Andrew Leigh

TIM HAMMOND MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR RESOURCES

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH

DR 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

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR FENNER

INCREASED FEDERAL COURT PENALTY FOR MIS-SELLING NUROFEN SHOWS NEED FOR CONSUMER LAW PENALTIES REFORM

Federal Labor welcomes the decision of the Full Federal Court to uphold an appeal by the ACCC against the penalty imposed on the manufacturers of Nurofen, Reckitt Benckiser, for misleading conduct under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

Nurofen marketed products claiming to target "specific" types of pain, and charged extra for these products, despite the fact that the active ingredient and dosage was exactly the same in each product.

The Federal Court agreed with the ACCC’s claim that the practise represented misleading conduct, but initially only awarded a penalty of $1.7 million. On appeal to the Full Federal Court the penalty has now been increased to $6 million.

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

STEVE GEORGANAS

MEMBER FOR HINDMARSH

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

FIVEAA MORNINGS WITH LEON BYNER

FRIDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: ATO website failure

LEON BYNER: How on earth has this happened? I've got two people today – one the Adelaide tech guy in the studio and we'll talk to him in a moment, Richard Pascoe –  the other is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Andrew, Merry Christmas. What's your understanding of what's happened here?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks Leon and Merry Christmas to you and your listeners as well. My understanding is that the government's looking for everyone to blame but themselves. It's a bit like – as you said – the census debacle a couple of months ago when the ABS website went down on Census Night. Meaning that millions of Australians lost millions of hours of their time trying to fill in the census forms. We were told that we would have the techspert-in-charge in Malcolm Turnbull, but yet we seem to see website stuff-up after website stuff-up. The census website going down. Now the Tax Office website going down at a time when small businesses are completely under the pump. If you are a small business in retail you just want to be out there serving your customers, not fighting the ATO website.

With the Australian Taxation Office website outage now stretching into its second day, the Turnbull Government must explain why it is unable to provide basic online services to Australians.

The tax office site outage is inconveniencing taxpayers and tax agents alike. This comes just four months after the Turnbull Government stuffed up the 2016 Census and wasted millions of hours of Australians’ time.

As with the Census, no doubt the Turnbull Government’s first instinct will be to blame a public servant. Australians deserve a government that will take responsibility, not point the finger.

If they can’t do something as basic as keeping key government websites online, how can the Turnbull Government run the country?

TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2016

MEDIA CONTACT: TAIMUS WERNER-GIBBINGS    0437 323 390

Why You Should Host December Drinks, The Chronicle/The Queanbeyan Age,                   Tuesday 6 December 2016

The other day, I was thinking about the many ways our neighbours have helped us. They’ve loaned us lawnmowers and camping tents, looked after a child when another suddenly had to be taken to the emergency room, and helped locate our dog when he snuck under the fence.

But as a society, we’re less likely to know our neighbours than in the past. One survey asked people to count the number of neighbours of whom they could ask a small favour. The average answer given in the 2000s was 1½ fewer people than when a similar survey was done in the 1980s.  Another question asked people how many neighbours they had on whom they could drop in uninvited. This time, respondents reported an average of three fewer close neighbours than in the 1980s.

What can we do about it? For the past decade or so, our family has organised December drinks for our local street. We pick a date, type up a simple invitation, and invite people to join us in our backyard for drinks and nibbles.

As it happens, we quite like our neighbours. But December drinks would be worthwhile even if we didn’t. A friendlier neighbourhood is a safer and happier place to live. Reuniting with old-timers and getting to know the new arrivals is an activity that pays off for the rest of the year.

So why not consider inviting your neighbours over for a summer drink? Tis the season – to get connected.

Andrew Leigh is the Federal Member for Fenner, and the author of Disconnected. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AM AGENDA
MONDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Climate policy; Infrastructure spending.

KIERAN GILBERT: With me on the program now to discuss other issues today is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Let's turn our attention first of all to the issue of climate and climate policy. The Financial Review reports today a billion dollar price tag for the need to increase and enhance energy infrastructure. Most notably those interconnectors between states like Tasmania, South Australia to other eastern seaboard states. Does Labor support that initiative even though the cost is quite large and could be made redundant in terms of advances made elsewhere in terms of energy technology.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran it depends on the particular proposal coming forward but certainly there is a history of the Commonwealth contributing towards interconnectors. The big picture here Kieran is that the Government has now decided that the Government is going to reject the cheapest way of dealing with climate change, an internal energy market recommended by the Australian Energy Market Commission, and a policy that the Government's Chief Scientist said would save the taxpayer $15 billion. So Malcolm Turnbull wants Australians to spend more on electricity and do less to reduce emissions.

If you're looking for some medium-length political reading over the summer, here's a handful of the talks I've given this year:

• The Politics of Love 
• The Age of Ambition
• Markets, Monopolies and Moguls
• Counting the Cost of Inequality (Just Ideas I)
• Explaining the Rise of Australian Inequality (Just Ideas II)

All of these speeches are also available to podcast via Podbean or iTunes.

Why Unions Matter in Australia, The Canberra Times, 10 December 2016

Last week, I read in the press that the Turnbull Government intends to spend 2017 saying to the electorate that unions do a lot of damage to the economy. But while we prepare to re-live Groundhog Day, it’s worth answering the question ‘what did unions ever do for us?’.

Over the years, unions have brought about lasting gains in the workplace. Sick leave in the 1920s. Annual leave in the 1930s. The eight hour day in the 1940s. Unfair dismissal protection in the 1970s. Banning asbestos in the 1980s. The weekend. Careful economic research finds that unions have a causal impact on making workplaces safer. Today, unions are making the case for family and domestic violence leave.

Unions have often found themselves on the right side of history. Maritime unions refused to load ‘pig iron’ onto Japanese ships in the late-1930s because they foresaw the risk that it would come back in bombs. When 200 Gurindji people walked off the Wave Hill cattle station in 1966, it was the trade union movement that supported the right of Indigenous people to be fairly paid. If you’ve ever enjoyed Centennial Park and the Sydney Botanic Gardens, then you should thank the union members who stopped them being destroyed in the 1970s.

Unsurprisingly, unions also increase wages. One recent study finds that unions increase wages by 5-10 percent. Given that union dues are generally 1 percent or less, this is a pretty good rate of return.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

FRIDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2016

SUBJECT/S: Australian Taxation Office report on tax payments by large companies

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much for coming along, my name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer.

In 2013 Labor passed historic laws to ensure that Australians knew how much tax big firms were paying. The Liberals and Nationals voted against those laws at the time. About a year ago they voted with the Greens to water down Australia's tax transparency laws, taking two thirds of private companies out of the reporting net.

We still have Labor's historic tax transparency laws, and today’s data release makes for disturbing reading. We have a report today relating to 1504 large Australian firms. It shows that 36 per cent of big Australian companies pay no tax. More than one in three big Australian companies pay no tax.

TAX OFFICE REPORT SHOWS IT’S TIME FOR TURNBULL TO GET TOUGH ON MULTINATIONAL TAX AVOIDANCE 

Despite new figures showing more than 1 in 3 large firms pay no tax, the Turnbull Government still believes that cutting company tax rates should be Australia’s top economic priority.

Today’s data is for the 2014/15 tax year. They cover public and foreign-owned companies with total income of $100 million or more and Australian-owned private companies with total income of $200 million or more.

This report, covering 1904 companies in total, is only available thanks to Labor’s tax transparency laws, which passed the parliament in 2013 over the objections of the Coalition.

TIM HAMMOND MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR RESOURCES

 MEMBER FOR PERTH

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 

SCOTT MORRISON NEEDS TO LISTEN TO LABOR AND HIS OWN EXPERTS

 Labor welcomes the release of the Productivity Commission’s interim report into Consumer Law Enforcement and Administration.

It is the most recent example of expert support for Labor’s policy to increase penalties for companies that breach the Australian Consumer Law.

In April this year, Rod Sims, Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said;

“(W)e do have general concern about penalties under the Australian Consumer Law as not being adequate to give the right amount of deterrence.” 

In May, Labor announced that we would bring the penalties in-line with the competition provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and:

“(R)aise the maximum penalties from $1.1 million to $10 million because scammers and shonks shouldn’t be able to profit from ripping off Australian consumers”.