Andrew Leigh

LIONEL MURPHY LECTURE

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, 31 OCTOBER 2018

Executive Summary

Australia has a competition problem: there is not enough of it. Our industries are concentrated. Our markets show signs of weak competition.

The way Australia’s experts think about competition is partly to blame. Although it has been less influential in Australia than in the United States, the Chicago School’s views on competition have shaped our laws, policies and enforcement practices. The Chicago School views market concentration as a virtue more than a vice. Barriers to entry are surmountable, market power tends to be temporary, most mergers are good, vertical restraints and predatory pricing are either benign or efficient.

These views run counter to those of Lionel Murphy. Murphy saw market concentration as a problem. He saw strong competition laws as necessary to protect the competitive process, protect consumers and support the creation of new businesses. He found the Chicago School’s arguments unconvincing. The growing body of research and experience shows Murphy’s concerns were well-founded. The Chicago School’s faith in the ability of markets to self-correct and deliver competitive outcomes was misplaced.

There is a strong progressive case for repositioning how we think about competition. Focusing more on the competitive process, the structure of markets and the incentives those structures create for firms will play an important role in reducing inequality.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

MELBOURNE

WEDNESDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2018

SUBJECTS: Labor delivering extra funding for every public school; Labor’s plan to crack down on tax avoidance; petrol prices; live exports; children on Nauru; Israeli embassy captain’s call; Sri Lanka; Victorian election.

PETER KHALIL MP, FEDERAL LABOR MEMBER FOR WILLS: Good morning everyone, ready to go?

I just want to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to their elders past and present, and I want to thank Brunswick North West Primary School for hosting us here today. Particularly the principal Hannah Reid, all of the teachers, all of the very active parents on the school council, president Fiona Heathcote as well as Belinda and Sam and the other 12, thank you so much for having us here today.

I bet you never thought when I visited you a couple of times and came to your winter magic market and said I'd do more advocacy for your school that I'd bring a cast of thousands. The alternative Prime Minister, Labor leader Bill Shorten, the Shadow Education Minister and Deputy Labor leader, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and also the Victorian Deputy Premier, James Merlino and Education Minister, and of course Cindy O'Connor, our candidate Brunswick who's done a wonderful job in advocating as well for her community here in Brunswick. 

BILL SHORTEN MP

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

MEMBER FOR FENNER

LABOR WILL TACKLE MULTINATIONAL TAX DODGERS

A Shorten Labor Government will tackle multinational tax dodgers to help pay for our priorities – better schools, better hospitals and protecting Medicare.

Labor will implement a number of measures targeting multinational tax avoidance and high wealth tax dodgers, saving the budget $4.8 billion over the next decade, including stopping companies claiming illegitimate deductions for travel to and from known tax havens.

Working Australians pay their taxes – it’s only fair that multinationals pay their fair share too.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

MEMBER FOR FENNER

CATRYNA BILYK

CHAIR OF THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON CHARITY FUNDRAISING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

SENATOR FOR TASMANIA

COALITION DELAYS DRAIN CHARITIES’ FUNDS AWAY

The Coalition is costing the nation’s charities millions of dollars by failing to update Australia’s outdated fundraising laws.

As Justice Connect’s Sue Woodward notes, “We still have regulations that talk about collection tins on poles that date back to collecting from people in horse-drawn carriages. Obviously this is ridiculous.”

At the same time, our patchwork of state and territory laws doesn’t properly recognise the existence of the internet and mobile phones.

Most important, Australia lacks uniform national fundraising laws. Charities who raise money online are placed in the invidious position of either spending a week doing the paperwork to register in every state and territory, or just registering locally, and hoping they don’t get caught.

Labor established the Senate Select Committee on Charity Fundraising in the 21^st Century because we want to work with charities, not against them.

LABOR AGAIN LEADING ON POLICY, WHILE THE COALITION PERFORM BACKFLIPS

Labor is again leading the policy discussion with the Coalition today scrambling to catch up on taxpayer appeal reforms we announced in August.

Last Wednesday, Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert said he was happy with the tax office’s processes in dealing with appeals:

“…Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert is satisfied with the ATO's reforms.” (Australian Financial Review, 24 October 2018)

Today, Mr Robert says:

“There are some things we are going to do in terms of looking at better ways for taxpayers to sit down with the Tax Office.”

 ASIC TO LOOK INTO STUART ROBERT

Labor welcomes confirmation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that it will make a new series of inquiries into Stuart Robert’s directorships.

The inquiry follows media reports that Mr Robert’s resignation as a director of Cryo Australia only occurred after media inquiries, rather than testimony he gave parliament, and examine whether he was in breach of the Corporations Act.

The public deserve to know that everything has been done to ensure that he has done no wrong, particularly since the allegations surrounding his involvement as a director of companies would fall under his responsibilities as the Government Minister in charge of monitoring companies and their directors.

CHARITY COMMISSIONER’S COMMENTS REFLECT AN OUT-OF-TOUCH GOVERNMENT

Labor is saddened by the most recent comments by the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits commissioner Gary Johns.

The revelations have come last night in evidence before Senate Estimates, where the Commissioner publicly confirmed he still holds troubling views about charities, welfare recipients and indigenous mothers.

SENATOR MCALLISTER: Dr Johns, you've previously argued that people on government allowances should be required to take contraception. You've described Indigenous mothers as cash cows, attacked Indigenous charities and criticised Beyondblue. Have you done anything to dispel any perception of bias that might have arisen from those previous public comments?

JOHNS: No and I don't need to as the commissioner.

FEDERATION CHAMBER, 24 OCTOBER 2018

National apologies are a point for a country to look at its past through the harsh eye of the present, and to own up to the wrongdoings of current or past generations. We think of the moment when Britain apologised for the killing of protesters on Bloody Sunday, when the United States apologised for its internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, when the Papacy apologised for the persecution of Galileo, when Japan apologised for its treatment of comfort women and, of course, when Australia apologised for the treatment of the stolen generations.

These are not a moment in which the hurt goes away and in which all the harm is suddenly absolved by dint of an apology, but they are crucial moments for a nation to own up to its past and to say, 'We did the wrong thing and we will endeavour to do better in the future.' That's what this House is doing with this apology today to the victims of childhood sexual abuse by institutions.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

CANBERRA

WEDNESDAY, 24 OCTOBER 2018

SUBJECTS: The Coalition’s war on charities.

Good morning. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Minister for Charities and Not-for-Profits. This week is Charity Fraud Awareness Week, and there’s been no bigger fraud perpetrated on the charities of Australia than the appointment of a charities critic to head the charities commission.

Let's not remember just in the hours after Australia was celebrating the historic same sex marriage vote, the Coalition snuck out the fact that they were appointing Gary Johns to head the charities commission. Gary Johns is somebody who has a history as a charities critic.  He’s attacked the Indigenous charity Recognise, the mental health charity Beyond Blue. He’s criticised the ability of environmental charities to advocate and called for the repeal of the Charities Act 2013, which would throw Australian charities law back to the 1600s.

Under this government, we've seen an ongoing war on charities - attacks on environmental charities, social services charities, legal charities working to help the most vulnerable. We've seen from the Coalition six different ministers responsible for the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. We've seen this prompt two open letters to the Prime Minister from the sector, complaining about the way in which they've been treated.

It's time to crack down on phoenix activity in Australia

The Canberra Times, 24 October 2018

When Megan was seven years old, her dad lost his job.

The factory where he worked closed and his full time job suddenly vanished, along with any payouts he may have been entitled to.

Megan told me that she loved her childhood with her father. Not having to work meant he could walk her to school every day and help her organise her toys.

To her, there was nothing wrong – but it was a different story for her parents.

Looking back as an adult, Megan realised the walks to and from school were because her family could no longer afford the petrol. They weren’t helping her organise her toys for pleasure - it was a way to sell some to pay household bills.