Andrew Leigh

This morning I spoke with 2CC's Mark Parton about why moving public servants out of Canberra would create a less effective APS. Here's the transcript:

E&EO TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

2CC - BREAKFAST WITH MARK PARTON

TOPICS:  Relocating Australian public servants; carbon pricing

Mark Parton: Let’s go to Andrew Leigh, Federal Member for Fraser for the ALP. He’s on the line - good morning Andrew.

Andrew Leigh: Morning Mark.

Mark Parton: We’ve just had a chat to Andrew Wilkie, he wants to throw the public servants all round the country - he’s  dreaming, isn’t he?

Andrew Leigh: Well I can see where the electoral demographics come from with this. Tasmania has got a lot of seats, even though in fact I think I have twice as many voters as Andrew. I think I’ve got the largest seat in Australia and he’s got one of the smallest. But it just doesn’t make any sense…

With the release of the government's Options Paper on replacements for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, I've again called for Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews to listen to the voices of leading Australian charities and keep the commission intact.

My new book, The Economics of Just About Everything, will be launched at the end of the month. It applies economics to sport, music, dieting, and dating – in fact, pretty much everything other than politics. 

The book will be launched in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. All events are open to the public, but you do need to RSVP. Just click on the relevant link.

• Sydney (UNSW) - 11am, Tuesday 29 July
• Canberra (ANU) - 5pm, Tuesday 29 July
• Melbourne (UniMelb) - 6.30pm, Wednesday 30 July
• Brisbane (UQ) - 5pm, Thursday 31 July

With reports today that the Treasurer is preparing to legislate "new" measures so global companies pay their share of tax, I was keen to remind the public of the Abbott Government's backward steps in this area. Joe Hockey's measures aren’t new and they don't embrace what Labor sought to put in place.

MEDIA RELEASE

HOCKEY’S HOT AIR SOLUTION TO MULTINATIONAL PROFIT-SHIFTING

The Abbott Government’s measures on multinational profit-shifting are still considerably weaker than those announced last year by Labor.

Since coming to office, the Government’s only policy announcements on multinational profit-shifting have been to reverse sensible Labor measures.

 

During a visit to Tasmania today, my colleague, Shadow Minister for Regional Development Julie Collins, and I met with pensioners to discuss the federal budget. We got a warm reception but not surprisingly, they gave the budget the thumbs down. Julie and I subsequently issued this joint media release:

ANDREW LEIGH MP - SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASUER

JULIE COLLINS MP - SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

MEDIA RELEASE

ABBOTT GOVERNMENT’S BUDGET FAILS PENSIONERS

The Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh, has confirmed the Abbott Government’s Budget is no friend to Tasmania’s pensioners.

Speaking with members of the Tasmanian Pensioner Association in Hobart today Dr Leigh said the Abbott Government’s Budget would affect Tasmanians who could least afford any loss of financial support.

“This Budget not only breaks promises, it breaks the social contract with older Australians,” Dr Leigh said.

http://youtu.be/k8iAZvE9iDg

I spoke this morning on SKY AM Agenda with host Kieran Gilbert and the Liberal's Mitch Fifield about news that Coalition MPs are urging a sharp cut in the renewable energy target (RET). Here's the transcript:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY – AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 30 JUNE 2014

SUBJECT/S: Renewable Energy Target and Coalition backbench revolt; McClure welfare review; Aged Care reforms

KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me now on the program is the Assistant Social Services Minister, Mitch Fifield and the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Gentlemen, good morning to you both.

Mitch Fifield, first to you, 25 of your colleagues - backbench, members of your government are speaking out against the renewal energy target, saying it should be scaled back, that aluminium should be excluded from it. This is much more than a ginger group, as Graham Richardson has pointed out there. This is half your backbench in the lower house of the parliament.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ONLINE INTERVIEW

BREAKING POLITICS – FAIRFAX MEDIA

MONDAY, 30 JUNE 2014

SUBJECT/S: McClure welfare review and disability support; Renewable Energy Target and Coalition backbench revolt; Asylum seeker policy and secrecy.

CHRIS HAMMER: We're joined now by Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Labor member for Fraser here in the ACT. He's in the studio. And joining us via Skype, Andrew Laming the member for Bowman.

This morning I spoke to ABC 666 Breakfast presenter Philip Clark about calls for a Royal Commission into the financial advice arm of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia which a Senate inquiry found underpaid victims of a scandal and sought to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC 666 CANBERRA – BREAKFAST SHOW

FRIDAY, 27 JUNE 2014

SUBJECT / S: Commonwealth Bank and ASIC report; multinational profit shifting and tax evasion.

PRESENTER, PHILIP CLARK: The Senate Committee into the Commonwealth Bank has called for the country to set up a Royal Commission into the Commonwealth Bank to investigate fraud and forgery and allegations of a cover-up inside its financial planning arm. This issue's been bubbling along for a while, since it was broken in the media about misconduct among CBA financial planners. It's much worse than we had thought. Thousands of Australians lost their life savings as a result of shoddy financial advice. And it ought not stop there. Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh, who's been campaigning in this area and others, is on the line this morning. Andrew, good morning.

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER, ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Philip, how are you?

CLARK: I'm very well. It's uncovered a pretty dodgy set of dealings inside the CBA which probably does warrant further investigation, doesn't it?

LEIGH: Well it certainly makes troubling reading and it's looking into the Australian Securities and Investments Commission which is the oversight body for financial planners. This is why when we were in government, Labor tightened up the rules around financial advice, because of the Storm Financial affair, Timbercorp - where people not only lost all their money but were left with debts at the end - and Trio. We've had a succession of these corporate collapses. And in our view it wasn't enough to just put all the burden back onto the investors. You had to say financial planners must act in the best interest of the client, and that people had to be opting in to receive financial advice.

The Abbott government's approach to climate change flies in the face of ever-mounting evidence of the need for an emissions trading scheme.

ADJOURNMENT DEBATE 

26 June 2014

NASA has confirmed that the world's 20-hottest years on record have all been since 1990, and 13 of the 14 hottest were all since 2000. The State of the Climate 2014 Report from the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO has therefore called for 'large and sustained net global reductions in greenhouse gases'.

I spoke today about changes to flight paths out of Canberra airport to help address resident concerns regarding aircraft noise.

CONSTITUENCY STATEMENT

26 June 2014

Canberra Airport is a vital transport hub and employment generator within the ACT region. I am pleased to have it located within my electorate because of the pivotal role that it plays throughout the ACT region, but it has been of some concern to me to ensure that Canberra Airport does not impact unnecessarily on surrounding residents. Two years ago I worked, through then Minister Albanese, to contact Airservices Australia to discuss the issue of the Melbourne flight path. I was concerned that the northward growth of suburbs in the Gungahlin region would mean that planes flying north and then turning west might cause noise over areas which had previously been unpopulated—suburbs such as Forde, Bonner, Jacka, Moncrieff, Taylor and Throsby.