Andrew Leigh

Getting off Struggle Street - how we can tackle Australian inequality

Speech to the Financial Counselling Australia Annual Conference

Canberra

Thank you to Lauren Levin, Fiona Guthrie and all the friends at Financial Counselling Australia for inviting me to share in your conversation today. Lauren was the one who first made contact with me about this conference, and her email really grabbed me from the opening line. Never before have I received an email that began: ‘It is most unusual to be de-funded and still continue with a major conference.’ So when I received that email from Lauren, of course I couldn’t resist saying yes to speaking today.

I understand that only today there has been some good news, and FCA has now secured funding to cover your work for the next two years. The Abbott Government has made quite a habit of changing its mind recently, but I’m very glad that in this case it has had such a good outcome. I’m sure that this reversal was in no small part due to the powerful advocacy of Carmel Franklin from CARE Financial Counselling in the ACT. Those of you who know Carmel will know that she’s a strong and consistent voice speaking on behalf of your sector and the Australians you work with.  

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 18 MAY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Budget 2015; paid parental leave; Renewable Energy Target; iron ore inquiry

KIERAN GILBERT: This is AM Agenda. With me now the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh and the Assistant Social Services Minister, Mitch Fifield. Gentlemen, good morning to you. Senator Fifield first to you on the polling: I know you don't want to get into too much commentary but I guess it's got to feel a lot better this year than it did last year in terms of how this has been received, the second Hockey budget?

ASSISTANT SOCIAL SERVICES MINISTER MITCH FIFIELD: Kieran, we've been working to a plan to get the budget back on a path to being on balance, to creating an environment that's conducive to growth and the creation of jobs. It would probably be fair to say that the plan we have is better understood at this point than it might have been at the same time last year, but we're focused on that plan, on delivering it. You're right, we will leave it to others to commentate on the polls but I think you'll find that all of my colleagues are out this week and the weeks ahead, explaining the good news that is in the budget; the good news for small business, the good news for families.

GILBERT: And the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Mr Leigh, famously – or infamously as far as I'm concerned – never comments on the polls at all. But this budget comparison, it's pretty stark and I guess it's understandable given that this is a much more generous budget than last year.

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER ANDREW LEIGH: Kieran, I do appreciate that my unwillingness to commentate on polls is an enduring source of frustration for a Monday morning regular. But I do think that the number that really counts is not the polling number but the 80,000 mums who are finding out that they won't be eligible for parental leave under the Government's policies. This is a budget which still has so much of the unfairness from the last one but doubles the deficit. Not on Labor's numbers, but on the Government's own number, the deficit has doubled over the course of the year. And it lacks that plan to invest in the future which is why Bill Shorten spent so much time on Thursday night laying out an alternative Labor plan for investing in the future.

A Big Man Named Mack and What May Have Been But for War, The Chronicle, 5 May 2015

When World War I began, Malcolm Southwell was working as a forester, planting pines on the slopes of Mount Stromlo. Nearly 6 feet, he was tall for the era, with brown hair and brown eyes. Everyone called him ‘Mack’. He enlisted in 1915 – 100 years ago.

An 'app-ier' future for our cities?

Speech to Urban Taskforce Australia

Sydney

You might not be familiar with the names Michael Nuciforo and Robert Crocitti, but they’re the kind of blokes you want to have around when you’re trying to solve a tricky problem. They’re the creators of ParkHound, an app that lets you find and hire private parking spaces in busy metropolitan areas. They decided to start the company after circling around East Melbourne on the hunt for parking near the MCG before an AFL game.

As they tell it: “We drove past parked car after parked car, after….empty space that required a parking permit. There were dozens of empty garages and driveways right near the ground. It then hit us. Wouldn't it be great if we could just knock on someone’s door and ask to park at their place for a small fee? The more we thought about it, the more it made sense. We don’t need more parking spaces, we just need to utilise the parking spaces we already have.”

ParkHound is just one of dozens of new app-based services that have sprung up recently in the so-called sharing economy. While the kinds of services offered differ, fundamentally they all link people who have surplus goods to those who can make use of them.

As the father of three young boys, the word “share!” comes out of my mouth pretty frequently. Unlike the kind of sharing I’m trying to teach them, money usually changes hands in the sharing economy. But the transaction happens directly between the provider and the consumer, with the companies themselves simply offering a platform for connecting people and collecting payments.

In thinking about the rise of services like ParkHound, AirBNB, and yes – the controversial Uber – it strikes me that the sharing economy has great potential to help us address some of the big challenges our cities face. As Australia’s cities continue to grow, issues like congestion and the use of space are becoming increasingly urgent. The mounting pressure on our built environment puts the people who live in it under pressure too – as all of you Sydneysiders would well know.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

FRIDAY, 15 MAY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s Budget alternative; small business tax cut; paid parental leave

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, one of the centrepieces of Bill Shorten's policy speech last night was a 5 per cent cut to tax on small business. He's proposing working with the government to achieve that cut, to cut the company tax for small business from 30 per cent to 25 per cent. He said to Tony Abbott: let's work together. A bit disingenuous, isn't it? This is not a government of national unity; oppositions don't get to join the Government at the Cabinet table to work out economic policy.

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER ANDREW LEIGH: Marius, I believe Australians very much want their parliamentarians to work together. We always have to be putting the national interest before partisan interest. What Bill Shorten did yesterday was to reach across the table in the Parliament and say to Tony Abbott that if he, too, believes in giving small businesses a better deal, then Labor is happy to work together to try and boost growth in that vital sector of the economy.

BENSON: Has Labor ever invited the Opposition, when it has been in government, to join it at the Cabinet table to work out policy like that?

LEIGH: We've certainly cooperated with the Coalition on a range of things. Whether they're in Government and we're in Opposition, or the other way around.

BENSON: What would a 5 per cent cut to the company tax on small business cost?

LEIGH: We'll work through the costings with the government. Certainly that'd be an important matter to be considered.

MEDIA RELEASE

ABBOTT’S ‘SAVE OUR JOBS’ BUDGET EXPOSED AS CRUEL HOAX IN CANBERRA

After a year of savage cuts to Canberra, the 2015 Budget delivers nothing for our community except more uncertainty. This is just the latest proof that the Liberals see Canberra as little more than a political punching bag by the Liberals.

There is no new infrastructure spending for the ACT in this Budget, and no acknowledgement of how hard the Abbott Government’s 17,300 job cuts have hit Canberra since the Liberals came to office.

In fact, the Government appears to be gearing up for a fresh round of public service cuts, with so-called ‘functional reviews’ on the horizon for the departments of Environment, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Social Services, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as well as the Australian Tax Office.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY PM AGENDA

WEDNESDAY, 13 MAY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Budget 2015

LAURA JAYES: Now on the Agenda panel is Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Christian Porter, and also the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh, both joining me in the studio. Christian, you heard those comments from John Howard, is he right? Is this going to be harder down the track for Joe Hockey?

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE PRIME MINISTER, CHRISTIAN PORTER: It's very hard for Liberals to disagree with John Howard but I think what he says is very broad and it's the evergreen truth that you have to find the right balance here and the balance here that we must strike is between two things. Obviously expenditure restraint is necessary, but of course there's needs in the economy which is going for a range of structural adjustments to keep things moving which is what the small business package is about. So my view obviously is that we've struck that balance fairly well. There was probably too much ying and not enough yang in Budget number one but I think we've got that balance much better in Budget number two.

JAYES: Structural reform was such a big priority last year, does this budget reflect that it's the wrong time for this kind of structural reform so that's an admission that yes, last year did go do hard?

PORTER: Well I think the proof of this pudding is in looking at the way in which forward estimates project the decrease in the deficit. I think that the consolidation back towards surplus is probably somewhat less than spectacular but nevertheless I think it's impressive and it's surprised a lot of observers including those in markets and in banks who were projecting  next year’s deficit to be a lot larger than what it is. So going from 48 to 41 to 35 and 14 and 7 is, I think, less than spectacular but nevertheless very impressive. And I think that demonstrates that the side of the Budget that engages in expenditure restraint, where we've got real spending at 1.1 per cent out to 2017-18, that's a very good result.

JAYES: I'll get to spending in a moment, but to you Andrew Leigh: these are the Treasurer's figures – I thought you might use that point in your answer here – many economists have said that yes, they think the growth in the outer years, even though some have said it looks a little ambitious at 3.5 per cent, is probably about right. Would you agree with that?

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER, ANDREW LEIGH: Well certainly Laura, I think this budget struggles to pass the test that John Howard would put on it which is getting debt and deficits under control. We've got the deficit coming in a whisker under market expectations but still twice what Joe Hockey said it was going to be last year. We've got spending as a share of the economy and tax as a share of the economy higher under this Government than it was under the last Government.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

6PR PERTH

WEDNESDAY, 13 MAY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Budget 2015

GARY ADSHEAD: I'm here with Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Thanks for your time, Andrew.

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure, Gary.

ADSHEAD: Alright now look: looking at the Budget, it's about fairness they say. They're calling it about fairness and encouraging people to have a go. Are you going to get on board with this one? 

LEIGH: Look, I think there are two ways in which you can view the Budget. You can firstly put Tony Abbott's own test to it. He said that under a Coalition Government debt would be down, taxes would be down, spending would be down. Under all of those tests, the Budget has gone in the opposite direction. Double the deficit since last year and the highest tax and spending levels under this Government that we've seen. But the other way, as you say, is the fairness test and investment in the future. There, I worry that Western Australia has had $8 billion ripped out of schools and hospitals. There’s no investment in science and research which will underpin the job growth of the future. So the long-run plan really seems to be missing from the Budget.

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ONLINE INTERVIEW

FAIRFAX BREAKING POLITICS

WEDNESDAY, 13 MAY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Budget 2015

CHRIS HAMMER: Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, good morning.

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER ANDREW LEIGH: G'day Chris.

HAMMER: Now, I'm sure there's plenty in this Budget that you don't like and we'll get on to that. But is there anything in the Budget that you do like?

LEIGH: Absolutely. There's investment for the National Disability Insurance Scheme's IT system, there's a small business package that I think is to be welcomed, and there's childcare changes which I think should be looked at with a positive eye. But I'm worried that the childcare changes are contingent on families payments cuts. It doesn't help families much if you give them more money when they've got a three-year-old and then take it away when they've got a six year old.

HAMMER: So what will Labor do with those childcare measures if they remain linked to the family tax benefit cuts?

LEIGH: Chris, we can't support those family payments cuts. We've been clear about that ever since last year's unfair budget. Kids don't get any cheaper when they turn six. I've got an eight-year-old and I can assure you he is no cheaper than his two- and five-year-old brothers. 

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RADIO INTERVIEW

666 ABC CANBERRA

WEDNESDAY, 13 MAY 2015

SUBJECT/S: Budget 2015

PHILIP CLARK: Joining us now at Parliament House, Andrew Leigh the Labor Member for Fraser and the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. Andrew, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning, Philip.

CLARK: And Angus Taylor Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue and Liberal Member for Hume. Angus, good morning. And here in the studio with us is Susan Helyar from the ACT Council of Social Service, she is the director of ACTCOSS. Susan, good morning to you too.

HELYAR: Good morning.

CLARK: Angus to you first, the age of entitlement and taking the hard decisions and all of that was the language of last year. This year it's all about childcare, what happened?

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HUME ANGUS TAYLOR: Well we've made a lot of the hard decisions and we've done a lot of hard work. What we've done, Phillip, over the last 12 months is we've contained the growth in spending that we inherited and that is the most important piece of work we've done over the last 12 months. We're now in a position where we can reinvest in childcare, in jobs, in small businesses – a completely unprecedented small business package – and that's because of the hard work we've been doing. Now you know, it hasn't all been easy and we haven't achieved everything we wanted to but we've gone a long way down the path of what we needed to what we needed to curb that absolutely profligate growth.

CLARK: So the debt and deficit emergency, the budget emergency, that's all over now is it?

TAYLOR: I always saw it as an emergency in spending growth being out of control, that was the problem that I, as someone with a background in economics, always saw. We've now curbed that, and now the job is to really stimulate the economy over the next little while. We are optimistic about the economy, we are optimistic about investment particularly coming from small business over the coming couple of years, and that's the real focus. As well as a focus on jobs and helping those who want to work more, particularly women who are working part-time with extraordinary support in this childcare package as well.

CLARK: Susan Helyar, is the budget fair? Last year there was a lot of talk about it not being fair, that the impacts fell on people who could least afford it: what about this one?

HELYAR: There are some fair measures in it, but we would continue with our previous analysis which is the savings are skewed to low-income households and the ongoing concessions and subsidies continue for higher income households. The other concern we have is that many of the very unfair and damaging impacts of last year's budget continue. We see that the savage cuts to social services, legal services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Services are still in place. The childcare and early childhood learning measures expected to be funded out of cuts to family benefits. For example cutting $10 a week off a single income family to fund people on $170, 000 to get half their childcare fees subsidised. So there are still some concerns around its fairness.

CLARK: Andrew Leigh, are you pleased that the debt and deficit crisis is over?

LEIGH: I'm not sure in what world it would be over, Philip. If you look at the deficit for the coming year, it has doubled since the last budget. If you look at total spending, total spending is going to be higher under this Government as a share of national income than it was under the previous Government.