Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

CNBC SQUAWK BOX

WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017

SUBJECT/S: 2017 Federal Budget.

MATT TAYLOR: Andrew Leigh, thank you very much for chatting with us. What did you make of the budget that was revealed last night? By some it has been called a Labor lite budget, is that how you see the budget?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: I think if you're assessing any budget you need to do it based on the challenges that Australia faces. We've got rising inequality, declining home ownership and sluggish productivity. My worry is that the budget has a huge tax hand out for millionaires, some $16,400. But the budget doesn't do anything to improve housing affordability by tackling negative gearing and capital gains tax discount which have acted together to blow up the housing market and drive home ownership to it's lowest level in 60 years. We don't have the infrastructure spend on things like the National Broadband Network or the education spend that we need in order to build prosperity for the future. 

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017

SUBJECT/S: Turnbull’s budget for millionaires and multinationals, housing affordability, bank levy, Medicare levy, low wage growth under Malcolm Turnbull

[AUDIO CUTS IN]

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: This is a Budget that delivers very little to economic growth, but a huge amount to the pockets of these shareholders of some of  the world's biggest firms. It's a Budget which is taking money out of Australian schools, which is taking money out of our universities, at a time when we know, Glen, if we want to be a prosperous, equitable, productive nation, we have to be investing first and foremost in education. Yet our schools, are saying they are going to have to raise fees. Universities may have to going to have to lay off researchers as a result of these cuts to those institutions.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

FIVEAA MORNINGS

WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017

SUBJECT/S: 2017 Federal Budget.

LEON BYNER: The Shadow Assistant Treasurer is Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew first of all, I'll pick out a couple of things. What do you think of the $6.2 billion taken off banks to fund the NDIS?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: G'day Leon and good morning to you and your listeners. The banking levy is an extraordinary exercise in chutzpah. I’m old enough to remember just a few years back when Chris Bowen put a banking levy on which was just a tenth of the size of this one. And with the revenue hypothecated towards a special financial stability fund rather than just put into general revenue. This is a very significant levy for the banks and for the Government – as on a bunch of other things – has done a complete backflip.

BUDGET TINKERS WITH COMPETITION PENALTIES, WON’T GO ALL THE WAY

Labor welcomes the Government’s adoption of Labor’s plan to increase the penalties for anti-consumer conduct under the Australian Consumer Law from $1.1 million to $10 million. Labor took this policy to the 2016 election. On dozens of occasions since, we have invited the Coalition to adopt it. Finally, they have done so.

But the Turnbull Government has failed to increase penalties for anti-competitive conduct and to double the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s litigation budget so that it can take more enforcement action.

SCOMO ON MULTINATIONAL TAX: MORE REVLON THAN REVOLUTION

For all Scott Morrison’s rhetoric about tax avoidance, tonight’s multinational tax measures are simply cosmetic.

According to the government’s own budget papers, their revenue gain is ‘unquantifiable’. 

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS TO THE POINT

MONDAY, 8 MAY 2017

SUBJECT/S: Federal budget, housing affordability, Government inaction on negative gearing / Capital Gains Tax discount, corporate tax cuts rates for banks, Government’s $22 billion in cuts to schools, Eliud Kipchoge

KRISTINA KENEALLY, PRESENTER: Let's bring in our guest today, Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Joining us, not out of Perth, but Canberra. Great to see you.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks Kristina, great to be with you. G'day Peter

PETER VAN ONSELEN, PRESENTER: G'day, what do you think of Sam Dastyari not getting the approval of residents whose houses in some cases he mocked, in others he made legitimate statements about. What do you think of him rabbiting on about housing affordability when he himself has an investment property in Sydney, taking advantage of all of those perks of negative gearing.

LEIGH: Peter, I think young Australians are less worried about four-letter words and more worried about seven-digit house prices. These rapid house price rises we've seen over the last few years have been well in excess of what wages have been doing, driving houses out of the affordability range for so many young people. They come up to me at my street stalls - a young couple the other month, a builder and a teacher, saying they thought they were there in the market and then the prices just accelerated away from them. Why are they doing that?

WHY THE 1% THINK THEY'RE THE BOTTOM 99%

Business Insider, 3 May 2017

Reducing economic inequality means addressing the widening social gap in Australia. New research shows that the income gaps within our cities have grown larger since the 1990s. Compared with two decades ago, well-paid workers are less likely to live in places with low average incomes. University of New South Wales economist Bruce Bradbury, who carried out the study, sums up his findings with the old joke: ‘What did the rich man say to the poor man? Nothing, they never met.’

A major risk of social bifurcation is that policymakers and commentators become disconnected from the reality of lived experience in Australia. Looking out from the boardroom, the parliament or the newsroom, it’s easy to forget that half of all households have disposable incomes below $80,000.

THE HON. BILL SHORTEN MP

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS AND ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS

MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION AND PRODUCTIVITY

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CHARITIES AND NOT-FOR-PROFITS

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE IN SERVICES

MEMBER FOR FENNER

LABOR TIGHTENING MULTINATIONAL RORTS

A Shorten Labor Government will improve the Budget bottom line by $5.4 billion over the decade through reforms ensuring multinational companies are no longer given a free pass to use the Liberals' tax loopholes.

Labor’s five point plan will restore integrity to the Australian tax system through stronger laws which will close loopholes and increase tax scrutiny.

Labor’s package - Their Fair Share –includes measures that will:

1. Tighten debt-deduction loopholes used by multinational companies, improving the Budget by $4.6 billion over the decade.

2. Increase compliance activity by the Australian Taxation Office

3. Remove tax advantages and inconsistencies between Multiple Entry Consolidated Groups (consisting of Australian-resident entities that share a common ultimate foreign owner) and Australian-owned ordinary consolidated groups.

4. Deliver more tax transparency by restoring Labor’s $100 million threshold for public reporting of tax data for private companies. This threshold was raised to $200 million in another deal with the Liberals and the Greens political party.

5. Appoint a community sector representative to the Board of Taxation to ensure community sector voices are heard in tax design and review processes.

Labor’s laws helped deliver victory to the Australian Tax Office against Chevron – Malcolm Turnbull is only interested in delivering a $50 billion tax handout to big business and the banks.

Malcolm Turnbull has a simple choice: to stand up and fight for Australian workers and businesses who pay their fair share, or sit idly by as budget revenue and fairness slip away.

A fact sheet is available here

The Bush Capital Shouldn’t Go Bush

Canberra Chronicle, 2 May

Earle Page may not have been Prime Minister for long, but his shrewd advocacy for Canberra merits him a proud place in our city’s story. Faced with a Canberra-bashing MP, Page invited the man to visit from Western Australia for a weekend. They went trout fishing one night (the visitor caught three large ones), hare shooting the next morning, and quail shooting in the afternoon. After that, Page recalled, the MP became a Canberra enthusiast.

Canberra’s advocates have found different things to love about the nation’s capital. Andrew Fisher championed the art collection.  Joseph Lyons believed a ‘young country’ needed a great National Library. John Curtin enjoyed the fact that Canberra left governments less vulnerable to special interests. Robert Menzies initiated the annual Prime Minister's XI cricket match, and aimed to 'build up Canberra as a capital in the eyes and minds of the Australian people'.

Telling the proud history of Canberra isn’t just a matter of civic pride – it’s critical to ensuring that the national purpose of our city isn’t eroded. The decision to relocate the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority will cost taxpayers more, produce worse scientific outcomes, and disrupt hundreds of staff. Since 2013, one in 13 federal public servants have lost their jobs – a virtual decimation of the national bureaucracy. Now, the successors of Earle Page and Robert Menzies are telling departments that they have to justify staying in Canberra.

Already, six out of ten federal public servants live outside Canberra. But the policy role needs to be in the national capital for the simple reason that proximity produces better outcomes. If you like efficiency and joined-up government, you should love Canberra. Recently, a friend told me the story of how she had solved a problem that crossed departments. The solution came on the soccer field, where the two public servants played in a local tournament. It saved taxpayer money, and would never have happened if the departments had been located in different towns. Enough bashing the bush capital.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 1 MAY 2017

SUBJECT/S: Liberals’ Budget mess; University funding; Competition policy; GST.

TOM CONNELL: Joining me now is Andrew Leigh, Shadow Assistant Treasurer from the Labor Party. Thank you for your time today. Starting on this Deloitte Access Report, lower tax receipts than we were expecting, bigger budget deficit happens under both parties these days it seems?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: We had a global financial crisis which led to governments around the world taking on debt as you well know. The difference is with Australia is that other countries have started to pay down their debt. But since 2013 Australia’s debt has increased by over $4000 or more for every man, woman and child in Australia. So a Government who campaigned in front of debt trucks really should be driving debt road trains around the country right now if they were being honest.