh.

“He knows he has to make $70 billion in cuts – the equivalent of stopping Medicare payments for four years or the pension for two years.

“To disguise this, he’s decided to put his CCTV policy on repeat, and hope no-one notices they’re watching re-runs.

“The people of Western Sydney deserve better than five-times recycled policy stunts, alongside secret plans for Coalition cuts.

“The Coalition owe it to the Australian people to take all their policies to the Parliamentary Budget Office immediately.”