Andrew Leigh

DOES ANYONE STILL SUPPORT GARY JOHNS?

Senior Liberals are now distancing themselves from the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits commissioner Gary Johns after he publicly defended his decision to suppress acknowledgement of country within the commission and confirmed he still holds troubling views about charities, welfare recipients and indigenous mothers.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has written to Dr Johns, more than 11 months after his appointment to the role by the Coalition, questioning his views on restricting the use of acknowledgement of country.

After Dr Johns’ disastrous appearance before a Senate committee last month, Senator Scullion told him:

Acknowledgments of country are well-known payments of respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in recognition of their traditional ownership of the land. In my view, there is little risk of the confusion that I understand you identified in these hearings and I would encourage as many ACNC officials as are interested, to include acknowledgements of country in their signature blocks.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AGENDA

MONDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2018

SUBJECTS: Qantas and unions, agricultural visas, the need for rational debate around Australia’s economy.

KIERAN GILBERT: With us now, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Andrew Leigh, thanks very much for your time. The warning from Qantas is quite a stark one this morning from Alan Joyce. What's your response and can you placate the airline chief’s concerns?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Absolutely, Kieran. Labor isn’t interested in disharmony. What we want to do is get wages going again. In Australia, we’ve barely seen real wages move since the Abbott Government was elected in 2013. We got productivity growth, but we haven’t got wages growth-

GILBERT: So would you rule out industry wide bargaining then, where a series of employers can be caught within one particular bargaining claim?

LEIGH: We’ll certainly look at a range of options on industrial relations laws. We’ll restore penalty rates. We’ll ensure that labour hire firms are used to fill temporary shortages rather than being used to drive down the wages of Australians. We do know that productivity has continued to grow since the Abbott Government won office, but wages haven't kept pace and it’s really important that Australia gets a pay rise.

PAY SLIPS AND THE FATES OF THE UNIONS

The Saturday Paper, 3 November 2018

In the late-1700s, one of the most dramatic transformations in world economic history took place. In previous centuries, economic growth had puttered along so slowly that shops would sometimes carve their prices in stone on the wall. Starting in Britain, the Industrial Revolution saw production move from hand work to mechanisation. Steam-powered factories massively increased the output of textiles. With the industrial revolution, output per worker began to surge.

Yet for the first half century after the Industrial Revolution began, most of the benefits did not flow to workers. Productivity rose, as workers used the new technology to produce more output. But real wages barely budged.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

2CC CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2018

SUBJECTS: Housing, Labor's plans to crack down on multinational tax avoidance, Adani.

TIM SHAW: The Master Builders Association is deeply concerned, big impact on the ACT economy. Now Labor complained about the Master Builders not including the grandfathering elements to the proposition regarding changes to negative gearing, now you will grandfather negative gearing on an existing property, but will you grandfather the current 50 percent capital gains tax discount?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Yes absolutely Tim. The changes are prospective. We recognise that people have made investments based on existing rules.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

CORINNE MULHOLLAND

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR PETRIE

LABOR CLEARS THE ROAD FOR MECHANICS IN BRISBANE

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

BRISBANE

THURSDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2018

SUBJECT: Labor's plans to crack down on multinational tax dodgers.

ALI FRANCE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DICKSON: Good morning, it's really lovely to have Labor's Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh here today to talk to local businesses about how we're going to level the playing field and tackle multinational tax avoidance. 

Small businesses like the ones behind us, pay their fair share of tax. But we know there are big multinational companies and wealthy individuals who operate in Australia, who don't pay their fair share of tax. Labor wants to put a stop to that. So I'm now going to hand over to Andrew to talk a bit more about how that's going to work.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well thanks so much Ali and it's great to be here with Ali France, Labor's hard-working candidate, taking our message of fairness to communities like Dickson.

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

ALI FRANCE

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DICKSON

LABOR TO MAKE MULTINATIONALS PAY

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.