Andrew Leigh

National Australia Bank executive Gavin Slater is the latest member to debunk Malcolm Turnbull's scare campaign on Labor's negative gearing reforms.

Mr Slater noted that the bank does not anticipate a material impact on its business from Labor’s important reforms to negative gearing because:

“(Australia is) going through a very low period of interest rates, from an affordability

 and investor point of view in a relative sense, compared to if it is high interest rates.

It makes investor properties a little bit more affordable.”

 Australian Financial Review, 18 May 2016, page 29

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW
ABC SUNSHINE COAST
TUESDAY, 17 MAY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Infrastructure in Australia and the Sunshine Coast; Education funding; Government delay on backpacker tax; Federal Budget.

ANNIE GAFFNEY, PRESENTER: I'd say this is one of the most forgotten regions in Australia.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks, Annie. Certainly not forgotten by me. My grandparents Roly and Jean Stebbins moved up here from Victoria in the 1980s, so I've been a regular visitor here until my grandfather passed away a couple of years ago.

GAFFNEY: It's lovely to hear you have got such a nice family connection with the Coast. Nonetheless, our Mayor just recently spoke about the fact that all parties had ignored this area for so long and that was becoming a bit of a joke. You know, we have the fifth largest Council area in Australia. We have, you know, the second fastest growing region in South-East Queensland and the ninth largest city in Australia and yet we don’t have the funding that we need so desperately in infrastructure and public transport.

[inaudible] a safe conservative area, it's fair to say and Labor has perhaps over the years taken that for granted and said it's an area it can't chip into. In terms of Labor's promise to the people of the Sunshine Coast, what would you say that would be if you were granted Government on July 2nd, what would you commit to doing for the people of the Sunshine Coast?

LEIGH: I'd certainly agree with your Mayor that the LNP has forgotten the Sunshine Coast and have taken the people of the Sunshine Coast for granted. The great thing you get with Bill, is a candidate who is willing to fight for the Sunshine Coast and who would never take any vote for granted.

GAFFNEY: So you're talking about Bill Gissane, the Labor candidate for Fisher?

LEIGH: Bill Gissane, the Labor candidate who is sitting right next to me now. Bill is somebody who will certainly be arguing for better funding for every school on the Sunshine Coast. Labor's plan to make sure every kid - whether they are in a Government school, a Catholic school, or an independent school - has access to the needs-based funding they need in an increasingly technologically-driven economy, which is a critical building block of prosperity for the Sunshine Coast.

GAFFNEY: When the Mayor spoke recently, he listed a number of items we desperately need to continue to grow and have a satisfactory lifestyle here on the Coast for the people who live here. One of those things was the expansion of the Sunshine Coast Airport. So, we need about $450 million to get that happening. Is there going to be any kind of commitment - as one of our major transport corridors in and out of the Coast for global visitors and for interstate visitors alike - to that airport project?

LEIGH: I'd love to see the Sunshine Coast Airport growing. I think making the most of airports like this one is really important for Australia, because our bigger airports are increasingly becoming too congested. If we can encourage people to fly in internationally into the Sunshine Coast, then as soon as they step off the plane they will get a sense of what an extraordinary country they have come into. They won't feel as though they are just surrounded by travelers, they'll feel as though they have flown straight into paradise. 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
SUNSHINE COAST
TUESDAY, 17 MAY 2016

SUBJECT/S: Infrastructure in Australia and the Sunshine Coast; Liberals backtracking for multinational tax action; Labor protecting penalty rates.

BILL GISSANE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR FISHER: It's terrific to have Dr Leigh with us here today. The Mayor challenged all candidates to get senior members of the parties, the respective parties, onto the Sunshine Coast to explain exactly what our needs are. I'm pleased to say that Andrew is the first amongst many senior people from the Labor Party who are going to grace us with their presence and I’m sure he'll have plenty to tell you.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: It's great to be back on the Sunshine Coast, a place where I would frequently visit my grandparents when they lived in Caloundra. I'm here with Bill Gissane, talking about Labor's positive plan for the Sunshine Coast. Labor believes the Sunshine Coast will benefit from the strong emphasis on infrastructure which is based on the needs of Australians, not simply on pork barrelling in marginal seats. Bill Shorten has committed Labor to a “concrete bank”, to making decisions at arm’s length from party politics based on what the needs of communities are. That concrete bank will have benefits to the Sunshine Coast and right across Australia. We've had a 20 per cent fall in public infrastructure investment since the Coalition came to office and the last Budget ripped a billion dollars out of infrastructure investment. Labor believes we need to spend smart on infrastructure investment, on the Sunshine Coast and across Australia. To do that we've obviously got to have revenue and Labor is committed to making sure multinationals pay their fair share. I've been troubled in recent days to see Scott Morrison walking away from plans to tighten thin capitalisation rules. Kelly O'Dwyer walking away from a register of beneficial ownership. Josh Frydenberg standing up at industry conferences defending tax loopholes for multinationals. Only Labor will get tough on multinationals, making sure they pay their fair share so that Australians can get the schools and hospitals we deserve and the infrastructure that a growing population demands. Happy to take questions.

WHOSE SIDE ARE THE LIBERALS ON: AUSTRALIAN WORKERS AND SMALL BUSINESS OR MULTINATIONALS?

Despite occasionally pretending to 'get tough' with multinationals, the Liberals have repeatedly failed to ensure multinationals pay their fair share of tax.

Scott Morrison backed away from plans to address tax avoidance by multinational companies in the Budget by reducing the so-called “safe harbour” level in thin capitalisation rules.

This back down came despite journalists being briefed on the proposal before Budget night, while tell-tale signs remained in the budget glossy documents.

In April, Kelly O’Dwyer said, “there needs to be a registry of beneficial ownership in our country” and confirmed that Australia would establish a public registry of beneficial ownership for companies.

However, at the recent international summit on the issue Australia committed only to “exploring options” for such a register.

The Liberals again sided with big business when Josh Frydenberg defended loopholes that allow multinational companies to shift profits offshore at an industry conference last Friday.

CHRIS BOWEN
SHADOW TREASURER
MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

ANDREW LEIGH
SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER
MEMBER FOR FRASER

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MELBOURNE
FRIDAY, 13 MAY 2016

Media Release

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s positive policy on housing affordability; real estate industry’s scare campaign; negative gearing; tax havens; Malcolm Turnbull in the panama papers; education funding dividend.

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks for coming. I'm here with the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh and we'll both make some opening remarks before taking your questions.

It’s Friday the 13th and Malcolm Turnbull and the real estate industry have chosen Friday the 13th to launch their not-very-scary scare campaign. Now let's be very clear. Labor takes to this election a housing affordability policy to help first-home buyers get into the housing market. Labor believes in the aspirations of young Australians to buy their first home. And we believe in not just talking about it, we believe in doing something about it, in dealing with the housing affordability crisis in Australia. And we did so knowing that vested interests would campaign and complain. And that's exactly what's happening. But we are more than happy to run this election campaign based on our positive policies to assist first-home buyers. The real estate industry makes it clear even in the article in News Ltd today. They accept they have a vested interest in keeping the current arrangements. Well, I'll tell you who doesn't have a vested interest in keeping the current arrangements – hundreds of thousands of first-home buyers who are being locked out of the market. 

SIX QUESTIONS FOR MALCOLM TURNBULL

Recent reports on the Panama Papers have revealed that during the mid-1990s Malcolm Turnbull was a director of Star Technology Systems Ltd, a British Virgin Islands subsidiary of the Australian-listed company Star Mining NL, administered by Mossack Fonseca.

To dispel any concerns that Australians have about this activity, Malcolm Turnbull should answer the following questions:

1.  Does Mr Turnbull agree that the British Virgin Islands is a tax haven? 

Dr LEIGH (Fraser) (15:53): In mid-2009, the then Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, decided he would bring back an old stunt from the Liberal Party—the notion of a debt truck. He put a debt truck on the road, sat at its wheel and said that under Labor gross debt might go to $315 billion. That, he thought, was so terrifying that the Australian people had to be warned about it. Well, it is instructive to look at the budget papers to see where gross debt will be under the Turnbull government. Under the Turnbull government, gross debt is going not to $315 billion but to $624 billion. Gross debt will be nearly twice as large as when Malcolm Turnbull got his first debt truck. I have news for the Prime Minister: it is time to trade in his debt truck and buy a debt B-double. 

Dr LEIGH (Fraser) (11:39): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The image of blue Caribbean seas, golden island sands and a lonely coconut palm standing above a spot marked X on a faded map remains a powerful image in our social mythology.

And well it might, because the notion of buried treasure in the Caribbean is no myth. In the 2012 American election there was widespread outrage at the notion that Mitt Romney had been keeping a significant share of his wealth in the Cayman Islands. Perhaps this was because he and other wealthy people with money to hide from tax had noticed that the previous year the Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index had declared the Cayman Islands to be the world's second most significant tax haven. 

Dr LEIGH (Fraser) (16:30): The 2016 Lunar New Year celebrations, acknowledging the Year of the Monkey, were recently hosted by the member for Berowra, the Father of the House, and me here in one of our courtyards. Members and senators were joined by community representatives including Sam Wong AM; Donni and Samuel Pho, from the Australian Salvation Army; Mrs Chin Wong; and Gary Lee, the 2016 New Australian of the Year. The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, also spoke at the celebrations and welcomed the inauguration of what will hopefully be an annual fixture on the parliamentary calendar. We launched traditional floating lanterns into one of the parliamentary ponds—possibly the first time this has happened—and then moved to the public lawns on Federation Mall to enjoy the skills of David Wong's Prosperous Mountain Lion Dance group. 

Dr LEIGH (Fraser) (15:56): I was holding a street stall recently when a young couple came up to chat about their troubles buying a first home. She was a teacher, he was a builder, and they were thinking about having a family but they were worried that they would not be able to meet the mortgage repayments when their two incomes went down to one. Despite being in their late 20s, this couple were looking at moving back in with their in-laws. Changing nappies and juggling sleepless nights under the same roof as their in-laws was not their idea of the Australian dream. But their story is, sadly, typical.