Andrew Leigh

WELCOME EVENT - NATIONAL SCHOOLS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, 19 MARCH 2019

I acknowledge we’re meeting in the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people and pay my respects to elders past and present.

Who's visiting Canberra for the first time? Wonderful. Who's met Sean the prawn?

[laughter]

A few of you. Good to see. So for those hands that went up, you now know who to ask when you want an introduction to Sean the prawn, the most famous resident of the Marble Foyer - when Tony Smith isn't passing through.

[laughter]

You can take it for granted that you've got a Canberra based MP to welcome you to what I think it's the greatest city in Australia. You should not take it for granted that you just heard from the Speaker of the House. It's a very special thing to have Tony Smith here today. He doesn't only occupy the role of referee in the House of Representatives, he does it with a sense of purpose and grace, with an Australian egalitarianism and with a respect right across the Parliament has not been shared by all of his predecessors. Tony, on behalf of the other 149 members of the House, thank you for the important work you do for our great institution.

FUTURE OF MORTGAGE LENDING IN AUSTRALIA

CANBERRA, 19 MARCH 2019

Thanks very much, Mark, and can I acknowledge we're meeting on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people and pay my respect their elders past and present. I thank Australian Finance Group, Connective and Mortgage Choice for putting on today's event.

I acknowledge my fellow panellists – Mark Hewitt, Mark Nocera and Mark Haron.

When it comes to the question session, please do feel free to call me Mark.

[laughter]

That will ensure that the panel gets full marks.

[laughter]

Did I mention that I’m a dad?

For those of you who are visiting Canberra, welcome. The OECD determined this to be the most liveable region in the advanced world, so I hope you'll take a chance to enjoy the beautiful bush capital.

I'm sorry that we're not joined by a representative of the Coalition today. However, I can assure you that after nine years in politics and hundreds of Question Times, I can probably answer questions on their behalf too.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

MELBOURNE

MONDAY, 18 MARCH 2019

SUBJECTS: Ending the Coalition’s war on charities, wages growth. 

PETA MURPHY, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DUNKLEY: Hi, I'm Peta Murphy, Labor's candidate for Dunkley. It's been absolutely terrific to have Andrew Leigh here today, the Shadow Minister for Charities.  We've held a roundtable with at least 20 organisations across the Dunkley electorate, talking about what makes a great charity, how community groups can get better support and better link with each other to help with volunteers, and generally talking about how a federal government can be of assistance to the amazing people that we already have here who are doing great work connecting and supporting other locals. So, thank you very much for being here today Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It's a pleasure, Peta. A connection to community is what propelled Peta Murphy to stand for Dunkley. Her engagement with her local community, the strength of her civic connectedness is what marks her out as one of our extraordinary Labor candidates. We've appreciated today the insights from a range of different charities and not-for-profits in the Frankston area, working with Labor to ensure that we end the war on charities and begin the process of reconnecting Australia.

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

RAFF CICCONE

LABOR SENATOR FOR VICTORIA

PETA MURPHY

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DUNKLEY

MELBOURNE RECONNECTED ROUNDTABLE A SUCCESS

Today, we held Labor’s 18^th ‘Reconnected’ forum, this time with charities and not-for-profits in the Frankston region, exchanging ideas to boost social capital and community engagement.

Over the course of the last generation, Australians have become more disconnected. We are less likely to join community organisations or play organised sports. On average, Australians have fewer close friends, and know fewer neighbours. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

5AA MORNINGS

FRIDAY, 15 MARCH 2019

SUBJECT: Labor’s plans to give Australians hotels control over their businesses.

LEON BYNER: You've got in this country two large businesses - these are multinational companies - who control up to 85 per cent of online accommodation bookings in Australia. And do you know what they are able to do - I think the fact that they could even do it in the first place was outrageous - that they say to a hotel or motel, doesn't matter who it is, what size, ‘you will not in your advertising on your Facebook for your company, your business, yu will not undercut our prices’. Because the fact of the matter is. if you book through them you'll often get a better deal. Now you've got companies like Expedia and Booking.com that have got 85 per cent of this market. Now I've got Dick Smith on the line and Dick, before I get to you I want you to hear what a good policy is about to do. Okay, so you stay there and don't go away. I want to talk to the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, I'm very glad to have you on today because one of my passions has been that for too long corporations have been able to bully small businesses and because they've got such market power they can get away with it. Now in this space of hotel bookings, tell us what you're proposing if you win the election.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Leon, we're planning to go straight to the problem you've talked about - getting rid of those price parity clauses that prevent small local hotels offering the best deal on their own websites. These large multinational booking providers have a massive share of the market and they're taking a whopping slice of booking fees. So if you book a hotel, coming to see WOMADelaide or the Adelaide Fringe, you might pay a $100 for a room and see $30 of that go overseas. A 30 per cent booking fee is a massive hit to a small operator.

PUTTING AUSSIE HOTELS BACK IN CONTROL: THIRD PARTY SUPPORT

“The Accommodation Association of Australia welcomes this historic announcement from the Labor Party. Effectively this means that our industry, should the Labor Party win office, be able to finally offer the best rate directly to our customers without fear of being darkened or threatened by these big multinational online travel agents. This announcement is very welcome for our members and the industry across Australia, the winners will be the operators of small business and the public who can finally get a better deal by going direct online once this legislation is passed.”

- Richard Munro, Accommodation Association of Australia CEO.

“We were pleased to see Labor’s announcement today to ban online travel agent price parity clauses if elected to Government. Long overdue as accommodation providers and their customers are paying increasing and unsustainable commissions nearly all of which leave Australia.”

- Julian Ledger, YHA Australia CEO.

CRACKING THE CONFUSOPOLY

DevPolicy Blog, 15 March 2019

Okeny Secondo is a disability support worker in his early-30s who lives in Redbank Plains, a suburb of Ipswich. Born in Sudan, he fled to Uganda as a child, then migrated to Australia. Mr Secondo and his wife, who works as a meat industry processor, send almost one-third of their income back to help friends and families in Africa.

‘I know what it’s like to live with uncertainty in a war-torn country’, he says. ‘I’m very happy to be able to support my family and friends to make them more secure. Sometimes we get urgent requests for emergencies and it’s great to be able to get money to them immediately.’

Mr Secondo is among thousands who send remittances to help people in developing nations. With international migration projected to account for a growing share of the population in the future, remittances will only grow in importance. When a grandparent falls ill, or a child needs to pay school fees, families in developing countries often turn to generous relatives in countries like Australia to send over some cash.

BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS

MEMBER FOR GORTON

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

CORINNE MULHOLLAND

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR PETRIE

LABOR WILL BACK OUR SUBBIES IN PETRIE

Today, we met with sub-contractors in Petrie to discuss the benefits of Labor’s Tradie Pay Guarantee.

Subbies working on federal government projects will be protected from being left unpaid when dodgy businesses go bust through the implementation of Labor’s Tradie Pay Guarantee.

A Shorten Labor Government will require large Commonwealth construction projects to establish a specially structured account – using a cascading statutory trust - that ensures all businesses down the supply chain get paid on time.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

MANLY, BRISBANE

TUESDAY, 12 MARCH 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s plans to give Australians hotels control over their businesses, Nationals chaos and LNP civil war over coal, Adani.

JO BRISKEY, LABOR’S CANDIDATE FOR BONNER: Jo Briskey here, Labor's candidate running at the federal election for the seat of Bonner, where I'm welcoming Andrew and Ed and also Richard from the Accommodation Association here at the Manly Marina Cove Motel down in Manly in the wonderful electorate of Bonner, talking about Labor's policy today around making it easier and fairer for customers and local businesses and importantly for families being able to get some really great local accommodation, good accommodation for those family holidays. So I'm absolutely thrilled to be here this morning, welcoming these lovely gentlemen to the wonderful Manly harbourside. Andrew, would you like to say a few words about today’s announcement?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION: Thanks, Jo. It’s a real pleasure to be here with my friend and colleague Ed Husic and Jo Briskey, a terrific candidate for Bonner, and with Richard Munro, who has been campaigning hard on behalf of the accommodation industry for these vital changes. Labor wants to put power back in the hands of Australian tourists and Australian hotels. Right now, the duopoly of multinational booking providers going under various names - Expedia, Hotels.com, Kayak, Booking.com, Priceline, Wotif -  have been dominating the market for online bookings. They’re charging extremely high booking fees - they can range up to 30 per cent. They're able to maintain their market share through what's called price parity clauses, by requiring small hotels like this one to not offer a cheaper price to guests on their own website. The result of that has been that up to a third of the cost of accommodation is going offshore to these large multinational firms. In a time when we've got wage growth in the doldrums, we've got retail sales down, where we've got disappointing growth figures, we don't want to see more policies benefiting the top end of town over Aussie small businesses.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC CANBERRA BREAKFAST

TUESDAY, 12 MARCH 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s plans to support sustainable public transport in Canberra, federal ICAC, Labor’s plans to give Australians hotels control over their businesses.

DAN BOURCHIER: Although the date for the next election hasn't yet been set, it's largely seeming like it will be at some point in the later half of May. But we've seen lots of election promises on both sides of the aisle - everyone really make commitments right across the nation.  Today Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will announce a $200 million investment towards stage two of Canberra's light rail track to Woden, if Labor's elected the next federal election. Federal MP for Fenner is Andrew Leigh, he's with us on the phone. Good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning Dan. You're sounding as though you’re a bit croaky at the moment?

BOURCHIER: I'm a little, a little bit congested, but I’ll persevere onwards and upwards. 

LEIGH: I hope you’re on the mend soon.

BOURCHIER: Tell me, why is Labor making this commitment?

LEIGH: It's really important that we get going on light rail all the way through from Gungahlin to Woden. As you recall, Dan, when we were last in office Labor funded the Majura Parkway, an important piece of road infrastructure taking pressure off our roads. This is a vital commitment that a Shorten Government would make - $200 million towards to stage two. So that’s light rail from the city through to Woden. It'll create hundreds of jobs and it'll ensure that people are able to move swiftly through the city as modern light rail projects do. It's been championed by Alicia Payne, our candidate for Canberra, and I know she'll continue working on those issues with the route if she is elected.