Andrew Leigh

A lot of Australia's economic and financial forecasting relies on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. So it's worrying to see what's happening at the bureau under Joe Hockey's watch.

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ABS TURBULENCE COMES FROM TREASURER'S NEGLECT

The troubles at the Australian Bureau of Statistics are a direct result of the Abbott Government’s decision to hack millions from its budget, while also leaving the bureau languishing without a permanent head for almost a year now.

Comparing the Coalition’s May budget with Labor’s 2013-14 numbers shows it has slashed the bureau’s funding by $62 million over the next four years. 

There has been an explosion of interest in behavioural economics over the past few years, and many interesting studies have shed new light on the often-irrational nature of human decision-making. I was fortunate enough to be invited along to the Grattan Institute in Melbourne to discuss how the insights of behavioural economics can help guide public policymaking. 

‘WHAT ROLE FOR BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS IN PUBLIC POLICY?’

ADDRESS TO THE GRATTAN INSTITUTE 

WEDNESDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2014 

MELBOURNE

While I was in graduate school, two of my classmates, Stefano DellaVigna and Ulrike Malmendier, carried out a study on gym visits. They obtained data from three Boston gyms, and analysed the attendance patterns of members.

Dividing annual fees by the number of visits, they found that the typical gym member spent $17 per visit, even although casual visits cost only $10. In total, the average member loses $600 compared with if they had just paid as a casual. The title of the paper? ‘Paying not to go to the gym’.

It's really disappointing to hear that the Abbott Government is considering making further cuts to Australia's aid budget after already slashing $7.6 billion from it in the May budget. The government's approach is especially galling when there's clear evidence Australians support foreign aid and want to see us do our bit in the region.

Foreign aid cuts are counter to Australian generosity, Canberra Times, 8 October

In the beachside town of Tibar, in Timor-Leste’s Liquiçá District, there is a little community school where local children come each day to learn reading and writing. For a long time, the school’s staff taught only from a couple of outdated textbooks, while the children ground stubs of chalk down to nothing writing on battered slates.

That changed in 2010 when an Australian Government aid program began providing Tibar’s school with brand new textbooks, reading tools and learning materials. For the first time, the school could offer its students an education that fed and inspired their young minds.

Following news that the Abbott Government has finally discovered the connection between international economic conditions and the state of the Australian budget, I joined Peter Van Onselen's show on Sky to talk about what it should do next. Here's the clip:  

For the past few months, the Abbott Government has been seeking feedback on its plans to abolish to Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Despite promising to make this feedback public by September, there's still no sign of Minister Kevin Andrews releasing it. So the question is:

WHAT IS KEVIN ANDREWS KEEPING FROM US?

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Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews is keeping us all in the dark about how his plans for replacing the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission have been received by the sector.

In July the government released an options paper which recommended that the dedicated charities commission be replaced by a mix of oversight from the Australian Tax Office and self-reporting by not-for-profits.

Minister Andrews called for public submissions responding to this paper, and his department also held 10 forums around Australia for representatives of the charity sector.

The department promised to publish the findings from this consultation process on its website in September. Yet here we are in the second week of October and there is still no sign of the submissions being released.

Could it be that the Minister is holding back the submissions because they rubbish his idea of scrapping an agency which is making life easier for charities and increasing transparency across the not-for-profit sector?

The Women's Legal Centre will have $100,000 cut from its funding by the Abbott Government in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years. A constituent of mine got in touch to share her story about the Women's Legal Centre, and concerns about the government's cuts. Without community legal assistance she and her children would have been exposed to prolonged abuse and trauma. Sadly, her story is not unique, nor is it uncommon.

1 October 2014

I spoke in parliament to offer my condolences for the death of Emeritus Professor Anthony McMichael AO, and recognise his major contribution to our understanding of the links between climate change and human health.

News that the federal government is going back to the drawing board with the budget because it can't get its unfair cuts through the Senate has further increased the focus on Australia's tax revenue. Are we collecting enough tax? And if, as Fairfax has been reporting, some big companies aren't paying their fair share, how do we fix that problem? I joined Janine Perrett on Sky to talk tax and the budget; here's the video.  

Over the past few days, there's been a lot of discussion about how much tax Australian companies pay and whether big firms are paying their fair share. This video from United Voice and the Tax Justice Network gives a great rundown of the facts and figures behind that debate:

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has released some new research showing how much time and money Australian charities spend complying with their regulatory requirements. Embarrassingly for Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, the report reveals his whole rationale for scrapping the commission is completely wrong.

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RED TAPE? NOT FROM THE CHARITIES COMMISSION

Kevin Andrews’ main argument for scrapping the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission has been blown apart by a new report today from Ernst & Young.

The report finds that the charities commission has an critical role to play in reducing regulatory burden.