Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC RADIO ADELAIDE

THURSDAY, 21 JUNE 2018

SUBJECTS: Labor’s plan for a bigger, better and fairer tax cut.

JULES SCHILLER: Let’s get a response from federal Labor. We have the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh on the line. Hi, Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: G’day, Jules. Great to be with you.

SCHILLER: Ok. Well, look, a cut to lower and middle class earners – that’s something Labor would support, surely?

LEIGH: Absolutely. That stage one package we actually doubled down on. We said we didn’t just want to give middle Australia a $500 a year tax cut - we wanted to give them nearly $1000 a year tax cut. And extraordinarily, Scott Morrison voted against that. The thing that Scott’s not telling you, Jules, is that about 70 per cent of workers will always be better off under Labor’s plan. He wants to emphasise the total dollar amount but he doesn’t want to tell you where it’s going. And that’s because by the time you get to his stage three, 95 per cent of the benefits are going to the top fifth of income earners. So, that’s not a plan to encourage people into work. That’s not a plan to help most of your listeners. That’s a plan to give the most to those who already have the most.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

CANBERRA

WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2018
 
SUBJECTS: Turnbull’s comments telling aged workers to get a better job; Labor’s plan for bigger, better, fairer tax cuts for working Australians; Telstra job losses; US leaving Human Rights Council.
 
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Good morning everyone. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner and I'd like to welcome you to this aged care facility in Ainslie. We've been here meeting today with a range of aged care workers. Among them, Abbie, Kerul, Lorraine and Lise. They're among the thousands of aged care workers across Australia; talented, hardworking and deeply caring. Aged care workers that deserve the respect of every Australian.

I'd like to thank this aged care facility for taking the time to have their staff meet with Bill Shorten and Julie Collins and I today. We greatly admire the work that they do, the support that they provide to the residents here and recognise that all of us need great aged care workers because any of us could well finish up in a facility like this and we would want to be looked after by people of the calibre of Abbi, and Lise and Lorraine and Kerul.

Let me hand over now to Bill Shorten.

LABOR'S PLAN TO TACKLE TAX HAVENS

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

In 2012, the Coalition voted in the House and Senate against laws to close a multinational tax avoidance loophole. Last year, we saw that very same law being used to secure a $340 million judgement against Chevron. But, extraordinarily, we didn't see the Turnbull Government saying: 'Mea culpa. We got it wrong in 2012. If we'd had our way back then, the budget would now be hundreds of millions of dollars worse off, net debt would be rising even faster than it is today'—hard to believe given that net debt is rising faster than it did even under the global financial crisis. We saw none of that apology. Instead, we saw the government patting themselves on the back for the Chevron decision, patting themselves on the back for a court decision based on a law they had voted against.

CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL PHOENIX ACTIVITY

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

In May 2017 Labor announced that a Shorten Labor government would take significant action to tackle illegal phoenix activity. We said, in particular, that we would put in place a director identification number, dealing with the problem that, right now, it is tougher to open a bank account than to register as a company director. One of the consequences of this was brought home through media reports which noted that a member of this House was registered multiple times as a director. That, I assume, was inadvertent, but the fact that it could occur at all illustrates the problem in our current system.

THE SECRET GST DISTRIBUTION REPORT

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

Another critical issue that the government is failing to act on is the GST distribution report. The Productivity Commission handed its report on GST distribution to the government on 15 May. The government has to table the report in parliament 25 sitting days after receipt. There will be only 15 sitting days between receiving the report and the date of the by-elections in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia that occur during the winter break.

FAIRER MARKETS

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

We've seen yesterday Apple Australia receiving $9 million in fines as a result of misleading consumers about their rights under Australian Consumer Law to get their products repaired. This is another slap-on-the-wrist penalty, following penalties in the Nurofen case which were noted by a number of experts and jurists to be inadequate.

BANKING ROYAL COMMISSION

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

Then we have the Liberals' approach to banking misconduct. Following the Storm Financial collapse in 2009, Labor's Bernie Ripoll convened a parliamentary joint committee inquiry into the role of the financial services sector, spending nearly a year examining the industry and producing an important report.

YOUR CAR, YOUR CHOICE

Federation Chamber, 20 June 2018

Over a year ago, Labor called on the government to act on the problem that's facing independent mechanics who aren't getting access to the software updates they need to fix modern cars. Modern cars are computers on wheels, with 20 to 50 onboard computers. Without access to those data, independent mechanics can't fix cars. Independent mechanics account for about four in five mechanics in Australia.

TACKLING THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS
 
MASTER BUILDERS NATIONAL LEADERS SUMMIT
 
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
 
WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2018 

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and thank Hedley Davis and Denita Wawn, as well as my ACT colleague Zed Seselja.
 
As you know, Australia is facing a housing affordability crisis. We now have the lowest home ownership rate that we've had in 60 years. There are over 500,000 Australians in rental stress and almost no housing that is affordable for low-income Australians. In the early 1980s the ratio of house prices to incomes was 2:1. Now, it's over 5:1. We're a nation that is increasingly struggling to house our young people.

TURNBULL MUST ACT ON POOR CHOICE AND ROTTEN APPLES

Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop focusing on giving big business a billion dollar handout and instead ensure they are playing by the rules.
 
Apple has been fined $9 million by the Federal Court for making false or misleading claims to customers with faulty iPhones and iPads in a case that backs Labor’s calls for increased fines for breaches of consumer law.
 
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had taken the tech giant to court amid complaints it had told customers they weren't entitled to a repair or replacement after they had a third party fix devices that were disabled by an iOS software update.