Andrew Leigh

Professor John Legge

22 February 2016

John Legge passed away on 4 February 2016, aged 94. In the words of the former president of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Elaine McKay, 'John Legge, more than any other, was the founder of modern Asian studies in Australia.' He spent time in the 1960s at Cornell University, then the pre-eminent centre of South-east Asian studies in the United States. He was inspired by the work of George Kahin and, in John's words:

At the end of my Cornell semester came the next part of the plan—fieldwork in Indonesia focusing on local government. Across the United States by car, over the Pacific by Dutch cargo ship, to Singapore via the Philippines and then by KPM ship to Java. That six months was to be the first of what became more or less annual visits to Indonesia.

Doctor John Hirst 

22 February 2016

I want to acknowledge the passing of historian and public intellectual John Hirst, who passed away recently aged just 73. John Hirst was at the La Trobe University history department from 1968 to 2006—a history in itself. He was head of the department, and author of 16 books which have shaped our understanding of Australia. Among them are The Oxford Companion to Australian History, Australian History in 7 Questions and The Shortest History of Europe, which has sold more than 100,000 copies—more than 10,000 copies in China alone.

Closing the Gap

22 February 2016

I note at the outset that only two of the seven targets in Indigenous health, education and employment are on track to be met on time. Halving child mortality by 2018 is on track. As to ensuring 95 per cent of Indigenous four-year-olds are in preschool by 2025, that is not clear. Halving the gap in reading and numeracy by 2018 is classified as 'mixed'. Halving the gap in school attendance by 2018 is not on track. Halving the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is on track. Halving the employment gap by 2018 is not on track. And closing the gap in life expectancy by 2031 is not on track.

I turn to each of those targets in detail. On the issue of life expectancy, the report notes that meeting the goal of closing the life expectancy gap by 2030 remains 'a significant challenge'. The data is only available every five years, but the report found that between 2005-07 and 2010-12 the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians only shrank by 0.8 of a year for men and 0.1 of a year for women. Indigenous Australians still continue to die about 10 years earlier, on average. And, while Indigenous mortality rates have declined 16 per cent since 1998, this will not be enough to meet the target. Indigenous deaths resulting from cardiac disease have fallen, but deaths from cancer are, as the report notes, increasing.

Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business Restructure Roll-over) Bill 2016

22 February 2016

I move the following amendment to the bill:

That all the words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"while not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to make Australia's capital gains tax and negative gearing regimes fairer and more sustainable."

Labor's position is to support the Tax Laws Amendment (Small Business Restructure Roll-over) Bill 2016, but this is a bill about economic leadership, and we need to speak directly about that issue today. The Prime Minister has now been in parliament for almost 12 years and the Treasurer for almost nine years. And after 5½ months of their double act of economic leadership we saw last week the 'emperor's new clothes' moment for the Treasurer, Scott Morrison. We saw that he is unable, given 46 minutes at the Press Club, with Australia's leading economic journalists arrayed before him, to put forth a single idea of his own. Not a single idea has been taken up by this government that contributes in a significant way to boosting growth or equity in Australia. Everything is always on the table, and you are reminded of that Yogi Berra line: 'When you come to a fork in the road, take it', because there is not a fork that this Treasurer and this Prime Minister have not taken. They even had a chance today. We moved a motion to suspend standing orders so that the Treasurer and his counterpart, Chris Bowen, could be given 46 minutes each to talk in this House about their ideas. Did the Treasurer take it up? No. Yet again, he squibbed the opportunity, running away like one of his mythical creatures, off to talk about political numbers—which is all he really cares about, all he is really confident about.

HINT FOR SCOTT MORRISON: REAL TAX PLANS COME WITH REVENUE

It is little wonder Scott Morrison can’t balance the Budget when he keeps announcing tax ‘crackdowns’ that raise no revenue.

The Treasurer’s announcement that the Foreign Investment Review Board will now consider tax issues as part of its national interest assessment process is another attempt to look tough on multinational tax.

But just like his much trumpeted multinational tax bill – which had asterisk where there should have been revenue figures – the Treasurer will not say whether this move will return a single extra dollar to the Australian community.

LABOR APPLAUDS MORRISON’S STRONG ANTI-UNICORN TRAFFICKING STANCE 

After five and half months in the job, Treasurer Scott Morrison has finally made a clear and emphatic policy commitment: there will be no sale of unicorns on his watch.

While some may find the Treasurer’s hard line on mythical creatures unusual, it is entirely consistent with this Liberal Government’s fantasy approach to budgeting.

After all, these are the people who promised they could deliver surplus budgets every year without cutting spending or raising new taxes.   

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

SYDNEY

WEDNESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s positive plans for the sharing economy; negative gearing; GST; retirement of WA Labor MPs; population growth.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much to Sam and the COMMUNE team for having us here, and to Ruby from SheSays for giving us some insights into the important work that they are doing to make sure that the innovative start-up economy includes as many women as possible. Labor believes that the sharing economy offers great potential for tackling some of our big challenges, including creating more jobs and dealing with issues like congestion and housing affordability. That is why we engaged in extensive consultations last year, talking to Australians about the principles that should guide the sharing economy. Labor's principles include the notion that sharing economy firms should play by the rules, and should pay their fair share of tax. Labor understands that the sharing economy offers great potential for creating new jobs, but that we have got to be careful too that the new technologies do not leave people behind. It is only Labor that will ensure that an innovative economy protects workers as well as making sure capital owners do well. 

Just before handing over to Tanya, I want to make a couple of comments about Scott Morrison's address to the National Press Club today. We know that the Abbott-Turnbull Government has lost more ministers that it has had positive tax ideas; 14 more to be exact. All signs are pointing to Scott Morrison's address to the Press Club being just another Joe Hockey-style lecture on Australians living beyond their means. Here are a few facts that Scott Morrison probably won't share with the Australian people when he is at the Press Club: 80 per cent of his return to surplus by 2021 is based on bracket creep. He is unlikely to say that half of the benefits of negative gearing go to the top tenth, or that two-thirds of the benefits of the capital gains tax go to the top tenth. I'd be pretty surprised if Scott Morrison acknowledges that inequality in Australia is at a 75-year high, and that growth has been downgraded successively since the Abbott-Turnbull Government came to office. Australia needs the economic leadership that Malcolm Turnbull promised when he toppled Tony Abbott, but so far we've seen precious little of it. I'll hand over now to Tanya.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Thanks everyone, and thanks particularly to Sam for having us here today. When I speak to the young people who are here today, they are doing jobs I couldn't have imagined ten years ago. The one thing we know for certain is that in ten years’ time or twenty years’ time, our young people will be doing jobs we can’t imagine today. That is why it is so very important that we get a few of our basics right. Of course we have to get the principles around the sharing economy right, as Andrew has said. We need to get investment in school education right, because we know that the kids who are going to pre-school now, and the kids who are starting in primary school, for them coding will be as important as literacy and numeracy. We also need to get right our National Broadband Network. We’ve got a Prime Minister who has had one job as Communications Minister, and that was getting the NBN right. Instead we have got a second-rate NBN that is slower and more expensive than what Labor proposed. We are very focussed on making sure our kids are prepared for the jobs of the future through our school education system, and that the biggest piece of infrastructure that we will build as a nation in coming years is not the second-rate slower and more expensive NBN that Malcolm Turnbull has promised.

LABOR’S PLAN FOR THE SHARING ECONOMY IN INNER SYDNEY

 17 February 2016

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek and Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh today visited local start-ups to talk about Labor’s positive plan for cities and the sharing economy.

Meeting with Sydney start-ups SheSays and Maker’s Place, they discussed innovation and how important it is to create a fair and flexible framework of rules for emerging sharing economy services to ensure all Australians can share in the benefits. 

The sharing economy is changing the way we buy and sell things. It is also changing how we think about work and the line between private property and public goods.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC 774 MELBOURNE

MONDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Housing affordability; Labor’s plans to improve fairness in the tax system.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's a simple question: is negative gearing the tax break we need to change? Dr Andrew Leigh joins us to talk about this, he's the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and the Shadow Minister for Competition as well in Bill Shorten's Shadow Cabinet. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good afternoon Raf, how are you?

EPSTEIN: I'm good. Andrew, have you got a negatively geared property yourself?

LEIGH: I don't, no. Just the one home, I'm afraid.

EPSTEIN: Because there's a ton of federal politicians who do, including I think, one of the Nationals Senators who owns about 42 properties. I just wonder if it gets in the way of politicians considering this properly?

LEIGH: Lucky for some, yes. It's worth thinking about the fact, Raf, that some of these politicians wouldn't be negatively gearing because they would be living in a Canberra residence and a residence in their electorate. But put all that to one side, the reason we're doing this is because it has become harder than ever for young Australians to break into the property market. The share of young Australians owning their own home is down 25 per cent from where it was in the early 1980s, when it used to cost you three times the average incomes to buy a home, rather than six times average income as it does today. The typical Melbourne home now costs more than $700,000 and so many people are saying: well, even if I've got my own place, what about my kids? How are my kids ever going to break into a property market like this? So by encouraging investors to move into new housing if they want to continue negatively gearing, and by grandfathering the existing arrangements, we get a boost in housing supply but without making anyone worse off who has made a decision under the existing rules.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

2GB ALAN JONES SHOW

MONDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Australian Olympic athlete Peter Norman.

ALAN JONES: It's almost four years since I spoke to Dr Andrew Leigh. He is the Federal Labor MP for Fraser, a very bright fellow who is the former professor at the ANU in the School of Economics before he went into Parliament. He is now the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. But we weren't talking about matters economic, although one day we should. We were talking about the late Peter Norman. Peter Norman died in 2006, he was the man that won a silver medal at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 in the 200m event. Peter Norman had come in second place to the great American Tommie Smith, he ran 20.06 seconds which is unbelievable in 1968; it is still the Australian record. This was a time when black athletes in America when second class citizens. So the black athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 and the black athlete John Carlos won the bronze; Peter Norman, a white athlete, came a brilliant second.