Andrew Leigh

Second Reading Speech

Thursday 23 March 2017

There are species of animals known as tardigrades—or water bears or moss piglets—which are considered to be some of the most resilient species in the universe. They can go without food or water for 30 years. They can survive at temperatures of 150 degrees Celsius and minus 200 degrees Celsius. They can withstand pressure of 6,000 atmospheres, six times the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They can be dehydrated for 10 years, withstand 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, cope with environmental toxins and survive in outer space. They are indestructible—and so too are bad National Party economic ideas. They just do not die.

Today, I was pleased to host the ‘Keep Me Posted’ team along with many Canberra residents at an open forum to promote the campaign for paper bills and statements to be issued to Australians without financial penalties.

With me at the campaign’s first Canberra forum was Colin Ormsby from Fair Go for Pensioners and Kellie Northwood, Executive Director of the ‘Keep Me Posted’ campaign.

In 2017, numerous banks, telecommunication companies and other service providers are pressuring their customers to accept electronic bills and statements, even though many Canberra residents find it difficult or impossible to access their papers online.

Keep Me Posted is challenging corporations to remove ‘pay-to-pay’ penalties for Australians who prefer paper communications.

Labor welcomes the news that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been honoured with an international award from the World Bank and the International Competition Network.

The award recognizes the Commission for its role in making competition policy a key part of Australia’s economic agenda.

Which begs the following question….considering the Commission is working with one regulatory arm tied behind its back, imagine the honours with which it would have been showered had it the powers Labor proposed before the 2016 election?

CHRIS BOWEN MP

SHADOW TREASURER

MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

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

UMM, MALCOLM...SCOTT’S STARTED IMPROVISING POLICY AGAIN

The Treasurer’s latest idea is a last-minute amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act that he will reportedly move today in the House of Representatives.

In the words of Monty Python’s Life of Brian: “He’s making it up as he goes along!”

Second Reading Speech 

Tuesday 21 March 2017

I move:

That all the words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House calls on the Government to explain why it is desperate to hide in this bill, and the Diverted Profits Tax Bill 2017, a $50 billion tax cut for big banks and multinationals behind a phoney war on tax avoidance".

Labor will support the Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Bill 2017, but we do note, in debating this bill, that this government are 'the hollowmen' of multinational tax action. How is it that the government's actions on multinational tax end not with a bang but with a whimper? The $200 million of revenue that accompanies the diverted profits tax is the bounty of a government that has launched a phoney war on multinational tax avoidance, desperate to distract from their $50 billion tax giveaway to the very companies that they claim to be targeting with this bill. This is entirely in keeping with the government's inconsistency on the issue of multinational tax avoidance—when the coalition was in opposition and now in government. That should be no surprise to impartial observers. To paraphrase David Hume, the coalition are so much the same in all times and places that history informs us there is nothing new or strange in this particular. History's chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of their nature.

Address-in-Reply

Wednesday 22 March 

I rise to speak on the many virtues of Australia's Bush Capital, a city which is, according to the OECD, the most liveable region in the OECD. It is a great privilege to represent the north side of Canberra, the electorate formerly known as Fraser and now known as Fenner, after the great Australian scientist Frank Fenner. With community volunteers, we organised a 'Clean up Yerrabi Pond' afternoon last Saturday and were pleasantly surprised at the number of locals who turned out to assist us with making that part of Canberra just a little cleaner.

I would like to acknowledge my staff, Nick Terrell, Eleanor Robson, Lillian Hannock, Jacob White, Nick Green and Taimus Werner-Gibbings, and the many volunteers, including Rob and Robin Eakin and Gerry Lloyd, plus other community volunteers, who helped us not only to pick up some of the garbage that had been strewn on the ground there but also—after we had washed our hands—to cook a barbecue for the community. It was a reminder of the strong community spirit that exists in Canberra and the Gungahlin area in general and Yerrabi Pond in particular. One of the things I love about Yerrabi Pond is it is a terrific spot take the kids with its flying foxes and state-of-the-art play areas. It is also the start area for the Gungahlin parkrun. I know that my colleague Ross Hart has recently spoken about the virtues of parkruns. This parkrun is very well attended and certainly one that I have enjoyed running in the past.

Burma and Australian Foreign Aid 

Monday 20 March 2017

Australia has had a diplomatic presence in Burma, now known as Myanmar, since 1952. Unlike other countries, we never withdrew, even at the peak of the military rule. In 2013, I had the honour of representing Prime Minister Gillard to welcome military President Thein Sein to Canberra. It did not occur to me at the time that just a few years later I would be in Myanmar with this bipartisan delegation, funded by the Gates Foundation and organised by Save the Children, meeting democratically elected leaders from the National League for Democracy. Labor welcomes the 2015 election result and the strong economic progress that has been made in Myanmar over that period.

During our visit to Myanmar we saw firsthand the good that foreign aid can do. We visited projects run by Oxfam, World Vision, the United Nations Development Programme and the Danish Refugee Council. We saw Australian Volunteers for International Development volunteers. We visited Phandeeyar, where CEO David Madden told us about how Phandeeyar is working on building microenterprises. It is doing everything from teaching the Harvard CS50 computer science course and running accelerator programs for firms to working on democracy projects for its Open Development Myanmar program.

Although the government’s budget cuts to the Australian Bureau of Statistics have already forced 120 staff members out of their jobs, reports this afternoon are warning that another 80-100 jobs will be cut from the agency.

If true, this is more unwelcome evidence of the Turnbull-Joyce government’s war on information.

The government’s ideological obsession with firing public servants has blinded it to the important work of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ABS staff produce data and analysis critical to the delivery of hospitals, schools, housing and public transport infrastructure.

Just six months ago Chief Statistician David Kalisch admitted that, “the ABS does not have the resources to undertake all the activities that fall within our legislative mandate that our users would like”? 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 20 MARCH 2017

SUBJECT/S: Competition policy; Newspoll; National energy crisis; Turnbull’s support for penalty rate cuts.

KIERAN GILBERT: With me now is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh. Thanks very much for your time. You've copped some criticism for a piece you wrote last week in relation to the five faceless investors in top 20 Australian companies. The critique of your piece is basically that it's wrong in the sense that these custodian firms only have the power to hold shares, not have voting rates or anything of that sort. Were you wrong to suggest that these faceless investors behind the scenes control the firms?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, I've made a mistake and I've owned up to that already. But what we were doing here is looking at the ways in which uncompetitive markets can hurt consumers. It's a part of work I've been doing for years since taking on the competition portfolio. I think it's absolutely critical in Australia that we keep on lifting up rocks and having a look at instances in which consumers aren't getting the best deal because of uncompetitive markets. 

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

TIM HAMMOND MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR RESOURCES

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH

 ROD SIMS BACKS LABOR’S CALL FOR HIGHER PENALTIES, AGAIN

Labor welcomes yet another call from Rod Sims, the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, for an increase in the penalties for companies that breach the Australian Consumer Law.

 In 2016, Labor announced that we would;

 “Increase civil penalties under the Australian Consumer Law from $1.1 million to $10 million, bringing penalties in-line with the competition provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.”

–     Andrew Leigh, 15 June 2016

In yesterday’s speech to the National Consumer Congress, Mr Sims cited recent messages from the Federal Court that penalties must be high enough to sufficiently deter misconduct, especially as some big companies continue to treat their customers “so badly, and with so little respect.”

“Penalties should be seen as more than just a cost of doing business…Where the Court finds contraventions, it’s vital that large companies are held to account, but the penalties must make them sit up and take notice.”

 –     Rod Sims, 15 March 2017