Andrew Leigh

This article on Australia's gun buyback program was syndicated by Zocalo, and appeared in various outlets, including Time magazine and the Huffington Post.

OPINION PIECE

 Dear NRA: My Country Is Proof That Reducing Guns Reduces Deaths 

Sometimes a tragedy is so awful that it changes the national debate. The 1996 Dunblane school shooting in Scotland, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, and the 2011 Norwegian gun massacre all prompted an outpouring of anguish and a demand for changes in law.

In Australia, that moment was the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which a gunman killed 35 people at a tourist attraction in Tasmania. To put the size of the death toll into perspective, the United States population is 14 times larger than Australia, so the impact of the Port Arthur massacre on Australia would be like a U.S. shooting that cost more than 400 lives.

I joined ABC Lateline host Emma Alberici and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg for a wide ranging discussion on Liberal Party leadership tensions, the Budget deficit, Arthur Sinodinos, East Jerusalem and the approach of Clive Palmer and critical role of his Palmer United Party in the new Senate. Here's the full transcript:

ABC LATELINE  

FRIDAY, 6 JUNE 2014

EMMA ALBERICI: To discuss the week that began with tensions between the Prime Minister and his communications Minister and ended with debate over Israel.

I was joined a short time ago from Melbourne by Josh Frydenberg, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and from Parliament House in Canberra, by Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Gentlemen, good evening.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good evening, Emma.

JOSH FRYDENBERG: Nice to be with you Emma.

ALBERICI: Now the events of the past week with Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones suggesting that Malcolm Turnbull is trying to destabilise Tony Abbott's leadership. Mr Turnbull himself said people might come to the conclusion that this was a coordinated campaign against them. What do you think, Josh Frydenberg, is behind these attacks on Mr Turnbull by the PM's good friends in the media?

FRYDENBERG: Look firstly, can I say about Malcolm Turnbull. He's extremely talented, he's extremely passionate and he's extremely experienced and we're very lucky to have Malcolm Turnbull in our team. His main job, his main focus is about fixing up Labor's mess that they left with the NBN.

My column in this week's Chronicle is on World War I, and how we interpret history when the survivors have passed on.

Guardians of War Stories, The Chronicle, 3 June 2014

In his 1917 book The Mate, Will Dyson wrote of how at age twenty, ‘friendship is not the tepid give and take of years of discretion, [but] a thing intense and unquestioning’. Those who lose a mate in war ‘will live with the memory of heroic friendships cut off at the height of their boyish splendour’.

World War I (1914–1918) cut off more heroic friendships than any conflict in which Australia has been engaged. 400,000 Australian men enlisted, and more than 60,000 died. World War I killed nearly one in 40 Australian men, and the size of the real economy shrunk by one-tenth.

Today I issued a media release off the back of surprising evidence given at this week's Senate Estimates, showing once again the contempt the Social Services Minister has for the charities and the not for profit sector.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION

MEMBER FOR FRASER

 MEDIA RELEASE 

Has Anyone Seen Kevin Andrews?

Minister Kevin Andrews has not met with the head of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission for eight months, Senate Estimates has revealed.

ACNC Commissioner, Susan Pascoe, confirmed before Senate Estimates, “We are not in regular contact with the Minister.” The last time Minister Andrews met with the ACNC was in November 2013.

Minister Andrews has legislative responsibility for the ACNC – a national agency aimed at making charities and not for profits stronger, accountable and more visible.

Today I issued a media release expressing concern that the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be releasing a lot fewer statistics as a result of cuts in the federal budget.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION

MEMBER FOR FRASER

 

MEDIA RELEASE

Cuts to ABS another salvo in the Abbott Government’s war on facts

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ ability to survey and measure the impact of policies is being deliberately undermined by the Abbott Government.

The ABS today confirmed further reductions to its statistical program – hitting social and environmental surveys - as a result of a $50m cut to its budget over three years.

 

This morning on 2CC Breakfast I responded to Malcolm Turnbull's Shakespearean prose and praise for yours truly during Question Time in Parliament yesterday.

Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

E&OE TRANSCRIPT RADIO INTERVIEW

2CC BREAKFAST WITH MARK PARTON
5 JUNE 2014

SUBJECT / S: Turnbull’s thespian turn.

MARK PARTON: We played a little bit earlier Malcolm Turnbull's spray against Andrew in the parliament yesterday. It was amazing. 

MALCOM TURNBULL: "I say this with respect to the honourable member Madame speaker, I come not to embarrass the member for Fraser, but to praise him. For, for I am very concerned as we all are that the Conrovian nonsense that he is forced to spew out occasionally nowadays will live after him, but the wisdom and economic rationality will be buried in his bones unless we, unless we, unless we draw people’s attention to it. And you know Madame speaker you can imagine the thought reform that the member for Fraser has had to have, you can imagine the Conrovian electrodes going on to him as they give him another jolt to stop him being rational."

 

This morning I held a doostop interview on the federal budget working against the ACT, concern both the ATO and ASIC will be less proactive because of budget funding cuts and Scott Morrison's acknowledgment that PEFO is the benchmark to judge spending and debt.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT, DOORSTOP INTERVIEW 

WEDNESDAY, 4 JUNE 2014
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

SUBJECT / S: Scott Morrison’s PEFO revelation; ACT Government budget hit by Federal cuts; ASIC’s corporate surveillance work and the ATO’s capacity undermined by budget cuts; Indonesia.

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER, ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning everyone. I'm Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Yesterday in Question Time we saw a rare outbreak of truth telling from Scott Morrison, who made clear what everyone has known since Peter Costello put in place the Charter of Budget Honesty. The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook is the state of the books when a government takes over. It's yardstick against which all decisions have to be measured. Measured against that it's very clear that this Budget has increased the deficit; increased it this year, next year and over the forward estimates. And it's done so because the government has lost tens of billions of dollars of revenue by aiming to scrap the carbon price and increased spending by tens of billions of dollars on a parental leave scheme. 

4 June 2014

The Excise Tariff Amendment (Product Stewardship for Oil) Bill 2014 will increase the rate of excise and excise equivalent customs duty applying to oils from 5.449 to 8.5 cents per litre or kilogram to address the cost of the Product Stewardship for Oil Scheme. The kinds of oils to which this would apply, as I understand, are oils like kerosene, turpentine and thinners. The opposition supports any move to ensure thoughtful and sustainable use of our precious natural resources. The Product Stewardship for Oil Scheme—the PSO—encourages increased collection and recycling of used oil in Australia by providing oil recyclers with product stewardship benefits.

4 June 2014

The Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (2014 Measures No. 2) Bill 2014 has three parts. It increases the Medicare levy low-income threshold, the point at which the levy starts to be paid, for families and their dependent children or students, in line with movements in the CPI, commencing in 2013-14. It contains amendments to protect against situations where taxpayers have anticipated the impact of announcements made by the previous government in regard to tax law which have been overturned by the current government and as a result have been left worse off—this is taxpayers who have filed tax returns; lest any listeners think this might have broader applicability. Thirdly it is to introduce an integrity rule to limit the ability of taxpayers to avoid paying tax by dividend-washing, which is a taxation loophole created by the tax treatment of franking credits.

4 June 2014

In March 2010 the United States Congress enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, also known as FATCA. The aim of the act was to improve compliance with US tax laws. FATCA imposed certain due diligence and reporting obligations on non-US financial institutions, including Australian institutions. Two years after the passing of FATCA, the member for Lilley, Wayne Swan, the then Treasurer, met with United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Washington and issued a statement on 7 November 2012 announcing that Australia had commenced formal discussions for an intergovernmental agreement with the United States to minimise the impact for Australians of FATCA. That statement noted that an intergovernmental agreement would also improve existing reciprocal tax information-sharing arrangements between the Australian Taxation Office and the United States Internal Revenue Service, which would help ensure Australian tax laws are effectively enforced so that Australian businesses and individuals who pay their fair share of tax are not disadvantaged by those who seek to evade their tax obligations.