Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ONLINE INTERVIEW

FAIRFAX BREAKING POLITICS

MONDAY, 16 MARCH 2015

SUBJECT/S: Abbott Government’s attacks on pensions; higher education cuts; Asian Infrastructure Development Bank

CHRIS HAMMER: We're joined by Andrew Leigh, Labor Member for Fraser and also the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, and Andrew Laming, Liberal Member for Bowman in Queensland. Good morning gentlemen. Now I really have to start, Andrew Laming, with you after your comments on this program last week where you raised objections to the Government's policy on indexing pensions. You said that there were missiles, Exocets and torpedoes lined up at the policy from within the Government itself. Now, on the weekend Scott Morrison has suggested some sort of compromise with a review body to be set up. What's your reaction to that?

ANDREW LAMING, MEMBER FOR BOWMAN: Well the military ordinance is still there but it has not moved. There’s positive signs, we are seeing movement and I think that's what was wanted – not just by backbenchers. The nation wants to see a reasonable compromise supported by the crossbench in a way that pensioners can support. So what we've seen in the last week is an indication that pensions will be looked after by a separate and more apolitical body, and secondly reviewed according to economic circumstances. Both of them seem fairly reasonable but for the moment, pensioners will be asking the question: have our pensions been cut already? The answer is no. Are they automatically going to go from a high to a low level of indexation? Not necessarily. But that's about as far as we've got in the last week.

I was fortunate enough to join the panel on ABC's Q&A, where things got lively discussing everything from inequality to the future of our economy. Take a look:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW

INSIDERS

SUNDAY, 8 MARCH 2015

SUBJECT/S: Intergenerational Report

BARRIE CASSIDY: With the Intergenerational Report released this week, we are joined by the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh from the Canberra studios. Good morning, welcome.

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

CASSIDY: When you look at that report, the most sobering thought is the prospect of budget deficits for another 40 years. That should inspire not just governments but oppositions to start thinking about some tough decisions.

LEIGH: Barrie, it is absolutely right we need to be looking at measures which are going to ensure the Budget returns to a sustainable surplus. In government, Labor put in place over $100 billion worth of savings. After the Global Financial Crisis, when we used stimulus to save jobs, we put in place a two per cent real spending cap and stuck to it. Doing things like means testing the private health insurance rebate – one of the fastest growing areas of the budget – and curtailing the baby bonus. Both were opposed by the Coalition. So we have got the track record on making sustainable decisions.

Capital forges civic renaissance, The Chronicle, 3 March

First, the bad news. Since the 1960s, many measures of ‘social capital’ in Australia have waned. On average, we have fewer friends and know fewer neighbours. We are less likely to join organisations, attend church or be part of a union.

Now, the good news. Across Australia, the nation’s capital is also its social capital. Compared with other parts of Australia, Canberrans are more likely to join, volunteer and give. We play more social sport, are more likely to pick up our litter, and are more engaged in community life.

In forging a civic renaissance, Canberra has a lot to teach the rest of Australia.

One of the ways that we foster community life is through our festivals. Festivals showcase many of the latent talents in our community – from dextrous dancers to clever chefs, melodious musicians to stimulating speakers. 

The race between human productivity and machines, Business Spectator, 11 March

As US economist Paul Krugman once put it, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.”

Alas, too often, people who should know better have tended to make ‘productivity’ synonymous with longer hours and less job security.

As an economist, I love hearing real-world examples of how firms are raising productivity. Last year, I visited a manufacturing firm that makes mining machines. So baroque had the production line become that when they revamped the layout, the firm found that it was able to get the same work done on a line just one-thirteenth the length. The result was a one-third improvement in productivity for the company.

Visiting Fortescue’s operation in the Pilbara, I heard about its company-wide competition called ‘Have a Crack’, with the prize being $50,000 for the best productivity-boosting suggestion. The winning idea increased the efficiency of the machines that load iron ore onto bulk carriers, saving the company tens of millions of dollars each year. Not a bad return on investment.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP, PERTH

TUESDAY, 10 MARCH 2015

SUBJECT/S: support for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission; federal Budget; Intergenerational Report

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It's great to be here today to talk about a critically important issue: the sustainability of charities. Alannah MacTiernan and I have just held a terrific roundtable with a group of charities here in Western Australia. Across the medical sector, the community sector, the musical sector, these are charities which are out there helping the vulnerable. We want the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to be able to do its great work of helping taxpayers, donors and charities. We've heard many stories today about the important work the charities commission is doing, the ease with which not-for-profits are able to engage with the charities commission, and the potential for further work in the future to unify charities regulation across Australia. I'm calling today on the Social Services Minister Scott Morrison to stop his opposition to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, and to clearly guarantee the commission's future, supported as it is by four out of five charities. I'll hand over now to Alannah to make a couple of comments.

ALANNAH MACTIERNAN, MEMBER FOR PERTH: It's great to have Andrew over here and talking to a real range of charities across all the sectors. As Andrew said, we've had cultural, social, environmental and medical groups represented here today. Their very clear message has been that this charities commission has been a great benefit to their organisations and they really want to see bipartisan support develop for that. They want the charities commission to stay because they've found it a very positive experience. They also want us to go one step further and they want national laws around fundraising. With the internet and fundraising on the internet today, it's impossible to have the current situation where you've got all of these eight different jurisdictions that you have to be registered in. So there was a really clear message coming out today from charities: they want the charities commission to be supported by the Abbott Government and they want it extended so that we also have uniform fundraising laws around Australia.

Race against the machine or race with the machine?

Laying the foundations for an innovative, productive and equitable Australia

Speech - Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Perth

10 March 2015

Nearly five years ago, I made the switch from professor to politician. I’ve never regretted the transition, but it continues to surprise me how different the two occupations are.

In academia, specialisation is valued – you want to pick an area so narrow that you can know more about it than anyone else in the world.

Politics is a generalist occupation – in a typical day, I’d go from talking superannuation to local jobs, from family counselling programs to Free Trade Agreements.

University economics departments value sharp distinctions, and blunt critiques. Politics is a team sport, so you need to build consensus to bring about reform.

One of the really noticeable things about politics is how the language of economics gets used. Terms like human capital, comparative advantage and public goods might be fine for the lecture theatre, but they have a tendency to leave people cold.

When we fail to engage, to explain, and to connect, there is a risk that people go along with economic changes not because they understand them, but because they feel they have no other choice.

Nowhere is this truer than in the case of productivity.

Appropriation Bill (no. 3) 2014-2015

3 March 2015

On 6 August 2013 the member for North Sydney, now the Treasurer, said:

I'm not afraid to accept responsibility and I am not afraid to be accountable. We will own it from day one … We will be responsible for the Australian economy.

What Australian economy was it that the government inherited? That is outlined in the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook. The Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook is not a creature of the Labor Party. It is indeed a creation of Peter Costello, through the Charter of Budget Honesty. It ensures that governments can no longer pretend when they win office that they were unaware of the state of the books. Prepared independently by the secretaries of Treasury and Finance, it makes absolutely clear the state of the books when a government takes office. The member for Cook understands this. He said at the despatch box opposite that the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook reflects the true state of the economy when the government takes over. Perhaps that is why so many pundits are suggesting that the member for Cook will be Treasurer before the year is out.

Constituency Statement 

5 March 2015

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Beryl Women's Refuge in Canberra. It was founded in 1975 as only the second women's refuge to be opened in Australia; a safe place women could go to when they experienced domestic violence. Family violence is still too prevalent in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey 2012 found that, after the age of 15, 34 per cent of women had experienced physical violence and 19 per cent of women had experienced sexual violence. The one bright light in those chilling statistics is that the survey also asked about violence in the previous 12 months and on both measures—physical and sexual violence—the share of women who had suffered declined from 1996 to 2012. But one woman feeling unsafe in her own home is one woman too many.

Matter of Public Importance debate

The Abbott Government's politicisation of the Intergenerational Report

5 March, 2015

Egalitarianism is a great Australian value and over the last generation inequality in Australia has been rising. The 2010 Intergenerational Report had an in-depth section on disadvantage and on the rising gap between rich and poor, but this Intergenerational Report does not contain the word 'inequality.'

Now why would that be? Perhaps it is because this is a government that has cut the wages of the cleaners who clean their offices while it is sending a billion dollars offshore. Since coming to office, this government has given a billion-dollar handout to multibillion dollar firms who need a tax break like Prince Phillip needs a knighthood. This is a government that likes channelling Robert Menzies to split Australia into 'leaners' and 'lifters.' In Britain the Tories are doing the same—they are talking about 'strivers' and 'skivers'. But it is all of a piece. It is the idea of 'us and them'. This is a government that wants us to be split into two Australias. This government's idea of fairness is sending the under-9s up against the Hawks.

This Treasurer is a Treasurer of, by and for the top one per cent. The figures in table A3 of this Intergenerational Report show that age and service pensions, as a share of GDP, are going to be down and that education spending will be halved. This is a government that is raising superannuation taxes on the poor and cutting superannuation taxes on the rich. This is government is so unfair that the Sheriff of Nottingham would be voting Palmer in the Senate.

These are insecure times and Australia needs a Treasurer who will instill confidence, not the sort of Treasurer who is likely to tweet: 'Hey gang, what do you think the deficit should be?' before the next ERC. This is a Treasurer who has run a million-dollar advertising campaign to sell his Intergenerational Report. That is enough to make you fall off your chair.

Why has this Treasurer been late in delivering his Intergenerational Report? Why has he, as the Shadow Treasurer has pointed out, broken the Charter of Budget Honesty? Why is he in breach of the law? Maybe it is because he has been doing his own numbers rather than the budget numbers. Maybe he has been a little bit too busy updating his LinkedIn profile to put together the Intergenerational Report.