Andrew Leigh

Consumers Must Come First, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2016

There are two kinds of supermarket shoppers: those who read the prices on the shelves, and those who can afford to ignore them.

If you disregard the dollar signs and skip the specials, feel free to stop reading now. But for the rest of us, the government’s latest decision is a real worry.

When it comes to keeping prices low, smart competition laws are one of the best tools that governments have. However, competition laws are only smart if they’re ferociously pro-consumer. Competition isn’t about protecting lousy firms – it’s about making sure we get the best deal for shoppers.

THE EFFECTS TEST WILL INCREASE PRICES: COLES

“I cannot get an answer… on whether we will be able to sell bread, beans and nappies for the same price in regional Australia as in Toorak”

JOHN DURKAN, COLES MANAGING DIRECTOR – 24 MARCH 2016

Less than a week after Barnaby Joyce claimed the “proper price” of milk was anywhere up to $11 a litre, we see yet another warning that the Government’s dangerous effects test policy will raise prices on everyday groceries.

The effects test will have a chilling effect on the competitive process.

Businesses will fear that by engaging in legitimate competitive conduct – such as selling cheap bread, beans or nappies in regional areas – they will be taken to court.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

PARLIAMENT HOUSE

TUESDAY, 22 MARCH 2016

 SUBJECT/S: Malcolm Turnbull’s election stunt, tax transparency, tax reform, negative gearing

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much for coming along. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer. We learned today, thanks to the release of data from the Australian Taxation Office, that one in three big private Australian firms are paying no tax. One in three of Australia's biggest private firms didn't contribute a brass razoo to the running of our schools and our hospitals. This comes following the release of information last December showing that when it comes to big public firms, one in four are paying no tax.

ONE IN THREE PRIVATE COMPANIES PAY NO TAX

The Australian Tax Office has today revealed that one in three Australian-owned companies earning more than $200 million a year pay no tax.

As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull mulls a cut to company tax in the upcoming budget, the data published today reveals 98 out of 321 of Australia’s biggest private firms aren’t paying a single dollar.

This news comes on top of last December’s revelation that one in four big public firms and multinationals also pay no tax.

It says everything about Malcolm Turnbull’s priorities that he would put company tax cuts at the centre of his budget, even as so many big firms appear to be dodging their fair share.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS, AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 21 MARCH 2016

SUBJECT/S: Company tax cuts; tax reform.

KIERAN GILBERT: With me now on the program, Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh. Dr Leigh thanks so much for your time. I want to get your thoughts on Arthur Sinodinos' comments yesterday. Much was made of them that the Government is focusing on the tax cuts for company taxes as opposed to personal. This is something that Bill Shorten has said he supports and has done so on a bipartisan basis. Is that still Labor's position?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Kieran, it is. It is worth going through a little bit of the history on this. In 2010, the Coalition took a company tax cut to the election and then failed to vote for it when Labor introduced it into the Parliament. In 2013, they took a company tax cut to the election, and then backed off it when they decided to not go ahead with parental leave. Last year Malcolm Turnbull said we couldn't afford company tax cuts. So I think when Australians see the Government again flagging the idea of company tax cuts they'll think of that scene in Peanuts where Lucy keeps holding the football for Charlie Brown and then pulling it away at the last minute.

IT'S OUR DUTY TO HELP THE YOUNG GET A HOME, The Herald Sun, 21 March 

I was holding a Saturday street stall recently when a young couple came up to chat about their troubles buying a first home. He was a builder and she was a teacher but they were planning for a baby and worried about meeting mortgage repayments when their two incomes went down to one. So despite being in their late 20s, this couple had just moved back in with their in-laws. In the months to come they’ll be changing nappies and juggling sleepless nights under the same roof as their retired parents who are trying to enjoy a quiet life.  

Their story is sadly typical. There are now 10 per cent fewer young Australians owning a home than there were in 2001. Among the lowest-earning young people, home ownership has crashed from above 60 per cent to just 30 per cent in the past 15 years.

It’s not hard to understand why. In 1985 the average home loan held by a first homebuyer was a little over $81,000 in today’s money. Today, an equivalent mortgage is worth $308,000. Prices in Australia’s capital cities have risen 20 per cent over the past two years, but wages have been growing at just over 2 per cent. As that young Canberra couple said to me: even getting a deposit together becomes a major challenge when prices are climbing so much faster than savings.     

It’s harder than ever for people to get into the property market, yet our current tax system offers more support to people buying their tenth investment property than their first home.

LABOR’S PLAN FOR THE SHARING ECONOMY IN SYDNEY

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh and NSW Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Michael Daley have today visited Collaborate Corporation to discuss Labor’s positive plan for the sharing economy.

They met with Collaborate Corporation to talk about creating a fair and flexible framework of rules for emerging services like DriveMyCar, MyCaravan and Rentoid to ensure all Australians can share in the benefits.

The sharing economy is changing the way we buy and sell things. It is also changing how we think about work and the line between private property and public goods. Australians are clearly embracing these services, with one in 10 Sydneysiders having used a sharing service and around one in 200 Australian homes now listed on AirBNB. DriveMyCar has attracted over 26,000 users and facilitated 200,000 rental days.

Prime Minister Turnbull and Premier Baird have failed to address the many sided challenges and opportunities of appropriately regulating the sharing economy which still suffers from a regulatory lag.

That’s why Federal Labor has announced a set of National Sharing Economy Principles and indicated we will work with state and territory governments to turn these into concrete rules and regulations.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

SYDNEY

FRIDAY, 18 MARCH 2016

SUBJECT/S: Labor’s principles for the sharing economy

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER, ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks very much for coming along to DriveMyCar. I'm here with Michael Daley seeing one of Australia's most innovative companies in the sharing economy. 

Federal Labor has taken the sharing economy seriously. We engaged in a consultative process, speaking to workers, to consumers, to sharing economy providers, to those competing with the sharing economy. Because we reckon that in order to make the sharing economy work for everyone, we have to get the rules right. Labor's sharing economy principles, launched with Bill Shorten last October, lay out that primary property should be yours to share. The sharing economy should work for workers as well as for customers. We need to make sure that sharing economy businesses pay their fair share of tax, that public safety is protected, and there is access for as many people as possible. We are encouraging sharing economy providers particularly to engage disability peak groups to make sure that people with disabilities benefit from the sharing economy as other Australians do. 

DriveMyCar is a great Australian start-up, and a company which has made it easier to make use of underutilised assets. For people who are away for a couple of months, DriveMyCar provides opportunity for them to earn revenue from their car by renting it out for others. It has an overarching insurance policy that makes sure that comprehensive insurance is in place, as well as roadside assistance. DriveMyCar is an example of the way in which the sharing economy can help us to better use underutilised assets. 

ECONOMIC FALSEHOODS, FANTASIES AND FICTION, Canberra Times, 17 March

In recent years, falsehoods, fantasies and fabrications seem to be playing an increasing role in the Coalition’s political strategy. Sure, John Howard occasionally told an economic whopper – saying he’d deliver lower interest rates while increasing spending and stoking inflation, for example. But these days it seems we can’t go a month without the conservatives peddling complete economic fiction.

Before the 2013 election, voters were told that the government would make no cuts to health or education, but would reduce taxes and produce a surplus budget every year. It was mathematically impossible, yet neither Tony Abbott nor Malcolm Turnbull have ever admitted the falsehood to the Australian people. Instead of ‘an instantaneous adrenaline charge in our economy’, we’ve got unemployment up, growth downgraded, investment languishing, consumer confidence flagging, and debt rising.

When it came to porkies, Team Abbott had a special gift. Do you remember when Joe Hockey told us that poor people don’t drive cars? Or that the secret to affording a home was to get a high-paying job? Or that Australia was a high-tax country despite having one of the leanest governments in the advanced world? Do you remember when Eric Abetz warned of a ‘wage explosion’ while Treasury warned in the Budget of slowing wage growth?

The latest special seems to be ‘tall tales on taxation’. Lately, Coalition members have been saying that changes to negative gearing will lower housing prices (and raise them), decrease inequality (and increase it). Having begun by complaining that Labor’s policy didn’t raise much revenue in its first few years, Prime Minister Turnbull then feverishly claimed it would ‘smash’ the market. He even claimed that changes to capital gains tax will hurt foreign investment, despite the fact that non-residents aren’t even eligible for these exemptions in the first place.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has continued this trend. He argued the GST is a fair and efficient tax, despite Treasury’s own Discussion Paper saying it’s regressive and no more efficient than the income tax. He claims ‘average Australians’ are the ones who benefit most from negative gearing, despite the data showing that the typical surgeon gets ten times as much from negative gearing as the typical teacher.

BUILDING BETTER POLICIES, The Australian, 17 March

Over the past decade, few countries have had as much demand for new homes as Australia. Our population is growing faster than almost any other advanced nation. Demography is reducing average household sizes. We tend to prefer homes that have a bit more space and use a lot less energy.

But don’t take my word for it. As Malcolm Turnbull said a few years ago, ‘the reason we have a housing affordability problem is because we are not building enough dwellings’. Over for many years, housing construction has simply failed to keep pace with demand.

It’s surprising, therefore, that Mr Turnbull has failed to embrace Labor’s approach of encouraging investors into new housing. Under the plan developed by Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen, a Labor Government would see negative gearing maintained for current investments, but restricted to newly built homes from 1 July 2017.

Right now, only 7 percent of investors buy new homes. The effect of Labor’s policy would be to say to investors: ‘if you want negative gearing, we need you need to help the community by adding to the housing stock’.

There’s nothing new in this philosophy. In 2001, the Coalition doubled the federal First Home Owner’s Grant for people buying new homes. Then Treasurer Peter Costello justified this measure on the basis that it would ‘stimulate the building sector, including many small businesses, which of course will have flow on benefits to other parts of the economy’.