Andrew Leigh

On Sky News Showdown, I discussed the Abbott Government's first budget update, showing a significant deterioration in public finances, a significant potion of which is due to decisions made by the government.

ANDREW LEIGH

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION

MEMBER FOR FRASER





E&OE TRANSCRIPT

ABC QUEENSLAND

TUESDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2013

SUBJECT: MYEFO

NICOLE DYER: With me Andrew Leigh, Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Member for Fraser. Mr Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Nicole.

DYER: So Labor fudged the figures, what's your response to that?

LEIGH: It's a worthy try on, but unfortunately it's an approach which was foreclosed by none other than Peter Costello, the former Liberal Treasurer. He put in place a thing called the Charter of Budget Honesty back in the mid-1990s. When he put that in place, he said that the reason he was doing it was so that there would be a Pre-election Fiscal and Economic Outlook and elections could be conducted on the basis of facts and not on the basis of deceit.

DYER: Well how much responsibility then does Labor take for the budget deficit?

LEIGH: We take responsibility for taking on debt to save jobs in the Global Financial Crisis. We also take responsibility for the fact that when we took office, ours was the 15th largest economy in the world, and when we left office it was the 12th largest economy in the world. So that debt that we took on saved jobs in the global downturn. If you think we shouldn't have debt, basically you think that we should have lost more jobs. But everything since the election, that's Joe Hockey's - the $9 billion that he's given to the Reserve Bank, the multi-billion dollar tax cut he wants to give to mining billionaires...

DYER: But you can understand, Mr Leigh, you can understand why people are so confused because at one stage while Labor was in power, we were going to be in surplus and then of course that didn't happen and then it had to be re-forecast, so were you stalling? Was Labor stalling to get to the federal election? I mean for how long did you know that there were major problems within the budget that would mean that there would be no surplus?

LEIGH: Nicole we take responsibility for the state of the books at the time when Labor left office. That was clearly set out in the Charter of Budget Honesty, and that gave us a deficit for this year of $30 billion.

DYER: Yeah, but how did Labor get it so wrong? I mean how realistic was the pre-election budget proposing to bring the budget back into surplus in four years, and it now looks like it will take over a decade?

LEIGH: Well, this isn't Labor getting things wrong, this is decisions made by the Treasurer. The Treasurer has chosen to give $9 billion to the Reserve Bank - not $9 billion they've asked for, $9 billion he's giving to them because he wants a bigger dividend later. The Treasurer is choosing to walk away from $3 billion of tax savings such as closing tax loopholes. The Treasurer is choosing to give a big tax cut to Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer. The Treasurer is choosing to move from our current, fair Paid Parental Leave scheme to an unfair scheme that will give $75,000 to millionaire parents when they have a child. They're the Treasurer's decisions and they're what's going to take the budget backwards in the statement that Joe Hockey's bringing out today.

DYER: Andrew Leigh, thank you very much. Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Member for Fraser. No doubt, there'll be a lot of poring over figures when the mid-year budget is handed down in Parliament today.

Today I issued a media release regarding the news that two ATO offices will close, potentially resulting in hundreds of job cuts.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

MEMBER FOR FRASER



MEDIA RELEASE


JOB CUTS AS ATO OFFICES CLOSE



The Tax Commissioner’s announcement that over 600 jobs are at risk due to the closure of tax offices in Hurstville and Southport is a cruel blow to families ahead of Christmas, said Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh.

The head of the Australian Tax Office, Chris Jordan AO, announced the job cuts in an email to Australian Tax Office employees today. The ATO’s Hurstville office in Sydney employs around 540 people and the Southport office on the Gold Coast employs 90.

“The Member for Banks, David Coleman, needs to explain why he hasn’t been able to stand up for his community and instead will stand idly by while over 500 jobs are lost in his electorate,” Dr Leigh said.

“Mr Coleman’s protestations in the media that ‘the ATO is an important employer in Hurstville and we need to maintain jobs in the local community’ have obviously drawn little support from his colleagues,” Dr Leigh said.

“Similarly, the Member for Moncrieff, Steven Ciobo, needs to explain to his electorate why he hasn’t been able to stop these job cuts” Dr Leigh said.

“Mr Ciobo’s position as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer didn’t seem to carry much influence when it came to looking after jobs in his own electorate.”

“The Abbott Government must explain to these Sydney and Gold Coast workers why they should lose their jobs just so mining billionaires can get a tax cut.”

TUESDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2013

DAVID BRADBURY GIVEN MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AWARD

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh today congratulated former Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury on his inclusion in the International Tax Review's Global Tax 50, the most influential figures in global tax policy over the last year.

“David Bradbury’s efforts on reducing tax avoidance and profit-shifting were a vital part of the tax agenda of Labor,” said Dr Leigh.

“Great Labor governments not only target spending where it is needed most – they also work hard at the revenue coalface, ensuring that our tax system is fair and that it keeps up with changes in the global environment.”

“I congratulate David Bradbury for his tax achievements, recognised in this important international award.”

TUESDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2013

My op-ed in the SMH Online today looks at Joe Hockey's attempt to find someone else to blame for his decisions.

Joe Hockey, it's your economy now, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 December 2013

As a very junior lawyer, I once worked on a case representing a restaurant owner, who had sold his business. The new owners complained that they could not make as much money as he had done. When we looked into it, the reasons quickly became apparent. They had taken on their relatives as staff, fired the chef, and allowed grime to accumulate in the kitchen. They claimed that our client had misrepresented the true state of the restaurant when it was sold. But as the judge found, it was the new buyer’s shabby management that led to the losses.

Today, Joe Hockey is trying a similar trick. It’s been 101 days since the election, but rather than acting as the Treasurer of Australia, he’s frozen in Opposition mode, looking for someone to blame.

Mr Hockey today is going to attempt to argue that he has discovered ‘spiders in the cupboards’, and pretend that he is showing the state of the books at the time he became Treasurer. Unfortunately for Mr Hockey, that particular trick has been made impossible, thanks to the fiscal equivalent of Mortein: the Charter of Budget Honesty.

Created by Peter Costello after the 1996 election, the Charter does something very simple: it requires the Secretaries of Treasury and Finance to prepare a Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Outlook (PEFO). That document sets out the nation’s public finances at the time of the election. It ensures, as Mr Costello put it at the time ‘that the Australian people know the situation before an election begins and so that elections can be conducted on the basis of the facts and not on the basis of deceit, as governments in the past have sought to do.’

The PEFO for the 2013 election showed an economy with solid growth, unemployment that was low by historical standards, and gross debt projected to peak at $370 billion in 2016-17. That is the spider-free economy Joe Hockey took on.

As Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has pointed out, Labor’s six years in office saw our economy grow from the 15^th largest in the world to the 12^th largest. In terms of income per person, we rose from 17^th to 8^th. This success has been recognised by respected international institutions such as the IMF.

Through the deepest global downturn since the Great Depression, our economy continued to create jobs. And for someone with a $300,000 mortgage, Labor’s lower interest rates meant a saving of over $100 a week.

In our budgets, we made a series of tough decisions. Indeed, Labor’s final budget achieved a reduction in nominal spending – the first time in Australian history this had ever occurred. Cracking down on multinational profit-shifting wasn’t easy policy, but closing that loophole saved taxpayers billions. We were on track to repay the debt that had been incurred in order to save over 200,000 jobs during the economic crisis.

Alas, Mr Hockey’s early days in the job suggest a Treasurer who struggles to win the key economic arguments. He is the first Treasurer to knock back a foreign investment bid by a US company, potentially imperilling growth and jobs in rural Australia. His decision to give $9 billion to the Reserve Bank is bewildering, given the lack of evidence that they ever asked for such a princely sum. A tax cut to mining billionaires and removing the carbon price will cost billions in lost revenue. A parental leave scheme that gives $75,000 per baby to the highest-earners will further blow out the budget.

And let’s face it, if you really believed the nation was facing a ‘budget emergency’, and that the Greens were the most extreme party in Australia, would you strike a deal with the Greens to remove the debt cap entirely?

Today, Mr Hockey should take responsibility for his own decisions, and admit that his budget update reflects changes made on his watch. Rather than trying to shove PEFO down the memory hole, he should outline his positive plans to maintain labour productivity growth, running at a respectable 2 percent under Labor. Having lost a game of high-stakes poker with Holden, he needs to outline his plans for the South Australian economy.

It’s hard to see how productivity can continue to grow if school funding is cut, if fibre-to-the-home NBN is cancelled, and if pork-barrelling is brought back into the infrastructure decision-making process. These are big questions for the Treasurer, and I hope he has some serious answers.

It’s your economy now, Joe. Time to step up to the mark.

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

Yesterday I issued a media release celebrating the Coalition's failure to abolish the new statutory definition for charities that will take effect on 1 January 2014.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

MEMBER FOR FRASER



MEDIA RELEASE

A win for Australian charities as they enter the modern age

Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Andrew Leigh, says the charitable sector can breathe a sigh of relief that a long-awaited reform will go ahead in the new year.

“From January 2014 a new statutory definition of charities championed by Labor will apply – one that reduces costs, provides clarity for charities and protection for those doing advocacy.”

Without consulting the not-for-profit sector Minister Kevin Andrews tried to scuttle the change with an amendment that would have forced charities to continue to rely on 400 years of common law.

“Mr Andrews has failed. The new definition will apply from January and until such time as a repeal passes the Senate,” said Dr Leigh whose portfolio involves charities and tax.

“The charitable sector overwhelmingly supports a statutory definition of charity. No one wants to wade through court cases to decide if they’re a charity.”

This has been a long time coming. Back in 2000 former Prime Minister John Howard announced the establishment of the Charity Definition Inquiry saying:

“We need to ensure that the legislative and administrative framework in which they operate is appropriate to the modern social and economic environment. Yet the common law definition of a charity, which is based on a legal concept dating back to 1601, has resulted in a number of legal definitions and often gives rise to legal disputes.” – John Howard

“The sector, which employs up to a million Australians and fought hard for the Charities Bill 2013, has been alarmed that Minister Andrew sought to delay the new definition and keep charities stuck in the 17^th century,” said Dr Leigh.

During a committee hearing this week, World Vision Australia CEO and Community Council of Australia Chair, Reverend Tim Costello gave evidence supported by other sector representatives that the sector was very surprised by the Government’s attempt to take Australian charities back four centuries.



“This new definition is extraordinarily important for all of us. With the consultations and over 200 submissions made, I have not heard of anyone in the sector who was troubled by this definition.”’ – Tim Costello

“Advocacy is not a dirty word. It gives individuals and disadvantaged groups a voice. I’m delighted the new definition will apply from January – positively affecting many organisations working with vulnerable Australians this Christmas who seek to create lasting change,” added Dr Leigh.



SUNDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2013

Yesterday I issued a media release highlighting Labor's concern regarding the Coalition's tax loopholes.

ANDREW LEIGH MP

SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER

MEMBER FOR FRASER



MEDIA RELEASE

Government Backs Down on Closing Tax Loopholes, Blows $3 Billion Hole in Budget

The Coalition has increased the budget deficit by $3 billion as a result of abandoning savings measures, Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh said today.

“Late on Saturday afternoon, the government announced that it would not proceed with 48 tax savings measures that had been announced but not yet enacted,” said Dr Leigh.

“Combined with similar decisions made on 6 November, this will cost the budget $3 billion.”

“In abandoning these savings measures and proceeding with a tax cut for mining billionaires, the government is showing that it has the wrong priorities.”

“The Government of ‘no surprises and no excuses’ can't persist in blaming Labor for its budget woes, when it won’t follow through with responsible savings measures.

“No wonder the Government needed to strike a deal with the Greens for unlimited debt.”



The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) out on Tuesday had been expected to show a budget deficit of at least $40 billion. The government’s latest decisions are likely to make that larger still.

SUNDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2013

MEDIA CONTACTS: TONI HASSAN 0426 207 726

THOMAS MCMAHON 0433 359 983

On Sky AM Agenda, I joined host Kieran Gilbert and Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield to discuss the Coalition's excuses for blowing out the budget, and whether Liberal Party MPs will be given the freedom to vote their conscience on same-sex marriage.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT

MONDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2013

SUBJECT/S: Budget Update, DisabilityCare, Same-Sex Marriage

KIERAN GILBERT: First though to Andrew Leigh. The Budget apparently worse than first thought, according to the Government, and we could be heading towards ten years of deficits unless some drastic action is taken.

ANDREW LEIGH: These are some big decisions that the Government has taken, aren’t they Kieran? The $9 billion to the reserve bank, the $17 billion of revenue you lose when you get rid of the mining tax and the carbon price. The impact of those on the budget is going to be very, very significant.

GILBERT: But Tony Abbott says this is the last economic statement of the Labor era, isn’t that a fair enough assessment given we’re only 100 days since the election?

LEIGH: I think that’s a great try on and given where Mr Abbott’s coming from you can understand why he is giving it a good old shake. Unfortunately, Peter Costello’s…

GILBERT: But only three months in how can it not be Labor’s legacy that we’re talking about here?

LEIGH: Well because unfortunately for Mr Abbott we’re playing by Peter Costello’s rules. Those rules say that there is a Charter of Budget Honesty and a Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook brought down during the election campaign, that lays out exactly the state of the books at the time that the election takes place. And the reason that Peter Costello put those rules into place was very simple, it’s to avoid exactly this kind of trick. The kind of attempt to find spiders in the cupboard that Mr Abbott’s been going on with and Mr Hockey as well. Frankly, this is a MYEFO and much as Joe Hockey would like to think that it’s a ‘Your EFO’ or ‘Wayne’s EFO’ or ‘Someone else’s EFO,’ this is a statement of the decisions he’s made.

GILBERT: I’m told we’ve got the assistant social services minister, Mitch Fifield with us now. Senator Fifield, good to see you and let me ask you first of all about this suggestion. Well, first of all Tony Abbott’s saying that this is Labor’s last economic statement of its era, but he’s refusing to commit to returning the budget back to surplus within four years. Is that on, or is it off? That commitment to have the budget back in surplus by 2016-17.

MITCH FIFIELD: Well Kieran, our objective is to get the budget back into surplus as soon as we can. Our objective is to pay off as much debt as we possibly can, as soon as we can. The real issue here is whether the Australian Labor Party are going to recognise that there has been a change of government, and if the Australian Labor Party are going to stand in the way of each and every measure proposed to get the budget back into a sustainable position. So far we have seen the Labor Party announce that they will oppose even the savings measures that they themselves announced before the election. This is truly perverse stuff Kieran, but our objective is we want to get the budget back into surplus as soon as we can.

GILBERT: Well, so is that another target that’s gone by the wayside Senator Fifield?

FIFIELD: Well Kieran the targets of the Labor Party, and we saw many of them during their term of office, budget after budget not one of them was met. I lost count of how many targets the previous government set for when they would get the budget back into surplus. They were forever moving, they were forever changing – so you’ll forgive me if I’m not going to cop lectures from the Australian Labor Party when it comes to budget targets, but what we know at the moment is that on Labor’s own numbers from the PEFO, from the numbers from Treasury and Finance at that time, the budget was looking to be 30 billion dollars in deficit, we know that Labor were forecasting net government debt in excess of 200 million dollars. Now we will find out tomorrow with the MYEFO whether those numbers have gotten worse, and I think Tony Abbott is quite right to say that the MYEFO will in effect be the last budget statement on behalf of the previous government, but it will be the first truthful one.

GILBERT: Minister, can I ask you as the minister responsible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, is the NDIS safe from cuts despite the worsening budget forecast?

FIFIELD: Kieran we have made clear, and I’ll state it again to you that we will honour the announced spending on the NDIS. We are, even as I speak now, in the process of honouring and delivering the bilateral agreements that have been reached between the Commonwealth and the other jurisdictions. Tony Abbott is very personally committed to seeing the NDIS delivered and that’s what we’re going to do.

GILBERT: And on time, on schedule, as promised?

FIFIELD: Kieran we are honouring, and it’s our intention to do so, the bilateral agreements with the other jurisdictions and they lay out the time frame.

[Break for Prime Minister’s press conference.]

GILBERT: With me this morning, Andrew Leigh and Mitch Fifield. Much smaller discussion than what we’ve normally got, of course because of the Prime Minister’s news conference, but he says tomorrow they’ll be starting to outline the fiscal problem and start to fix it. The economic ramifications of decisions made by Labor will remain. As an economist, isn’t that a fair enough argument? Decisions made in government are obviously going to have ramifications for years into the future. It can’t be fixed overnight.

LEIGH: Well, the budget was set down before the election. The Pre-election Fiscal Outlook is the baseline that Mr Abbott’s inheriting. I mean, let’s face it, Mr Abbott said this would be…

GILBERT: But it’s got worse. It’s $17 billion worse already.

LEIGH: Indeed, Mr Abbot has worsened it through a number of decisions including $9 billion to the Reserve Bank.

GILBERT: So you’re saying as soon as the election’s done, Labor’s legacy is over. There are no ramifications into the new government.

LEIGH: None beyond the four years of estimates that were set out in the Pre-election Fiscal Outlook. I mean for a government that said there would be no surprises and no excuses, there’s more surprises than a haunted house and more excuses than a three year-old with his hand in the cookie jar. This is really strange stuff. Mr Abbott ought to be behaving like a grown up. He said this would be a government in which the adults would be in charge, but instead he seems to be suggesting that everyone else is to blame. He can’t get the budget under control, so he has to strike a deal with the Greens for unlimited debt. He’s breaking promises on the National Broadband Network, on Medicare Locals, turning the National Disability Insurance Scheme launch sites into mere trial sites – which I think is deeply concerning. What was a budget emergency has turned into unlimited debt under Joe Hockey’s watch.

GILBERT: I want to bring in Mitch Fifield now. We heard a lot from the Prime Minister on the economic issue, I want to ask you about something he was also asked about on same sex marriage Senator Fifield. Given the comments made by Malcolm Turnbull yesterday – he thinks that there is a reasonable prospect there could be a conscience vote for the Liberal Party this parliamentary term on same sex marriage. What’s your view on it? What do you think the overall mood of the party room is on this issue?

FIFIELD: Well, if a Bill comes before the Parliament, our party room will consider it and I think we need to distinguish between the issue of conscience votes and free votes. In a sense, every vote in the Parliament for a Liberal is a conscience vote. Unlike the Labor Party, we don’t have automatic expulsion if you don’t vote according to the party line so every vote for a Liberal is in effect a conscience vote. There’s the issue of free votes. Now a free vote arises where the Party doesn’t have a stated position, and for there to be a free vote in relation to a same sex marriage bill, our party room would need to declare that there was not a Liberal Party position, so if a bill comes to the Parliament, it will come to our party room and our party room will consider that at that stage.

GILBERT: And obviously, do you have a view one way or the other on whether it will or not? We’ve only got about 30 seconds left, but just quickly.

FIFIELD: Look I honestly don’t know. Our party has had a clear position over a long period of time to support the status quo when it comes to the Marriage Act. This matter, if it arises, will be considered by our party room.

GILBERT: Senator Fifield and Andrew Leigh, apologies for the shorter discussion but, as I say, the Prime Minister intervened.

LEIGH: No worries Kieran.

GILBERT: Have a good day. That’s all for our chat on this edition of the program this morning.

ENDS

Today I issued a media release highlighting how Labor's concern about an ATO draft ruling on moveable homes is catching on. Several Coalition MPs, including the Assistant Employment Minister, Luke Hartsuyker, have complained about the draft law which if adopted would make the supply of a moveable home site taxable and hurt low-income people.

MEDIA RELEASE


COALITION MEMBERS BREAK RANKS ON GST TO MOVEABLE HOMES



Government MPs are breaking their silence to speak out against moves to slug moveable home estates with GST, said Assistant Shadow Treasurer, Andrew Leigh.

“Karen McNamara, the Liberal Member for Dobell, is the latest member to criticise the Australian Tax Office’s draft decision on moveable homes.”

She told Federal Parliament yesterday:

I have been contacted by members of my community who live in moveable home estates and the message is clear, this draft ruling unfairly impacts on those who can least afford to pay more tax. – Karen McNamara (Member’s Statement, Thursday 12 December 2013)



“Since Labor Leader, Bill Shorten first raised this issue on 9^th November a plethora of Liberal and National MPs have broken ranks to express their concerns on behalf of hundreds of moveable home owners, many of them pensioners who can’t afford conventional housing,” said Dr Leigh.

“By contrast, the Prime Minister - who promised a Coalition Government would make no changes to the GST - said in relation to this unfair ruling that ‘things happen’. The Assistant Treasurer says it’s merely an ‘administrative decision’ and the Treasurer has said nothing.”

"As with Holden, Joe Hockey seems to think that doing nothing is the best approach," said Dr Leigh.

“It’s time senior government leaders took notice. Did they hear Liberal Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, argue for the draft decision to be overturned?”

My concern is that many people living in moveable estates simply cannot afford any other form of home… I have concerns that this decision will increase the cost of living for those who have least capacity to pay.” – Luke Hartsuyker (Media Release, 5 December 2013).

The Nationals Member for Page, Kevin Hogan, and the Liberal Member for Forde, Bert van Manen, are among other Coalition MPs who have spoken out after being inundated with requests for assistance to fight the proposed GST hike.

Ends

Friday, 13 Decemnber 2013

I spoke in parliament today on the High Court's decision on same-sex marriage.

Today the High Court unanimously decided that the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013 of the ACT could not operate concurrently with the federal Marriage Act. This judgment was the result of a decision by the Abbott government to challenge the ACT law in the courts. It is a decision which I believe was fundamentally misguided. Same-sex marriage is a political issue that should be decided in this chamber. As the Prime Minister's sister, Christine Foster, has tweeted: 'Sad news that the ACT same-sex marriage law has been overturned. Focus now firmly on federal parliament.'

Many members of this place support same-sex marriage, but the challenge is that the Liberal Party does not give its members a conscience vote. If Senator Brandis puts out press releases making statements such as, 'Freedoms are some of the most fundamental of all human rights', then the least he could do would be to allow his party room the freedom to vote for same-sex marriage.

As Warren and Grant of Aranda, who have been together for 27 years, told me: 'Our marriage would not undermine heterosexual marriage—quite the opposite—our desire to be married reflects our deep respect for the institution of marriage.'

Future generations of Australians will look back and wonder why it took Australian parliaments so long to bring about the reform of marriage laws.