Andrew Leigh

SUPERANNUATION INVESTORS BACK LABOR’S PAY TRANSPARENCY POLICY

Labor welcomes the call by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors for CEO pay ratio disclosure.

In their newly released roadmap for better corporate accountability, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors state:

“Companies should be required to disclose the ratio of their CEO’s pay to that of their median Australian worker, and to explain how this is consistent with the company’s values, strategy and culture. This information would benefit a wide range of stakeholders, including workers, the public, investors, government and regulators. Similar measures were recently introduced in the UK and US.”

THE SENSIBLE CENTRE: FINDING THE RIGHT PATH FOR TAXES, WAGES, AND CLIMATE POLICY

APPS Policy Forum, 24 April 2019

In March, journalist David Speers asked senior Liberal Party frontbencher Linda Reynolds, “Do you agree that flexibility in wages and keeping wages at modest levels is a deliberate feature of our economic architecture?” A reasonable question.

“No, absolutely not,” replied Reynolds. “For Bill Shorten to even suggest that –”

“I’m quoting Mathias Cormann,” Speers pointed out.

It was a telling moment for the Coalition. Their economic message was so out of touch with reality that it had become a caricature of itself. Even one of their senior figures couldn’t tell the difference between actual Coalition policy and what she thought was an absurd exaggeration. It didn’t need a scare campaign – the policy was a horror show all of its own.

A FAIRER DEAL FOR MELBOURNE HOTELS  

Today, Andrew Leigh joined Labor candidate for Chisholm, Jennifer Yang, in Box Hill to discuss how Melbourne hotels will benefit from Labor’s plans to outlaw price parity clauses.   

Labor will always put the health of small businesses ahead of the profits of big multinationals. Labor has a plan to back in taxpayers and everyday Australian workers over tax avoiders and the big end of town.   

Tourism is vital to Melbourne's economy, yet too much of the money spent in local hotels is flowing offshore to online booking platforms, meaning less money for Australian businesses and higher prices for all travellers.  

Price parity clauses prevent Australian hotels from advertising that travellers can get a better deal by booking directly. 

E&EO TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

2GB MONEY NEWS

MONDAY, 22 APRIL 2019

SUBJECTS: Barnaby Joyce’s $80 million water buy back; Labor’s plans to crack down on tax havens; Facebook scare campaigns; negative gearing; Labor’s plans to give everyday Australians a pay rise.

HOST: Somebody who’s always great with his time here on Money News, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh, who is on the line right now. Many thanks for your time, Andrew. 

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Always a pleasure, Ross. 

HOST: Look. I want to start in regards to Labor today giving a hint that it might set up a royal commission into water buybacks under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Now it's interesting, I had a yarn with Clive Palmer a week or so ago and there's two areas that he says he believes with all of his advertising he's gaining votes. One is in the very north of Queensland, in the coal mining areas where Adani is controversial, and of course the CFMEU is urging Labor to get on with building Adani. The other place he says is in the Murray-Darling Basin, where he believes he's actually taking votes off the Nationals. Why would a royal commission into water buybacks be so important for Australia?

LEIGH: We need to first see where the department comes back to with regard to the questions that we've asked. As Tony Burke said, we've put a number of questions to the department about why they seem to have paid Versace prices for a Reject Shop product. It looks as though they've been not only dealing with a company headquartered in notorious tax haven, the Cayman Islands, but also on the face of it significantly overpaying. We've said to the department we want answers on that within the next 24 hours and certainly a royal commission remains on the table.

WHY DO THE LIBERALS WANT TO PROTECT TAX HAVENS?

Recent media coverage about a mysterious company in the notorious Cayman Islands has put tax havens back in the headlines.

Globally, around $600 billion of profits are estimated to be shifted to tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda,representing almost 40 per cent of multinational profits. Bizarrely, Bahamas companies now rank as the fifth-largest foreign owner of Australian farmland.

Tax havens not only undermine the Australian tax system – they are used to hide the proceeds of fraud, corruption and tax evasion. According to one estimate, around four-fifths of money in offshore bank accounts is there in breach of other countries’ tax laws.

At this Federal election, voters are entitled to ask where the major parties stand on tax havens.

VIAGOGO GUILTY OF MISLEADING PUNTERS WITH TICKET SCAMS

The Federal Court has today found that Viagogo breached Australian Consumer Law by misleading the public while reselling entertainment, music and live sport event tickets on its website.

The Court found Viagogo intentionally misled Australian consumers by claiming tickets to certain events were “scarce” and stated claims like “less than 1 per cent tickets remaining” to create a false sense of urgency for the consumer.

Labor welcomes this decision by the Federal Court and applauds the ACCC in holding the multinational accountable to Australian law.

We have already announced action against dodgy ticket scalping, and reselling practices which lock fans out of major events.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
CAIRNS
WEDNESDAY, 17 APRIL 2019

SUBJECTS: The Liberals’ cuts to health, Labor’s Cancer Plan, the environment.

ELIDA FAITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Good morning. My name is Elida Faith and I’m the Labor candidate for Leichhardt. I’m here today with Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and Queensland paramedic Jen Miran. We’re outside the Cairns Hospital. Our hospital has seen $7.2 million in cuts from this LNP Government. Let's not forget that the Cairns Hospital doesn't just serve as the Cairns and the hinterland, it reaches as far as the Torres Strait and the Cape. We have dedicated doctors, nurses, hospital workers and paramedics that are under-resourced and overworked. Now, I've been hearing a lot of stories, people have been sharing with me what their experiences have been and they have been absolutely heartbreaking and infuriating. It is not okay that a 69-year-old woman has to sit in the emergency department for three and a half hours with her 91-year-old mother. It is not ok that our paramedics are sitting in the halls of the emergency department, waiting to transfer their patients, instead of being out in the community saving lives.

Now I know that Warren Entsch has been here this morning and I hope he looked every single worker and patient in the eye and told them why tax cuts to the big end of town is more important than their jobs and quality health care at the hospital. Now we know the LNP, in order to give tax cuts to the big end of town, has to cut services by $40 billion a year every year by 2030. And I want to know from Warren Entsch today just how much of that $40 billion in cuts is going to come out of our Cairns Hospital, because our hospital cannot stand any more cuts. I'd like to hand over to Andrew now.

DIAMONDS, DYNAMITE AND DISTRUST: HOW TRANSPARENCY CAN HELP REBUILD PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

KPMG, THE GROUP 100 & WOLTERS KLUWER CONFERENCE: ‘WITHOUT TRANSPARENCY, THERE IS NO TRUST’

MELBOURNE

TUESDAY, 16 APRIL 2019

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, on whose lands we gather today and pay my respect to their elders. Thanks to Andrew Porter and Stephen Woodhill for bringing together this conversation and to KPMG Chairman Alison Kitchen and the team at KPMG for their hospitality. It’s great to be in Melbourne. I started my day running around the Tan this morning, and at one point realised that there were four people around me, all clad head-to-toe in black. A very Melbourne moment.

You’ve asked me to speak today on trust and transparency, so my focus will be not only on the choice ahead for Australia on May 18, but also on the long-term challenge for business and government of boosting the strength of our civic society.

Capital is a familiar concept to economists: it’s an asset that produces a valuable return. A return to capital is why governments look to encourage physical capital investment, it’s why Labor is going into the election with an Australian Investment Guarantee and an ambitious infrastructure plan. Human capital is another kind of asset that produces a return. It's why Labor is advocating stronger investment in early childhood, in schools, in apprenticeships and in universities. 

A third kind capital is social capital. This is the notion that the ties that bind us together have an inherent value - that there is as a an economic return from those networks of trust and reciprocity. This is self-evidently true in our own lives. Each of us know that a life lived together is a better life. But it's also true in markets. One of my favourite examples is the diamond markets, which demonstrate the two polar extremes of trust.

FAIRFAX WANTS A FAIR GO AND FEWER TAX LOOPHOLES

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and Labor candidate for Fairfax Julie McGlone held a tax fairness forum in Fairfax last night to tackle the Liberals’ scare campaign.

Under our changes to dividend imputation, no one will pay a single cent more income tax. No one will lose anything from their super contributions. No one will lose anything from their pension. No one will lose their dividends.

Pensioners will not be affected, and people will still be able to reduce their tax burden by using franking credits, but only if they pay income tax in the first place.

Labor has a plan to deliver a fair go for Fairfax because we believe in an Australia with real wage growth and income tax cuts directed towards the battlers that need them; a nation with better schools and hospitals; and fewer tax loopholes that favour the top end of town.

A FAIRER DEAL FOR CAIRNS HOTELS  

Today, Andrew Leigh joined Labor candidate for Leichhardt, Elida Faith, in Cairns to discuss how Cairns hotels will benefit from Labor’s plans to outlaw price parity clauses.  

Tourism is vital to the Cairns economy, yet too much of the money spent in local hotels is flowing offshore to online booking platforms. 

Price parity clauses prevent Australian hotels from advertising that travellers can get a better deal by booking directly.

This has the effect of channelling bookings through the two major online booking platforms, which have a combined market share of 84 per cent and take up to 30 per cent of the total hotel bill. This means 30 per cent of the hotel bill is going offshore - to people who don’t change the sheets, don’t wash the towels and don’t mop the floors.