Andrew Leigh

LABOR’S PLAN FOR STEM IN CANBERRA SCHOOLS

Joint Release with Amanda Rishworth

Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Higher Education Amanda Rishworth and Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh have today visited Harrison School to discuss Labor's positive plan for science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM).

They met with students working in Harrison School’s robotics lab and joined with science students to talk about building better career paths to the jobs of the future.

STEM disciplines will be central to the jobs of the changing economy and Canberra kids with these skills will be well positioned to succeed in the future.

That is why a Shorten Labor Government will do more to support local teachers to ensure that they can deliver STEM to students in a way that engages and inspires them. This includes funding 25,000 primary and secondary teachers over five years to undertake professional development in STEM disciplines, including coding.

Labor will also provide 25,000 teaching scholarships over five years to new and recent STEM graduates to encourage them to continue their study and become STEM teachers.

TURNBULL STANDS FOR TAX SECRECY

Malcolm Turnbull is today responsible for ensuring Australia’s biggest private companies can keep secret how much tax they pay.

His Government has rammed a bill through the Senate that will gut this country’s tax transparency laws and keep Australians in the dark about the tax affairs of huge firms.

Today Malcolm Turnbull has been forced to defend his own investments in the notorious tax haven of the Cayman Islands. His Government has chosen this very same day to put a new cloak of secrecy over the tax affairs of companies earning more than $100 million a year.  

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Malcolm Turnbull’s Cayman Island portfolio

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning everyone. We've been debating in the Parliament a number of important issues that go to multinational taxation. Labor has been calling for all companies with income over $100 million to have their tax affairs disclosed. That's their total income, taxable income and tax paid. The Coalition is trying to take half of those companies out of the transparency net and keep their tax affairs secret. Labor has been putting on the table a serious package that will crack down on multinational tax avoidance and add more than $7 billion to the budget bottom line. The Coalition isn't willing to close these debt deduction loopholes.

In that context, I think many Australians will find it unusual that the Prime Minister is investing in vulture funds in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands have been on the radar of the OECD and tax authorities around the world as a notorious tax haven. Australia's tax commissioner has referred to it as a tax haven and Malcolm Turnbull's decision to invest in a number of Cayman Islands-based funds does call into question how serious he is able to be about cracking down on multinational tax avoidance – which is a serious issue for the Australian budget – and tax fairness. Happy to take questions.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

RN BREAKFAST

THURSDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Malcolm Turnbull’s Cayman Island portfolio

FRANK KELLY: Andrew Leigh is Labor's Shadow Assistant Treasurer and he joins me now. Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: ‘Morning Fran, good to be with you.

KELLY: Yes or no: are you accusing the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, of inappropriate conduct when it comes to his tax affairs?

LEIGH: Fran, this certainly is something that most Australians wouldn't look to do. If most Australians found themselves in possession of a little bit of extra money, they would probably use it to pay down the mortgage or – 

KELLY: Hang on a second; let's go back. Yes or no: are you accusing the Prime Minister of inappropriate conduct when it comes to his tax affairs?

LEIGH: It's certainly unusual conduct, Fran.

WHICH REVENUE WAS THAT AGAIN?

It seems Treasurer 2.0 Scott Morrison has yet to familiarise himself with the Government’s own budget papers.

In Question Time today, Mr Morrison trumpeted his multinational tax bill saying: “It will raise real revenue.”

This is how much revenue the Government has actually booked for its tax measure:  

SENATORS SLAM ‘ABSURD’ AND ‘ILLOGICAL’ TAX TRANSPARENCY ROLLBACK

Joint media release with Senator Sam Dastyari

Senators have tonight condemned the Abbott-Turnbull Government for its attempts to gut Australia’s tax transparency laws.

Labor and crossbench Senators have tabled a forceful dissenting report on the Government bill which seeks to help Australia’s richest companies keep their tax affairs secret. 

I’m restructuring my office and looking to hire a full-time policy and communications adviser, based in Canberra.

The job involves contributing to the economic policy work in my office. For example, the past year has seen my office contribute to policymaking on taxation, innovation, inequality and competition. With each of these issues, our aim is to engage with the academic literature, policy experts, interest groups and the wider community.

The office is friendly and collegial. We’re looking for someone who is able to assist with immediate tasks (eg. answering phones, transcribing media interviews) while also working with my other policy staff on ideas-generation (eg. drafting memos, speeches).

Malcolm Turnbull’s plans to jack up the GST have been exposed today, with the new Prime Minister confirming he plans to increase the GST just like Tony Abbott wanted to. 

In an interview on 3AW, the Prime Minister announced his Government is looking at options to make Australian families pay more every single time they go to the shops.

MITCHELL: So everything is on the table? Superannuation, negative gearing, capital gains tax, everything, GST, everything is on the table.

TURNBULL: Everything is on the table, that’s right.

[NEIL MITCHELL - 3AW - 6 OCTOBER 2015]

Of course Mr Turnbull and the Liberals want to increase taxes that hurt low and middle income earners the most.  That’s because he is out of touch with the increasing cost of living pressures being faced by millions of Australian families.

TAX PLAN IS ON THE TABLE, YOUR MOVE TURNBULL

With the release of the OECD’s comprehensive plan to tackle multinational profit shifting around the globe, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison must now get serious about ensuring big companies pay their fair share.

The OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan has been more than two years in the making. It lays out a comprehensive 15-point agenda to close the loopholes that have opened up in the tax net due to changing technology and an increasingly global business environment.

Labor has supported the OECD’s work from the start because we are committed to tax fairness. We have long argued that domestic action must go hand-in-hand with participation in the global effort to get our tax laws right for the future. In March, we announced a plan to close multinational tax loopholes that the independent Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated will raise $7.2 billion over the decade.

Substantive soundbites, The Chronicle, 6 October

What do fish ears, damaged brains and dark matter have in common? These were three of the topics presented at the Australian National University’s ‘Three Minute Thesis’ competition.

Not since Monty Python’s ‘Summarise Proust in Fifteen Seconds’ competition, have contestants  had to boil so much material down to so little time. As the host pointed out on the night, an 80,000 word thesis would take nine hours to read out.

And yet they performed magnificently. Along with my fellow judges – Genevieve Jacobs, Susan Bannigan, Subho Banerjee and Adam Bandt – I was constantly struck by the presenters’ ability to provide context, insight and a dose of wit.