Andrew Leigh

This morning I joined Fairfax Media host Chris Hammer and Brisbane-based Liberal MP Andrew Laming to congratulate Terri Butler on her bi-election win in Griffith against a high profile rival.

ANDREW LEIGH

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION

MEMBER FOR FRASER



E&OE TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW
BREAKING POLITICS – FAIRFAX MEDIA

MONDAY, 10 February

SUBJECT/S: Terri Butler’s win in Griffith; Building industry corruption; Federal Budget.

CHRIS HAMMER: Tony Abbott's Government has faced its first electoral test on the weekend with the Griffith by-election. It seems Labor has retained the seat, Kevin Rudd's old seat but that there has been a slight swing towards the Coalition. So that's left both sides of politics claiming vindication. We're joined in the studio now by Andrew Laming who has a seat nearby in Brisbane and Andrew Leigh who's from Canberra. Andrew Laming can I start with you? Give us your spill. Why is this a vindication for the Coalition?

ANDREW LAMING: Well it's remarkable that the two results, last year and the by-election are so close. I think what commentators is that we've seen a departing Prime Minister and with him goes a certain personal vote and I think that's simply compensated for what would have been a swing to an opposition during a by-election. It's hard to quantify Kevin Rudd's impact on that seat over the decade or so that he was there. But certainly replacing him was a great challenge for the Labor Party. They've managed to do that. They've managed to hold as close as they could to their vote last year. I think they're the main factors; the departure of an ex-Prime Minister and of course, the typical by-election swing that should run against a government.

HAMMER: So are you saying this is a good result for Labor?

LAMING: Well yes. Actually, I am. I'm saying both parties campaigned very hard. This became the Somme, a World War One battle front. The fact that we got an almost identical front just shows that both parties through everything at it and I think, if you've got a departing Prime Minister, it's usually pretty hard to hold your vote and Labor's almost managed to do that.

HAMMER: Okay, Andrew Leigh, well Andrew Laming has been a bit counter-intuitive here and said it's a good result for Labor. Your turn, is it a good result for the Coalition?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: I think Andrew Laming has been appropriately generous to Terri Butler who won on the weekend, as I think we always ought to do after an election. It leaves Andrew now as the only doctor in the House, the only person with medical qualifications in the House of Representatives. Terri will be a great addition to the team - two young kids and a lawyer in a national law firm - somebody who is keen to work with people of different ideological views, which is I think what you really want in a parliamentarian, somebody who doesn't just come in wanting to knock heads together, but actually build a better country for everyone.

HAMMER: Now, I'm wondering in this spirit of consensus, whether we can agree on this. I'll ask you first Andrew Leigh, given that this by-election has happened so early in the term of the Abbott Government, really before it's budget strategy has been revealed, before it's legislative program has been introduced, that really trying to draw any conclusions from this by-election is sort of an exercise in futility, that by the next election it will be well and truly forgotten.

LEIGH: You can do a lot of spin about why someone got a particular win. Ultimately I think we ought to be praising Terri, recognising other candidates in the race put in a hard effort as well but recognising that the parliament will be a better place for having someone who comes into it with the right ideas and passions. Andrew and I, as it happens, both have young kids and I think that shapes the way you think about politics. There was a lovely piece in The Economist a couple of years ago which said that  politicians with young children think about the world as a little kinder, a little gentler and there's sometimes a little more understanding of mistakes, because parents make plenty of those.

HAMMER: And is it a good think for the Labor Party that Kevin Rudd has now departed the scene?

LEIGH: Mr Rudd made a mammoth contribution to Australian public life. He was appropriate that he got to step down under the terms of his own choosing. I'm sure he'll continue to have an impact whether that's in international organisations or on issues locally that are important to Andrew and me, like Indigenous reconciliation, where he's spoken about this enthusiasm to continue to get involved.

HAMMER: Okay, and Andrew Laming, would you agree that this by-election it can be over-analysed but it doesn't have any real implications for what's going to happen in the future.

LAMING: Yeah sure. We should analyse it as much as we can for about 24 hours. The Coalition Government has a set of objectives that are not quick turnarounds. With the greatest of respect to the Apology, to the 20/20 Summit, nothing in the Coalition's agenda is necessarily going to happen overnight. That means there's not a great deal to show for it come a Griffith by-election. So I think the people of Griffith were faced with early days scenario of the Abbott Government but they were also having to digest I think a lot of scare campaign from Labor, particularly the notion that you won't be able to take your child to see a doctor for a sniffily nose and the tax on health and this sort of thing. So, they did have to wade through a fair bit of that and in the end we've seen a very close result to what we saw last year.

HAMMER: Part of the Government's agenda that will stretch out to the next election it seems is this attack on the union movement through a Royal Commission that we expect to be announced today. Why the need for a Royal Commission? Much of this union corruption has been exposed. Isn't this simply a political exercise?

LAMING: Well, I note Bill Shorten's come in a little bit like a tobacco company arriving at the hospital and saying 'you can only use a tablet, not chemotherapy for the cancer’. This is a major erosive, corrosive effect on our economy. I come from Queensland where massive infrastructure projects are subject to union-negotiated agreements that erode public finance and lead to projects, quite often, not even clearing the cost benefit bar simply because of the cost of building them. We're in the awful situation where we haven't got the infrastructure bang for our buck and a lot of it can be put down to union activities, be it corruption, be it whatever, we must get to the bottom of it and a six-person police unit and a sniffer dog just ain’t going to do it.

HAMMER: Okay, let's separate a couple of issues here. Is the issue with the unions simply that some are marred by corruption or is there a wider argument being prosecuted here that wages and conditions, particularly conditions, are too generous?

LAMING: Well, I think you've given the spectrum and I think the answer will be determined by the terms of reference, potentially somewhere in between.

HAMMER: Okay. Andrew Leigh, Tony Abbott's doing Labor a favour here isn't he because by the time the next election comes around all those unions that aren't tainted by corruption will have a clear Tony Abbott stamp of approval and the connections with the Labor Party won't be a millstone round your neck?

LEIGH: Well Chris, I'm less interested in the politics of this than how we focus on the substantive issues. I find corruption in Australian life, wherever it rears its ugly head morally abhorrent, whether that occurs in corporations or within the union movement or other sectors of Australian life. And then the question is how best you tackle that. And as someone said about Royal Commissions, they're a little bit like the queen in Alice in Wonderland, let's have the verdict first and the trial afterwards. By contrast, what Labor has proposed is an AFP taskforce as we did with the $64 million anti-gangs taskforce which can get straight to work, which can begin prosecutions from day one if the evidence is there. We believe that's the best way of cracking down on it, but we also believe that there's an appropriate role for unions in public life. Building sites are some of the most dangerous workplaces we have in Australia. It's appropriate for people working on building sites to be able to work together to secure better conditions and better pay. Let's face it, wage growth has been running below trend in recent years, so that I think gives the lie to some who've argued that the real problem with Australia is a wages breakout.

HAMMER: But a Royal Commission, the reintroduction of the ABCC they don't preclude workers from teaming together and campaigning for better wages and conditions do they?

LEIGH: I'm just concerned Chris that we don't see a broad scale attack on unions who are, after all, the folks that brought you the weekend and the eight-hour day. It is vital that we recognise that there are hardworking unionists in workplaces across Australia today doing the right and decent thing. And I'm sure that's something which Andrew would agree. The question is how you tackle the instances of corruption and whether that's better done by giving police more resources as Labor has argued or by setting up a Royal Commission which is an expensive, a slow and potentially a less effective way of dealing with the problem that Andrew and I are both concerned about.

HAMMER: Well, Andrew Laming, in these instances of corruption, it takes two to tango. If the unions are extorting money out of corporations, then the corporations are party to this corrupt behaviour. Why not have a Royal Commission into corporate corruption?

LAMING: Well I guess the nidus of the problem is the unions. I agree with Andrew's case that the unions still do some very good things as well. But it's interesting that there's a sudden urgency in Bill Shorten's voice and Paul Howes but we've had six years where we've also could have addressed this and we haven't. So you need to remember that there was a government that simply refused to consider this to be a problem until now. It is some credit but a little too late that they now vocalise this in opposition.

HAMMER: Okay, can we turn to parliament beginning tomorrow. One of the first big tests of the Government and I guess something the Government wants to emphasise is economic management and budget management. Can I ask you Andrew Laming, how much does Joe Hockey have to stick to his tough line. Now his drawn the line in the sand. Can he compromise at all?

LAMING: Well he'd prefer not to and he'd prefer to remind every backbencher, every member of the Government, this is going to be an extremely tough budget. I sense this is where it's going. We're also, on the other hand, proving major projects all across the country, at a commerce level, almost $400 billion worth of new projects. That means new jobs and opportunities that can be flying through over the coming months and years. So, it's about getting the private economy started as Tony Abbott's made so very clearly at the G20 and I guess there's also the invidious job that our Treasurer has to do leading up to his first budget.

HAMMER: Andrew Leigh, the budget does need repairing, does it not? Isn't Joe Hockey on the right course here?

LEIGH: Governments always have to make values choices Chris. The question is whether when you're making savings decisions they fall on those who can most afford to pay or those who can least afford to pay. At the same time as he's taking away the Schools Kids Bonus from low and middle-income families, Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott are putting in place a parental leave scheme that will pay $75,000 to the most affluent families when they have a child and they're giving tax breaks to mining billionaires, some of the richest people on the planet. They're taking away superannuation tax concessions from low wage workers and they're taking away financial protections in the form of best interest financial advice tests which we put in place after the Storm Financial collapse. So I'd like to see the ‘age of entitlement’ rhetoric actually flowing through into policy decisions that look after low and middle income Australia.

HAMMER: Andrew Laming, isn't the Coalition vulnerable to that sort of criticism of double standards cutting perhaps middle class welfare on one hand, generous paid parental leave on another, not giving assistance to car manufacturers, SPC Ardmona on one hand, yet still giving out sizable money to mining companies etc.?

LAMING: Well, obviously we have to have to identify where the money is best spent. I think in every policy proposal you can almost spin it do find a middle-class person who benefits from, call it, middle-class welfare. But in reality the Government's made a series of election commitments and they are well known I think throughout the community and Australians I think, just want a government that keeps its word and delivers on its promises. So, what you will be seeing is very few surprises, rolling out exactly what we said we'd do prior to the election and then obviously coming out before the budget there could be a few more tough calls. That's to be expected.

HAMMER: Okay gentlemen, thanks very much for going round the grounds with us. But before I let you Andrew Laming, I must ask you, Australia Day, hand stand, skolling beer, what was that all about?

LAMING: Well, I admire Bob Hawke and admire Aker Manis and I thought I'd just pull to into one and I guess, when it comes to Australia Day you can celebrate however way you wish and if I can manage to prove that males can multitask, that's another benefit as well.

HAMMER: Do you regret doing it?

LAMING: I loved every second of it and I'll be doing it again next Australia Day.

HAMMER: And what's the response been?

LAMING: Oh it's been fantastic.

HAMMER: So, next Australia Day, you'll do it again?

LAMING: There's something sacrosanct about the backyard Chris, a private party among friends.

HAMMER: Andrew Laming, Andrew Leigh, thank you so much.

LEIGH: Thanks Chris, thanks Andrew.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: TONI HASSAN 0426 207 726

On 10 Feb, I joined host Kieran Gilbert and Liberal Senator Scott Ryan to discuss Labor candidate Terri Butler's win in the Griffith by-election, the best way to tackle corruption allegations, and bipartisanship in politics.http://www.youtube.com/v/R8l-Hn2Zarg?version=3&hl=en_US

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION

MEMBER FOR FRASER

MEDIA RELEASE

ABBOTT WRECKING BALL STRIKES THE ATO

News that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has offered 500 voluntary redundancies in its effort to slash 900 positions represents a broken promise that jobs would be shed only by natural attrition.

The Abbott Government promised cuts to the Australian Public Service (APS) solely through natural attrition. It’s a lie. Redundancies are now in full flow.

“Well, we’ve said that it will all be though natural attrition. We want government to be no bigger than it has to be and obviously it’s much bigger than it needs to be right now.” – Tony Abbott, 14 July 2013 Doorstop interview, Sydney

On being elected Mr Abbott said he would lead “A government that says what it means and means what it says. A government of no surprises and no excuses.”

But the Government's extreme agenda has seen a worsening of the employment situation across Australia, especially in regional areas, since the Coalition was elected.

Savage cuts to the APS inevitably result in a loss of services including compliance. Can the Government guarantee otherwise?

Redundancies at the Tax Office immediately add uncertainty to ATO workplaces and stress for those who’ll remain.

Cuts to the APS are having a depressing impact especially in the nation's capital. The Abbott Government is yet to explain how its hostility towards the APS impacts productivity.

The Government’s axe, driven by ideology and a bias for outsourcing, stifles the kinds of innovations the public expect of an independent and robust Commonwealth Public Service.

Most pressing for the bureaucracy is the anticipated outcome of the Commission of Audit, which key departments fear will hit them like a wrecking ball.

ENDS

8 FEBRUARY 2014

My op-ed in the SMH online looks at why we need to make sure multinationals pay their fair share of tax.

Tough tax talk short on action, Sydney Morning Herald Online, 7 February 2014

If your boss were to come to your desk and ask for you to arrange a double Irish Dutch Sandwich for him, you could be forgiven for thinking it would involve a trip to the local pub at lunch time. In fact, the double Irish Dutch Sandwich is a complex tax avoidance arrangement used by many multi-national companies involving Irish holding companies as the bread with a Dutch subsidiary wedged in between them as filling.

For tax division of a tax-minimising multinational, it might sound delicious. For the rest of us who have to foot the bill, the double Irish Dutch Sandwich is enough to give you a serious stomach ache. Because the more we let multinational firms avoid tax, the more the rest of us have to pay to maintain good services.

Cracking down on multinational profit-shifting isn’t just about making sure that firms pay their fair share of tax. It’s also about making sure that the tax burden is fairly shared across companies. For a local Aussie company without subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, it’s hard to compete against a multinational that’s able to get away with paying a lower share of tax. Unfair tax arrangements also distort investment decisions by creating an incentive to invest overseas and put local companies at a disadvantage against international conglomerates.

The early rhetoric of the Government suggests that they are looking to use Australia’s G20 agenda to push for reforms in this area. Given that under the Treasurer Joe Hockey’s watch the deficit has blown out by more than 50 percent, you can understand why Mr Hockey would be looking for more tax revenue. Unfortunately, like a ‘gourmet’ restaurant that serves up fast food, the Government’s publicity has not been backed up by good public policy.

The Prime Minister used his recent speech in Davos on the Government’s G20 agenda to argue that ‘the G20 will continue to tackle businesses artificially generating profits to chase tax opportunities.’ However, the only action the government has taken on multinational tax integrity is to dump Labor’s thin capitalisation reforms at a cost of $700 million dollars. To put this figure into context, $700 million would buy a new regional hospital. At the same time as giving multinationals a tax break, the Government has slugged families by removing the low income superannuation contribution and the school kids-bonus.

Alongside repealing important measures to limit multinational tax avoidance, the Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos has let it be known that he wants to repeal Labor’s tax transparency reforms. These reforms would have ensured the public could see how much tax Australia’s largest companies are paying. As US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote, ‘Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants’.

If the Government is serious about making sure companies pay their fair share of tax, why are they trying to let these same companies hide how much tax they’re paying? Just as publicly available food inspector reports led to cleaner restaurant kitchens, so too a little publicity about tax paid is likely to serve the public.

The Government’s tough talk and lack of action on multinational tax avoidance is a worrying trend that is repeated time and again regardless of policy area or promises made before the election. As Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott was on a unity ticket with Labor on school funding, but sought to scrap it not six months into his term. Tony Abbott was the champion of workers from Holden in Adelaide, to SPC Ardmona in Shepparton, but again has done a U-turn fast enough to give you whiplash. The Prime Minister who said last year that ‘the ABC will flourish under the Coalition’ is now attacking the national broadcaster for being unpatriotic.

To paraphrase UK Labor leader Ed Miliband, Tony Abbott’s government has shown in its first few months that it is strong at standing up to the weak, but weak at standing up to the strong.

Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, and his website is www.andrewleigh.com.

My Chornicle column this week is on classical music, inspired by a stint on Canberra's Artsound 92.7FM.

Music Gives Richness to Fabric of Life, The Chronicle, 4 February 2014


In his book Music Quickens Time, conductor Daniel Barenboim argues that classical music has much to teach us about living well together. Good music cannot be pure reason or pure emotion – it must combine both. And music, like life, reminds us that everything is interconnected.

I thought of Barenboim when presenter Jim Mooney invited me to appear on Artsound 92.7FM last month. The brief was simple: no partisan politics, just talk about the role of classical music in a well-balanced life, and play a few favourite pieces of classical music.

With a half-hour for the conversation and the music, Beethoven’s 9^th and Mahler’s 6^th weren’t exactly going to fit the bill, and we were about 15 hours short of the time required to zip through Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

But there are still some delightful short pieces around. After laying down the ground rules, I started off with a short movement from Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony: a musical denunciation of the madness of Stalin’s era (Jim assured me that criticising Stalin didn’t amount to excessive partisanship).

Next we enjoyed a scratchy 1902 recording of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso singing ‘Vesti la guibba’, followed by a modern-day recording of ‘Wie Todesahnung’ from Wagner’s Tannhauser. The half hour finished with the wild ‘Tarantella’ from the 5^th symphony of Australian composer Carl Vine. In thirty minutes, we’d covered anti-authoritarianism, Italian and German opera, and modern Australian classical music.

My own musical education has been eclectic at best, a product of a piano-playing mother, opera-loving friends in my undergraduate days, and some time singing (badly) in the choir when I was a postgraduate student. Reading biographies of the great composers, I envy their early successes, but am struck by how so many of their personal lives seemed to crumble around them. For people like Mozart and Mahler, Schubert and Schumann, it is almost as though the act of writing awe-inspiring music used up their bodies.

Visiting Artsound FM reminds you of the depth of musical expertise in Canberra, and the way that a love of classical music can provide balance and inspiration. In the midst of our daily problems, the notes of a Chopin prelude can cool the spirit. But when things seem intractable, the power and energy of a Brahms symphony is a reminder that we really can change the world for the better.

At its best, public life can take cues from music. A good speech contains statistics and stories – appealing to reason and emotion; not just one or the other. Smart governments take account of the interconnections between issues – that a more educated community might be healthier, or that a good transport system might make us more productive. Music can even help address the world’s thorniest problems – as Barenboim showed when he brought together Palestinian and Israeli musicians to play in the same orchestra. Music may not solve all the world’s troubles, but it certainly helps make for a more interesting life.

Andrew Leigh is the federal member for Fraser.

This afternoon I joined ABC News 24 host, Greg Jennett, to discuss a speech at the Lowy Institute delivered by Treasurer Joe Hockey today. Mr Hockey used the occassion to again trot out platitudes about the end of  ‘age of entitlement’ but showed he had no economic plan except cuts that will disproportionately hurt low and middle income Australians. Here's the transcript:

TRANSCRIPT of INTERVIEW

ABC NEWS 24

THURSDAY, 6 FEBRURARY



SUBJECT/S: Ford jobs; Entitlements; G20.





GREG JENNETT: Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh, has been listening to that [Joe Hockey’s] speech. He joins me now.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Hi Greg.

JENNETT: Thanks for coming in. Let's start first of all with the issue of Ford. Closures were announced or an intention of them last year. This will come as an extra blow to workers there?

LEIGH: As I understand it, we haven't had a formal announcement yet but certainly we’ve had some pretty dark days for jobs under this government, whether they’re Holden jobs that the Government goaded to leave or some of the other manufacturing jobs we've seen put in jeopardy by the Government's decisions around SPC. So, it would be a concern and I think adds to uncertainty about Australia's employment position at a time where clearly the Government is going to struggle to meet its own jobs target.

JENNETT: Was there enough flexibility within the package that the negotiated around that time last year to roll with these sort of developments and make sure that the workers are retrained and protected in some way?

LEIGH: Absolutely. The Gillard Government's focus was always on making sure that we provided smart industry assistance that was focused on workers, and made sure that the workers skilled up because automotive production is more technologically demanding now than it’s ever been before.

JENNETT: OK, well let's go to the speech now. As I say, Australia is about the ascendancy in the G20 and the theme of that Joe Hockey speech today seemed to be about Australia leading by example on the fiscal front. He is trying to build a continuity in messages domestically and internationally. That’s fair enough, isn't it?

LEIGH: I think ‘age of entitlement’ is a lovely slogan and you've got to give the Government that, they do very well on Madison Avenue type slogans. But he does struggle in execution. Before coming to office, Joe Hockey would rail against modest means testing such as of the private health insurance rebate. When we made some minor changes to the Baby Bonus once, I remember Joe Hockey comparing them to China's one-child policy.

JENNETT: But it's pretty clear there is a strong intention to follow through, not just to reduce this to what you would call a slogan. That's what Commission of Audit is all about, isn't it?

LEIGH: Well, I think the real message is,when Joe Hockey talks about the age of entitlement comes to an end, he is talking about the bottom and the middle, not the top. In fact, for the top there is a new age for entitlement just around the corner, in the form of scrapping the carbon price, getting rid of the mining tax, a huge tax cut to mining billionaires and putting in place a parental leave scheme that would pay some of the most affluent families $75 000 when they had a baby. If that's not ‘age of entitlement’, I don't know what is.

JENNETT: But is it not the case that the rest of the world would do well to follow the Australian example, even if not through the May budget process, generally our fiscal position is in better shape than so many others of those developed countries at the G20?

LEIGH: It is absolutely right that Australia's fiscal numbers are good by developed countries' standards. Our debt levels about a tenth of GDP, where many of other countries have 100% or more of GDP. But the choices need to be made in a way which ensures that the burden is evenly shared. When you've got a government that is taking away money from kids on their first day of school so they can give it to some of the richest mining billionaires in the world, that strikes me as being out of touch with Australian values.

JENNETT: What about which the other purposes of the G20 which are of course to solve global problems, multi-national tax arrangements by big corporates, is that something you would expect Joe Hockey to be leading on in Sydney?

LEIGH: It is an important issue and it's one we’ve heard the Government talking about. This is an agenda started very much by Wayne Swan and particularly David Bradbury in office, dealing with the tax shifting by multinational companies. But while the Government has again talked a big game, we've only seen watering down of the reforms. There are reports they’re going to water down Labor's transparency reforms which would see large companies publish their tax paid, so we could see whether they were paying tax. And the removal of a $700 million loophole closing that Labor had which again means that’s $700 million that has to be made up by low and middle-income families…

JENNETT: Alright. We'll get to watch how that plays out at the later G20 finance ministers' meeting later this month, but for now, Shadow Assistant Andrew Leigh, thanks for coming in.



LEIGH: Thank you Greg.

This morning I issued a media release affirming the value of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission after the release of an ill-informed report into the commission by a conservative think-tank.

ANDREW LEIGH

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION

MEMBER FOR FRASER





MEDIA RELEASE

The Abbott Government Should Keep the Australian Charities Commission

Labor rejects the assertions in a Centre for Independent Studies report that the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC) should be scrapped.

The ACNC was created to ensure minimum levels of transparency and accountability in the sector. The Commission is actively working to protect public trust and confidence in Australian charities and not-for-profits.

Feedback from large and respected organisations confirm that the ACNC has been reasonable, responsive and accommodating in its dealings with them.

The CIS report calls for increased transparency at the same time as attacking the very body that is promoting transparency in the not-for-profit sector.

If this is the advice that Minister Kevin Andrews is receiving, is it any wonder that he is hell-bent on scrapping the ACNC despite its almost universal support in the sector and the advice of experts in the field.

Mr Andrews appears ideologically bent on only listening to a narrow band of entities, and repeating mistruths about ‘increased red tape’.

This ignores the fact that the ACNC will facilitate a Charity Passport so charities don’t have to jump unreasonable hoops to access government funds.

The ACNC has a Reporting and Red Tape Reduction Directorate, aimed at freeing charities from double reporting.

Allowed to flourish, Australia’s national and independent regulator will become a must-go-to source of information about which organisations donors can give money to with confidence.

ENDS

Thursday 6 February 2014



Media Contact: Toni Hassan 0426 207 726

My op-ed today debunks claims that Australia is a high-taxing, high-spending nation.

Statistics on Spending Cut Tax Claims Down to Size, Canberra Times and Fairfax Online, 6 February 2014

Last week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott alleged that the ABC was unpatriotic. This week, the ABC’s Fact Check unit found that claims by Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews were wrong. Put the two together, and you can’t help wondering if Mr Abbott’s next step will be to declare that facts are unAustralian.

But much as we can all get a chuckle from the Abbott Government’s media strategy, it’s the substance of Mr Andrews’ assertion that bears scrutiny. He described Australia’s welfare system as ‘not sustainable’, and warned of a European-style fiscal crunch within a decade.

Mr Andrews’ isn’t the only one making dodgy claims about the size of government. Speaking at a Senate inquiry last month, Commission of Audit chairman Tony Shepherd said that Australia’s budget involved ‘unsustainable largesse’, and that his Commission is examining ‘the size and scope of government’. Their remit is simple: cut government spending.

Rather than pursue an ideological agenda, the Abbott Government would do well to start with the evidence on how Australia’s government compares. In 2006, Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello requested a rundown on how Australia’s tax system compares with those in other countries. The report (co-authored by Peter Hendy, now a Liberal MP), concluded simply: ‘Australia is a low-tax country’. It pointed out that we have no wealth, estate, inheritance or gift taxes. For individuals, the report found that we have one of the lowest income tax burdens in the developed world.

Since then, federal Labor delivered significant personal income tax cuts. When Peter Costello was describing us as a low-tax country, our tax to GDP ratio was 24 percent. After six years of Labor, our national tax to GDP ratio is 23 percent. Add in state and local governments, and the tax ratio is around 33 percent of national income. To put this into perspective, the total tax take in New Zealand and the United Kingdom exceeds 40 percent of GDP. And both countries have conservative governments in charge.

Yet there are partisan voices who not only want to ignore the reduction in Australia’s tax take under Labor – they also seem ignorant of where we sit in an international context. Over the past six years, while Labor was in Government, Australia spent less and taxed less than most developed nations. The size of our government is similar to Korea and the United States – yet some on the right would have you think it was in the league of Finland and Sweden.

This matters because unlike the 1996 Commission of Audit, which was carried out by recognised experts and presented its report to the public, the 2014 Commission of Audit is heavily dominated by big business, and will present its report in secret. Everyone agrees that big business deserves a seat at the table – but they shouldn’t get to book out the whole restaurant.

The Commission of Audit excludes any representative of small business, the union movement or the social sector. More important, there is no one representing you – your interest as a taxpayer. There are no nurses or doctors representing the health services and hospitals Australians rely on. There are no teachers or principals representing schools and students.  There are no peak bodies representing pensioners.

Its work will not be scrutinised by the public, but will instead feed directly into Joe Hockey’s savage budget cuts.

Australians are right to fear the consequences of this approach to doing policy. When the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council, Maurice Newman, describes DisabilityCare as ‘reckless’, he strikes fear into the thousands of Australians with a disability. A government that is dragged into a backflip on school funding hardly engenders trust among parents. And as Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has pointed out, the government’s forecasts suggest that it will fall short of its own job creation target.

Under a government with strong economic convictions, the Commission of Audit’s partisanship might not matter much. But this is not that government. One minute, we see the rejection of Archer Daniel Midlands’ bid to buy GrainCorp (the first time investment from a US company has been turned down). The next minute, the government is announcing that it will overturn laws requiring financial planners to disclose commissions or even act in a client’s best interests.

Abbott’s recent statement that he hoped BHP’s Olympic Dam project would go ahead prompted the company to remind him that the project was shelved. Since coming to government, the government has gone from holding press conferences in front of a ‘debt truck’ to striking a deal with the Greens to remove the debt cap entirely. When it comes to economic policy, it’s hard to tell whether B.A. Santamaria, Friedrich Hayek or the Marx Brothers are in charge.

But don’t take it from me – let’s look at his colleagues. Asked whether he would endorse Tony Abbott, Peter Costello famously replied ‘oh, not on economic matters’. In private, Costello is said to describe Abbott as an ‘economic illiterate’. Covering off the other side of the basic skills test, former Opposition Leader John Hewson has described Abbott as ‘innumerate’.

Lacking core economic convictions, this government is especially susceptible to extreme views. Skewed advice could well push the government into making economic mistakes that will endanger our future prosperity. As a recent International Monetary Fund report noted, Australia engaged in ‘fiscal profligacy’ between 2003 and 2007: failing to invest the tax revenue from the first phase of the mining boom into productive infrastructure. This lost opportunity to invest in our future can be partly traced back to the economic lassitude that set in during the last phase of the Howard Government.

Rather than outsourcing the hard decisions to vested interests, Mr Abbott would do well to open up the process. He should let the Commission of Audit set its own reporting timetable, as occurred in 1996. Instead of continually belittling public servants, he would do well to draw on the expertise of Treasury and the Productivity Commission.  And he could remind the ‘cut cut cut’ brigade that by international standards, Australia is a low-taxing, low-spending nation.

Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and his website is www.andrewleigh.com.

When I was 16, I did two weeks’ work experience for John Langmore, who was then the member for Fraser. It was 1988, the first year that the new Parliament House had been opened, and I remember getting hopelessly lost as I went on errands around the building. I'm not sure that I provided any value to John, but the experience had a profound impact on me – as I learned a ton about the issues and personalities that drove politics in that era.

Over the past parliamentary term, I’ve been fortunate to have a variety of people help out as volunteers in my office, assisting me with speeches and submissions, helping solve constituent problems, answering the phone, assisting with campaigning activities, and looking into data-related issues (I've made particularly good use of economics students). They have ranged from work experience students (typically in years 10 or 11) to university students, to people in the workforce (two Teach for Australia students generously donated me their school holidays).

So I thought it might be useful to put out a formal call for interns, fellows and work experience students.

Keen to apply? See the FAQs below.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the criteria?

Enthusiasm, intelligence, and an interest in helping shape progressive ideas.

How long are the placements?

It depends on you. My office can accommodate anything from a week to a couple of months (though longer stints would probably need to be part-time). We typically only have one intern/fellow at a time. From my experience, people get the most out of doing a solid 1-2 weeks.

What would I gain?

A unique insight into parliament and constituent engagement.

What can you supply?

We can’t promise anything more than a desk and a chair. You’ll probably need to bring your own laptop.You may be working at either the electorate office in Braddon, the Parliament House office, or both.

Is it unfair not to pay people?

This is something we've worried about a lot. If we had an external source of funding, I'd love to run a paid internship program. But we don't. So our philosophy has been to work hard to ensure that interns/fellows have an experience that's stimulating and rewarding (as my time working with John Langmore was for me). There are few better ways to demystify politics than a week or two in an MP's office, and we think it's better to run a stimulating but unpaid internship program than no program at all.

What are my chances?

In the past, we have said yes to about half of the people who apply.

How do I apply?

Email andrew.leigh.mp <asperand> aph.gov.au with a one-page CV setting out your experience and skills, plus a covering email saying why you’d like the position and what period you’d like to work. Either I or my overworked chief of staff Nick Terrell will get back to you within a few weeks. It would be helpful to contact us at least a month before you’d like to start volunteering.

On ABC NewsRadio this morning I highlighted the Abbott Government's inconsistent approach to propping up business. The transcript is below.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ABC NEWSRADIO INTERVIEW
TUESDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2014

SUBJECT/S: Industry assistance



PRESENTER: The Opposition says the Federal Treasurer's warning that the age of entitlement in Australia is over displays a double standard. The Shadow Assistant Treasurer says it seems that for Joe Hockey the age of entitlement is coming to an end for the disadvantaged but it's just beginning for the affluent. Dr Andrew Leigh is speaking to Steve Chase.

STEVE CHASE (REPORTER): Andrew Leigh, Joe Hockey's right isn't he, when he says 'the age of entitlement' is over?

LEIGH: I've never been quite sure what Mr Hockey means when he refers to the age of entitlement being over, to be honest Steve. What it seems to mean is that you're going to cut back on income support for some of the most disadvantaged Australians, get rid of the School Kids Bonus which targets assistance to low income families and middle income families on their first day of school; but then put in place unfair and expensive paid parental leave, that gives the most to those who earn the most and get rid of the mining tax which overwhelmingly benefits mining billionaires. Seems to be as if the age of entitlement coming to end for the most disadvantaged, but it's only just beginning for the most affluent.

CHASE: But surely he's speaking in the context of industry assistance?

LEIGH: Well even there, you've got to wonder what the difference is between Cadbury which received an assurance of industry assistance from the Abbott Government before the election and SPC which isn't getting it. The only difference that I can see is that Cadbury is in a marginal electorate and SPC is in a safe Coalition electorate. That doesn't seem to me to be a good basis for determining industry policy.

CHASE: But in the case of SPC, the Government has argued that they're not going to give money to a company that's already profitable. They can dip into their own funds to sort out their problems in Shepparton.

LEIGH: And the same argument would or course apply to Cadbury. So it's then difficult to see how that justification holds up. The fact is that there are two main arguments for industry assistance from an economic standpoint: spillovers to other industries, which is certainly something you see in the automotive sector and regional concentration of jobs, which is there in the case of SPC. Instead we've seen this odd episode of seeing Abbott Government ministers earning generous salaries having a go at workers, whose jobs involve stacking cans, earning 50, 60,000 a year. It's been a bit unedifying I think.

CHASE: You would have seen the Prime Minister on the 7.30 Report arguing the money given to Cadbury was not for their day to day operations but for a tourism project in the area. What do you say to that?

LEIGH: Well, tourism is an industry like everything else. The Prime Minister's argument seems to be a Jesuitical splitting of hairs rather than a substantive argument. If he has a coherent philosophy on industry assistance then I'm yet to hear it. You do recall all of the discussion in Peter Costello's autobiography about Mr Abbott in Cabinet, urging more and more lavish spending for his own electorate. That appears to be starkly at odds with the philosophy he's shown towards low and middle income workers at the SPC cannery in Shepparton.

PRESENTER: That's the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh, speaking to Steve Chase.

Ends