THE BUSINESS CASE FOR LABOR

SPEECH TO BUSINESS SYDNEY

SYDNEY

WEDNESDAY, 23 MARCH 2022

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

Epictetus wisely noted that we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. As a Stoic, I’m keen to put this into practice tonight by keeping my opening remarks short, and spend most of the time learning about your businesses, your ideas, and your vision for the economy.

But with less than two months before polling day, I would be remiss if I didn’t use the chance to make the case for my party. The business case for Labor, you might say.

Let me put it as crisply as I can, by outlining ten reasons that every businessperson should vote Labor.

ANDREW LEIGH
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES
MEMBER FOR FENNER

ZANETA MASCARENHAS
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR SWAN

MORRISON GOVERNMENT FAILING AUSTRALIANS WITH UNDERPERFORMING ECONOMY

Stagnating wages and rising cost of living are forcing more and more Western Australians to seek help from services like Foodbank WA.

More than 40,000 people a month turn to Foodbank WA to make ends meet, around half of them employed but unable to balance the household budget as underemployment and price hikes start to bite.

Organisers work alongside hundreds of charities to help ease the pressure on families across Western Australia, many of which are reportedly only one or two pay cheques away from being broke.

The hardworking people behind Foodbank WA are doing vital work, but Australians should not have to be reliant on such services to make ends meet.

ANDREW LEIGH

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

PATRICK GORMAN MP 

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA 

MEMBER FOR PERTH

AMANDA HUNT

LABOR CANDIDATE FOR CANNING

LABOR WILL WORK WITH CHARITIES, NOT AGAINST THEM

Charities and not-for-profits in Perth have highlighted the stress they face during a roundtable to discuss how an Albanese Labor Government would help repair the sector.

Australia’s charities are under huge pressure. Through bushfires and a recession, floods and a pandemic, Scott Morrison has expected charities to step up whenever his Government has failed – and they’re expected to do that with fewer volunteers and less money.

Charities and not-for-profits need more support from the Federal Government, and recognition that they do so much to help struggling Australians and hold the social fabric together.

OPENING REMARKS TO CHARITY ROUNDTABLE

PERTH

WEDNESDAY, 16 MARCH 2022

Thank you for joining us. It’s a pleasure to be here with my talented colleague Patrick Gorman, and Labor’s candidate for Canning Amanda Hunt, who will be well known to you from her time heading Uniting WA.

Over recent decades, Australia’s social capital has dropped dramatically. Compared with the 1980s, Australians now have half as many close friends, and know half as many of our neighbours. Church attendance and union membership have declined. Membership of large organisations has fallen sharply. And in fact, the number of organisations in Australia hasn't kept pace with population - there's fewer organisations per person than in the past. We've seen a steady decline in volunteering, a drop which has accelerated through the pandemic. And there has been a decline in the share of Australians who are actively engaged in team sports and community sporting activities.

RECONNECTING AUSTRALIA

SPEECH TO AUSTRALIAN SERVICES UNION MEMBERS

BLAXLAND

TUESDAY, 15 MARCH 2022

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Australia has changed markedly in the last generation.

If you go back to the mid-1980s, the average Australian had twice as many close friends and knew twice as many of their neighbours. Compared to then, we've seen a drop in the level of volunteering. We’ve seen a decline in the number of community organisations in Australia. We’ve seen a fall in membership of those mass organisations. We've seen a drop in church attendance, union membership and membership of sporting clubs.

In short, Australia has become disconnected.

US LESSON IN WHY WORKERS NEED A BOOST IN REAL WAGES

The Australian, 16 March 2022

They call them “deaths of despair”. In the US, deaths from drug overdoses, suicide and alcoholic liver disease have been rising in the past decade. Well before the pandemic, American life expectancy was going backwards.

There are many causes of this American malaise, but a big one is the fact the economy simply hasn’t been delivering for working people. In the past 50 years, real wages for the typical American man have barely risen. Real incomes for the poorest households have gone backwards.

LINDA BURNEY MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS

MEMBER FOR BARTON

SENATOR JENNY MCALLISTER

 SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMMUNITIES

 AND THE PREVENTION OF FAMILY VIOLENCE

 LABOR SENATOR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

SUSAN TEMPLEMAN MP

MEMBER FOR MACQUARIE

RESTORING RESPECT FOR THE COMMUNITY SECTOR

An Albanese Labor Government will support a stronger, more diverse and more independent community sector.

Through floods, fires and a pandemic, the community sector has stepped up to provide support to struggling Australians.

Despite this, the Morrison Government has repeatedly tried to devalue and silence community sector voices. At the same time, many community sector organisations have been working with less money, less funding certainty and increased stress.

If elected, Labor will change this.

AUSTRALIA'S LAWS MUST CHANGE TO CONTAIN PUTIN'S DIRTY MONEY

The Canberra Times, 12 March 2022

As advanced democracies tighten sanctions on Vladimir Putin, regulators are looking more closely at how the Russian President made his money. Some sources suggest that he may have $100 billion – others as much as $200 billion. That would put Putin’s wealth higher than the combined annual output of South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.

One thing that we can be sure about is that Putin uses tax havens. In 2016, the leak of the Panama Papers revealed a complex web of transactions that Putin and his associates used to hide their assets, including helicopters, planes, a superyacht and a palace on the Black Sea. Tax havens like Panama helped conceal the true owners of these assets.

Nearly $20 billion in JobKeeper cash – or $2000 for every Aussie household – went to companies with rising revenue.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR MORNINGS
WEDNESDAY, 2 MARCH 2022

SUBJECT: Tax havens and Russia.

LIAM BARTLETT, HOST: Joining us this morning is Andrew Leigh. Andrew’s the Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury and Charities. How are you, Andrew?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY AND CHARITIES: I'm terrific, Liam. How are you?

BARTLETT: I'm well, thanks. Look, I know you've been campaigning on this for a while, long before the invasion got underway. But how could the government make it easier to put a stop to this dirty money?

LEIGH: They could do three things, Liam. The first is to crack down on tax havens. The second is to tighten the anti-money laundering laws. And the third is to put in place a beneficial ownership register that would let people really know who owns Australian shares. All of those are straightforward transparency measures, and without those changes it makes it really hard to track down the sources of Putin's illicit cash. It's not as though they're all sitting in a big bank account marked ‘Vladimir Putin’. His cronies have stashed money in tax havens like Panama or the Bahamas. They're using illicit shell companies, and they're hiding the source of the transactions very deliberately. And Australia's laws just aren't up to date enough in order for us to be able to track down the sources of the dirty money.