Andrew Leigh

My opinion piece today looks at the costings challenge for the Coalition.

It's Time for Abbott to do the Maths on Costings Gap, The Canberra Times, The Age, 19 August 2013

Imagine if you decide one day to use a new accountant to do your taxes. He promises that everything will be done on time, and you’ll get a hefty tax refund.

You hand him the group certificate from your employer. He says the figures on it are not worth the paper they’re written on. You point out that he’ll have to use some estimate of your income. He responds, ‘don’t worry - we won’t be adding up your tax return this year’.

You ask about that promised refund. He shows you a draft of the return. It shows the same deduction claimed in two places.

As tax day approaches, the accountant keeps promising to do your return ‘plenty of time’ before it’s due. But with three weeks to go, you’re starting to fret.

If this tale sounds familiar, it’s what it would look like if Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey ran an accounting firm.

The story to date. In 1998, John Howard and Peter Costello came up with the notion of a ‘charter of budget honesty’. Prior to the election, Treasury would release an independent budget statement (the Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Outlook, or PEFO) and the resources of Treasury and Finance departments (and now the Parliamentary Budget Office) would be available to all parties to cost their policies. Based on this, both Government and Opposition can produce costed policies.

Ironically, while the Charter of Budget Honesty was a Liberal invention, they failed to comply with it at the last election. Post-election analysis by Treasury uncovered an $11 billion gap in the Liberals’ costings. The Liberals had claimed in that campaign that their costings had been audited, but the firm who did the job were fined for professional misconduct.

This time around, the Liberals have a costings gap that is – on their own admission – $70 billion. They have pledged to give fringe benefits tax breaks back to people who do not use the car for business purposes, and to restore the private health insurance rebate for the richest Australians. Their proposed paid parental leave scheme offers nothing more to a worker on the minimum wage than the current scheme, but provides over $70,000 per baby to those who earn the most. Each of these policies are skewed towards the most affluent. Together, they constitute a massive cost to taxpayers.

The problem for the Liberals is that they have spent the past three years saying ‘no’ to Labor’s sensible savings measures. As a result, they are now in the position of promising to spend more, tax less, and pay down debt faster; oblivious to the fact that it isn’t mathematically possible to achieve all three.

In the first week of the campaign, Mr Abbott’s sole policy announcement of substance was a cut in the company tax rate. Spruiking it, he airily claimed that it would be paid by savings he’d already announced. Unfortunately, those savings have already been taken by the commitment to give a massive tax cut to big miners and big polluters. Once that’s paid for, Mr Abbott has nothing in the kitty.

For Australian families, Mr Abbott’s costings gap means tax increases or service cuts amounting to thousands of dollars for the typical household. Most likely, that means a reduction in the quality of schools, hospitals, and family payments.

Over recent budgets, Labor has made some tough decisions affecting the public service. Anyone who knows our federal public service is aware that any ‘fat’ is long-gone. If elected, the Liberals are likely to maintain the efficiency dividend, and to add on top of it their policy of getting rid of 12,000 to 20,000 Canberra public service job cuts. This would be devastating for our city, and yet it would be only a small fraction of the costings gap that Mr Abbott needs to make up. Even after slashing the Canberra public service, abolishing the Schoolkids Bonus and scrapping Trade Training Centres, Mr Abbott is still left without enough money to pay the bills.

So will the Liberals provide some honest answers? In July, Mr Hockey said that if the PEFO figures were the same as those in previous budget updates “PEFO won’t be worth the paper it’s written on’. Last week, he went further, saying of Treasury costings, ‘These numbers just look stupid so we won’t be adding up our policies.’

These were such extraordinary statements from a would-be Treasurer that even Mr Abbott contradicted them, saying ‘The budget bottom line will be there for everyone to see.’ Yet while Mr Abbott is promising that his full suite of policies will be out in ‘plenty of time’ before the deadline, he is increasingly looking like a teenager preparing to pull an all-nighter to get the assignment done.

And now, the jig is up. In PEFO, Treasury has confirmed what the Government has been saying for months – that the forecasts in the budget and its updates reflect the best estimates of the experts. The Liberals no longer have the excuse that they’re waiting for PEFO. Now, let’s hope they’re finally willing to level with the Australian people about their tax rises and service cuts.

Because as much as Mr Abbott likes to talk about the laws he wants to repeal, he can’t repeal the laws of mathematics.

Andrew Leigh is the federal member for Fraser, and his website is www.andrewleigh.com.

On 14 August, I spoke to the National Rural Health Alliance about their top three priorities for improving rural and regional health: health workforce, disability, and telehealth/NBN.http://www.youtube.com/v/6yLj_7XCytc?hl=en_US&version=3

I appeared on ABC RN Drive with Waleed Aly and Arthur Sinodinos last night, discussing special economic zones, Coalition costings, minority government, and Waleed turning 35. Here's a podcast.

On 14 August 2013, I spoke with Lyndal Curtis about Trade Training Centres, Labor's historic environmental reforms, and the risks to Canberra posed by Coalition cuts. Alas, Zed Seselja was to have joined the conversation, but withdrew at the last minute.

Campaign Transcript

TRANSCRIPT OF ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FRASER

ABC NEWS24 INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE

14 AUGUST 2013

E & O E – PROOF ONLY

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________________________________________________________

Subjects: Preferences, PEFO and budget honesty, Trade Training Centres.

_____________________________________________________________

LYNDAL CURTIS: But now joining me to discuss the day's events Labor member for Fraser Andrew Leigh. We were expected to be joined by the Liberals Senate

candidate in the ACT Zed Seselja but he is not here. Andrew Leigh, welcome. We will start with Labor so far refusing to agree to the Liberals'

demands that it preference the Greens last at the Federal election. For the first time Tony Abbott will preference Labor over the Greens. The move

mostly harms the Greens chances in their first and only lower house seat of Melbourne.

ADAM BANDT: The reality is that people are able to allocate their own preferences. In Melbourne, I think there will be a lot of people from across the political

spectrum, including those who are aligned to the Liberal Party who won't be happy with Tony Abbott directing them to send their preferences to a

Labor backbencher.

TONY ABBOTT: Frankly, I say to Mr Rudd, this is a test of your leadership. Are you man enough to say to the Greens I am going to say to the Greens I am going to

put you last?

LYNDAL CURTIS: Andrew, the floor is yours this afternoon. Is there a chance that the move by the Opposition will actually help the Labor Party?

ANDREW LEIGH:   First, I am sorry that Zed Seselja is not here. I would have enjoyed the debate with him today and certainly Gary Humphries I don't think would ever

have stood you up like this. So, it is a disappointment there. The Liberal Party gave Adam Bandt his seat there last time by virtue of directing

preferences to him. So, by taking that away I think Cath Bowtell has a strong showing. I think Cath Bowtell is a great candidate and would make a

great member for Melbourne.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Labor is under pressure in other seats, particularly inner city seats. There is a seat of Batman in Melbourne and even Anthony Albanese's seat and

Tanya Plibersek's seat of Sydney. Do you think David Feeney in Batman and Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek will be breathing a little bit of a sigh of

relief at this announcement?

ANDREW LEIGH: Certainly I think it has electoral outcomes in some of those seats and better informed pundits than me will look at that. I would be very happy to run

on our environmental record, our small-G green record for this election. The world's biggest network of marine parks and an historic price on carbon

pollution and finally sorting out the Murray Darling Basin mess after more than a century of mucking around. It is hard to find a term in the Federal

Parliament where we have passed as much good environmental reform as this one.

LYDNAL CURTIS: Labor Party people, including Anthony Albanese, have been critical of the Greens. Mr Albanese called them parasitic. Chris Bowen says the Labor

Party shouldn't ever have another agreement of the sort it had in the last parliament. Did the Labor Party err, having the formal agreement it had

with the Greens in order to get back into Government because the Greens weren't ever going to support the Liberal Party were they?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think they were very special circumstances and it is very hard to see them being repeated again. Mr Bowen is right when he says we shouldn't

strike that sort of formal agreement in the future.

LYNDAL CURTIS: There are seats where you need Greens support to win aren't there?

ANDREW LEIGH: We certainly get preferences from Greens voters and I, in my own electorate last time, got a range of preferences from Greens supporters. I think

they recognise that Labor has a great track record in environmental reform, in areas like social justice, on the question, for example, of same sex

marriage where Mr Abbott thinks it is a fashion. My own view is that love never goes out of fashion.

LYNDAL CURTIS: The Labor Party always trumpets the last parliament because of the amount of legislation that got passed, because of the things that were done. Is

there a perception that this parliament, at the very least, was a very bitter battle and that people wouldn't like to see a minority Government again?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think there was, Laura Tingle has used the phrase ‘scratchiness’ to describe the national conversation and that nicely sums up some of the

conversation on the last three years. Almost inevitable I think of tight numbers in the parliament of Mr Abbott choosing to focus almost purely on

the negative over that period. But we got an extraordinary amount of stuff done. You look at the reform record of the last parliament and it stacks up

so well. Things like DisabilityCare passing the parliament. A profits-based mining tax replacing the old royalties tax which didn't make much sense

to anyone. Getting the seat on the UN Security Council - it didn't go through the parliament but it is an amazing step forward for Australia.

LYNDAL CURTIS: I want to ask you a question about the ACT. The Greens are running a Senate candidate. Been lots of attempts to effectively unseat the Senate

spot that usually goes to the Liberals. Is there enough, do you believe, of a solid Liberal vote in the ACT to keep that seat with the Liberals and

anyone who attempts to get it will fail?

ANDREW LEIGH:    I think Mr Seselja is clearly favourite in this race but Simon Sheikh will have the best shot of any Greens candidate who has run in the last ecade.

Mr Seselja won a controversial pre-selection against Gary Humphries who wanted to serve another term in the parliament. That will disenchant a

lot of ACT voters. Also, Simon Sheikh is a pretty seasoned grass roots performer and has been very much out and about in the electorate. He has

good chance but he is the underdog.

LYNDAL CURTIS:  The release of the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook has done little to abate the vow over costings. The Opposition says the budget

numbers are still too volatile even though they match the economic statement of a fortnight ago, fuelling Government claims the Opposition's

hiding its plans to cut jobs and services.

JOE HOCKEY:        The figures that came out yesterday clearly indicate that there is an enormous amount of potential volatility in the numbers. We are not going to do

what Labor does and make rash promises.

PENNY WONG: We won't do what Labor does and make forecasts that could vary. Let's remember why this statement is put out, it is because Peter Costello set up

the honesty and I pay him credit for that. It is a good thing and it means that the election campaign is there and the public and parties know

precisely what the Budget position is.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Andrew, you're an economist. The pre-election economic and fiscal outlook had in it what the Treasury said were confidence intervals around

forecasts saying there was part of the forecasts they were 70% confident about and showing a larger range that they could be more confident

about. Should those things about be part of every Budget that a Government delivers. Do they help people in understanding that forecasts are just

forecasts?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think they are. When I was on the House of Representatives economics committee, the Reserve Bank began publishing confidence intervals

around their forecasts and I was urging them to do that with all their forecasts. It reminds us, like weather forecasting, economic forecasting is not

a perfect science. But the numbers are out now, the Coalition has lost their last remaining fig leaf and it is time for them to start bringing out those

policies. The sooner they do that the better, then we can have a contest about ideas rather than the Coalition running this Campbell Newman

approach of a secret commission of cuts.

LYNDAL CURTIS: But the Coalition says it has put a range of policies to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Will the Government accept the costings from the PBO if

the Opposition puts them out?

ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely we will. What the Australian people expect is a full suite of policies from the Coalition. They haven't gotten that to date. They have dribs

and drabs. They have claims about savings. For example, when Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey released their company tax cut, they claimed that they

had previously announced savings that would pay for it. It just wasn't true. They had announced savings which were completely gobbled up by

their tax cut for big miners and polluters leaving the company tax cut entirely unfunded. It is not good for democracy if the Australian people can't

judge properly costed policies. If all they have from Mr Abbott is attack lines and secret plans rather than being honest about what he will do.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Although, the Coalition raises the Labor Party in 2007, when it was Opposition released its costings the day before the election. Both sides have

had problems in this area haven't they?

ANDREW LEIGH:  But it has never been more important for the Opposition to come forward and the reason for that is they have spent the last three years saying yes to

every special interest but no to every reasonable saving. Having said no, for example, to our saving on fringe benefits tax for cars, saying you need

to produce evidence if you want to claim a tax deduction on using your car for business use. That is nearly $2 billion that they have to find in

reduced services or increased taxes. It is why we are asking reasonable questions about whether they will continue the Better Schools reforms and

whether they will cut from hospitals or cut more public servants or consider raising the GST.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Cut more public servants than effectively the Government has done by proposing - imposing successive efficiency dividends?

ANDREW LEIGH: We expect that to be met first and foremost through non-staffing reductions. They have been in the senior levels of the public service where the

growth has been five times as fast as the more junior levels. We are concerned about an imbalance there. The Coalition will just cut across the

board, two-year hiring freeze and at least 12,000 gone but maybe up to 20,000 or more.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Would it be easier for the public service to look at non-staff cost cutting if you hadn't imposed what have been successive efficiency dividends over

the last few years?

ANDREW LEIGH: The efficiency dividend has been tough on public service agencies, there is no denying that and I hear that when I am speaking with my

constituents around town. What that points to is we're well beyond cutting through fat. The Coalition, if they were to cut these 12,000 jobs would be

cutting deep into bone. They would be stripping away services that Australian families rely on and the expectation that Australian families have

that they will have a country where they can go to a family assistance office, where they can get help overseas if they have an emergency, where

they will get assistance with a Medicare claim and where public servants will do great management of programs. All that is at threat if you strip away

and attack the public service as the Coalition look like doing.

LYNDAL CURTIS: The PM Kevin Rudd began talking about the need to skill young people when he was Opposition Leader in 2007. It is a theme he has returned to

in the second week of the campaign, hoping to remind voters of his record in the top job the first time around.

KEVIN RUDD: One of the first undertakings I gave way back then as Leader of the Opposition was to build trades training centres across Australia. It is part of

building the country's future. These things don't just appear out of thin air and they are here because Governments decided to make them happen.

That is why across the nation today we are announcing that the total number of trades training centres that we are having nationally will now rise

to more than 500.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Today he has announced 137 new trades training centres at a cost per centre of $1.1 million. The only problem is that the trade training

centres that built over the last six years have cost on average about $3.4 million. The public will never see 137 trade training centres at the

rice tag of $200 million.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Do you accept and I spoke to Bill Shorten about this earlier, that the project that was started in 2007 is not yet completed, it was a 10-year program

but as Christopher Pyne says, you're behind in the schedule?

ANDREW LEIGH: Those Trade Training Centres are rolling out across the country and they are delivering amazing results for kids. I ever been into some of the

centres where you can see children staying at school, who might have otherwise dropped out but for trades training centres and also students

having the opportunity to dip a toe in the water of a trade, to try a bit of hospitality, carpentry and metal work without signing up for a full

apprenticeship. They are getting the skills for the future within that context of school where they can also get great science, literacy and numeracy

skills at the same time.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Is the aim to ever the people who do that move onto apprenticeships because there have been problems particularly with completion rates for

apprenticeships, people taking them up and failing to complete them up and failing to complete them?

ANDREW LEIGH: Some will and some won't but this is absolutely a way of reducing that problem of apprenticeship completion because students can try a trade

while they are at school. They don't have to commit entirely and I think we get a better fit. There will always better fit. There will always be students

that move around with different education programs. You might have done a bit yourself in your studies. I know I did. Certainly those Trade

Training Centres I think are part of building an education system for the future and they are at risk if the Coalition is elected. They aren't fans of

Trade Training Centres, just as they're not fans of the Better Schools reforms.

LYNDAL CURTIS: The Coalition Governments in the past have been fans of apprenticeships haven't they?

ANDREW LEIGH: Apprenticeships are fine and well but Trade Training Centres fill an important gap. If you look at how to get the high wage, high skill jobs in the

future it will be through investing in education right now. With an economic in transition, more than ever before you need to invest in education.

That is not just schools and universities, it is also getting trades training right. We need the education system to get better and we need the

infrastructure, the NBN, the roads, rails and ports that we have historically invested in.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Andrew Leigh thanks for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Lyndal.

ENDS

Today we announced $9.4m for new training centres in the ACT as part of a long term Labor Government program to secure jobs for young people and grow our economy:

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Minister for Education Bill Shorten / Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation  Kate Lundy / Member for Canberra  Gai Brodtmann / Member for Fraser  Andrew Leigh

$9.4 MILLION FOR THREE NEW TRADE TRAINING CENTRES IN ACT

The Rudd Labor Government today announced $9.4 million for three new Trade Training Centres in the Australian Capital Territory.

This investment is part of our positive plan to ensure all Australian students are given every opportunity to secure high skill, high wage jobs beyond the China mining investment boom.

Through this new investment, Trade Training Centres will be established at:

• Marist College Canberra


• Trinity Christian School


• University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra

The University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra Trade Training Centre will benefit students in the greater Belconnen area and will lead students at:

• Belconnen High


• Canberra High


• Hawker College


• Kingsford Smith School


• Melba Copland Secondary School Copland Campus


• University of Canberra High School Kaleen

It is part of a national announcement led by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd which will see thousands of students in 225 schools across Australia benefit from new training opportunities in 137 new Trade Training Centres.

Federal Labor will continue to invest in new Trade Training Centres if re-elected to ensure young Australians gain the skills they need to compete for the jobs of tomorrow.

Trade Training Centres in schools will address skill shortages in traditional trades and emerging industries by equipping schools with the state-of-the-art industry standard facilities they need.

The Prime Minister and Minister for Education Bill Shorten today announced the outcome of Round Five Phase One, the next instalment of Federal Labor’s $2.5 billion, ten year Trade Training Centres in Schools program.

The funding announced today will ensure that students at 225 secondary schools around Australia can learn skills such as, carpentry and joinery, metal fabrication, agriculture and horticulture at one of the 137 new Trades Training Centres.

Of the 225 schools, 122 are servicing regional and remote communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia.

These new Trades Training Centres are concrete evidence of Federal Labor’s determination to ensure every young Australian can get the skills they need to succeed, no matter what field they want to build a career in.

The Trade Training Centres in Schools program goes beyond building facilities and encourages schools to work with local businesses.

This investment is a win for businesses because Trades Training Centres help ensure students get the skills which local employers need.

Schools are encouraged to work with local employers who can support the schools with expertise, equipment and provide on the job placements, school based apprenticeships and traineeships for students.

Federal Labor has now announced funding of over $1.4 billion for more than 510 Trade Training Centres benefitting more than 1,290 secondary schools across Australia. Over 60 per cent of these schools are located in regional Australia.

Of previously announced Trades Training Centre projects, over 70 per cent have already been built – this is a great achievement considering the first funding round only opened in March 2008.

The Trades Training Centres in Schools program is targeted at increasing Year 12 or equivalent attainment and improving student career options particularly in skills shortage areas. Eligible low socio-economic secondary schools have been prioritised in funding allocations.

In addition to the $209.8 million announced today, Federal Labor will provide a further $200 million under Round Five (Phase Two) of the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program.

Funding for this program is already included in the budget.

The full list of successful new Trades Training Centres is available at: http://tinyurl.com/ttcisp-2013

This morning, I had the pleasure of chatting with Mark Parton about Labor's investments, the importance of the public service, and the joys of election campaigning. Here's a podcast.

I spoke with Tim Lester on Breaking Politics today. A transcript is below.

TRANSCRIPT OF ANDREW LEIGH MP

‘BREAKING POLITICS’ WITH TIM LESTER

12 AUGUST 2013

E & O E – PROOF ONLY

Subjects: Election campaign, First debate, NBN, Costings, Peter Beattie.

TIM LESTER: Andrew Leigh, welcome into Breaking Politics.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Tim.

TIM LESTER: How’s the campaign going?

ANDREW LEIGH: I’m loving it. I was out in Amaroo, in my electorate, yesterday – door-knocking, talking to people about the National Broadband Network. One bloke said he’d just gotten it hooked up, and he was enjoying using it to have better conversations with relatives overseas. Gotta say Tim, no-one came up to me and said “the real problem with the National Broadband Network is they’ve brought the fibre all the way to my home, and I wish they’d stopped it in the cabinet down the street,” but maybe Mr Turnbull meets people like that when he doorknocks.

TIM LESTER: Funny guy. Now all of the evidence is that at least nationally Labor, not by a lot perhaps, but is losing this campaign. Do you get any of that sense in the electorate?

ANDREW LEIGH: I don’t Tim. I get a real sense of optimism, and I don’t think - even in the electorate of Fraser, people are overly focused on polls. They’re thinking about the way in which the campaign will affect them. They’re judging parties based on policies – our carefully thought out education policy, Mr Abbott’s eleventh hour conversion to say “well I’ll have what he’s having.” Our record of investing in health, and Mr Abbott’s record of taking a billion dollars out of the health care system when he was health minister. So they’re the sort of fundamental issues my electors seem to be talking about.

TIM LESTER: Last night, Prime Minister Rudd took notes into the first of the major campaign debates, which seems like a pretty straight up and down contravention of rule number 15 if you go through the rules and check them out. What do you think happened there?

ANDREW LEIGH: Tim, I have no idea what goes on in these sort of debate rules, it's a kind of arcane insiders game - but I do think that the debate saw Mr Rudd clearly lay out the challenge for Australia at a time when the economy's in transition, with the number of jobs that the mining boom created in construction now starting to taper down. You've seen our forecasts for unemployment ticking up a bit, and that means important investments in education need to be sustained if we're to manage the transition into a more services, manufacturing based economy. You saw that positive story coming through from Mr Rudd; little more than the sort of slogans you've seen right through the campaign from Mr Abbott.

TIM LESTER: Mr Rudd also tried to suggest that the Coalition in government might change the GST. He suggested also, that the Coalition was 70 billion dollars awry in terms of its costings, both of which Tony Abbott says are absolute fantasy. Don't we have to accept Mr Abbott at his word on both of those things?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well Mr Abbott and his front bench team have been clear that they're reviewing the GST. Now Tim, why do you review the GST, if not to think about raising the rate or broadening the base? Or is he seriously suggesting his reason for doing the review is to change the name, or to bring it down? I mean, let's be honest, he's doing the review with an eye to raising it in the future. Why else would you do that review? On the Coalition's costings gap, $70 billion is Mr Hockey and Mr Robb's figure and if they want to debunk it, the way to do it is to bring their policies out of witness protection. Mr Robb repeatedly says that he's got nearly 50 policies sitting in his desk drawer. He says they've got covers, you know that's lovely they've done those cute little laminated covers for them, but if they're so good for the Australian people, why are they in Mr Robb's desk drawer rather than out in the open?

TIM LESTER: Well they've got a cover to say we haven't seen the Pre-election Fiscal and Economic Outlook, the PEFO document we expect to see tomorrow. So until now it's fair to say until they've got those numbers and can digest them, why would they put out all their policies with a bottom line costing?

ANDREW LEIGH: But they've had a series of treasury updates Tim - and as Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Treasury has said, the numbers in those Treasury updates are produced using the same methodology that tomorrow's PEFO numbers were produced by. I mean the original idea that the Coalition talked about in 2010 was that the first year after the election would be consolidation, second year would be policy development, and then the third year they would be out there selling their costed policies. But here we are now, four weeks to an election with a huge costings gap in the Coalition. $70 billion means $7000 for every Australian household in either reduced services or higher taxes. The Coalition's got to come clean, tell us what they're hiding, be honest about the cuts they'll make.

TIM LESTER: Be reasonable, when would it be fair from here to expect the Coalition to have a full costing of their policies with a bottom line?

ANDREW LEIGH: Tim, I think if this had been Labor in opposition, everyone would have expected to see that six months ago. So certainly, the costed policies cannot come soon enough. Mr Abbott can't do this sort of airy hand waving "oh I've already identified savings". I mean last week he's referred to savings that he has already spent. I've sat down and gone through his savings, they total $13 billion - the same amount as his tax cut to big miners and big polluters. He doesn't have savings to spare. His company tax cut, announced last week - $5 billion policy, is an unfunded policy. That's a serious challenge for the Australian people.

TIM LESTER: He does though, have a reasonable case when he says "well we want to introduce policies so they can each be discussed and considered, spaced out over an election campaign" so inevitably costings will tend to get pushed towards the back end of an election campaign won't they?

ANDREW LEIGH: But I think Tim, that's a serious problem at a time when we've had big revenue write-downs and when the choices for politicians are tougher than ever before. I mean when you talk about 2007 with the rivers of gold coming from the Mining Boom Mark I, maybe this costings debate wasn't as apposite as it is today. But right now, you have a situation in which budgets are tight, in which tough choices have to be made. If Mr Abbott's not willing to back tough choices like means-testing the private health insurance rebate, or saying to people who want an FBT tax break "show us a bit of evidence you're using the car for business use" then he has to find other savings. It's really important that he comes through and does that for the health of our democracy. Good policy isn't produced in smoke filled back rooms, it's produced in discussion in public and the Coalition's policies will actually end up being better policies the more public debate they're exposed to.

TIM LESTER: Do you welcome the return to politics and the introduction to Federal politics of former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, and do you think he might be a future Labor leader at a Federal level?

ANDREW LEIGH: We've got a leader, and I don't think he's going anywhere Tim. Certainly Mr Beattie though, is a man whose track record should be welcomed. Under him, Queensland's unemployment rate halved. Under Campbell Newman, Queensland's unemployment rate is going back up and that's because of policy choices. Peter Beattie chose to make Queensland ‘the Smart State’, to invest in education and technology infrastructure. Federal Labor's doing just the same, but the Coalition want to take a leaf from the current Queensland premier's playbook. They want to put in place a commission of cuts. They want to put in place significant cuts to public services but they're not going to level with the Australian people before the election about what they'll be. Do you think Campbell Newman would have been as popular at the last election if he'd told the people of Queensland he was going to get rid of teachers, fire fighters, nurses, police officers? I don't think so.

TIM LESTER: Andrew Leigh, we're grateful for your time today.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thank you Tim.

Media Release



In a win for one of Canberra's most important national institutions, a re-elected Rudd Labor Government would make gifts to the National Arboretum tax-deductible.

ACT representatives Senator Kate Lundy, Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh and Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann said that this decision will encourage philanthropy to help build one of our great and newest national icons.

Already, generous Canberrans have contributed significantly to the major buildings on the arboretum site. It is hoped that this decision will inspire more donations to support the rest of the National Arboretum as well.

The National Arboretum opened in February and has been receiving 50,000 visitors a month, cementing itself as one of Canberra's greatest tourist attractions.

The Government’s decision to provide the attraction with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status through a specific listing in the tax laws will ensure the project gets much needed ongoing support.

The arboretum is home to an extraordinary collection of living trees, cultivated for conservation, scientific research and education, especially in regards to the impacts of climate change.

Australians who make donations of more than $2 to the arboretum will be able to claim the gift as a tax deduction.

The National Arboretum is a jointly funded initiative between the Commonwealth and ACT governments. The ACT Government has contributed approximately $50 million with the Commonwealth Government allocating $20 million as part of its centenary of Canberra gift to the people of the ACT.

Gifts will be tax deductible from 1 July 2013, however a legislative amendment will be necessary to give effect to this. Funding for this commitment is already included in the budget.

Here's my campaign media release issued today, pledging support for quality child care and early learning for the long haul:

Federal Labor MP for Fraser, Dr Andrew Leigh, was welcomed at a Braddon early learning centre today to sign a pledge committing to the work of the National Quality Framework (NQF) for childcare and early childhood education.

He used the opportunity to challenge the Federal Opposition to do the same.

“Labor’s record in child care is a proud one. Since 2007 we have raised the child care rebate to 50%, provided for better training and pay for workers and improved standards in centres with smaller child to carer ratios.  I urge my opposition counterpart to sign the NQF pledge also.”



The NQF started in 2012 and covers most long day care, family day care, preschool and outside school hours services. It aims, with reforms being phased in before 2020, to raise quality and drive continuous improvement.

“Labor is committed to supporting a higher qualified workforce and ensuring quality education and care is delivered while maintaining affordability for parents,” said Dr. Leigh.

“We know how important a child’s early years are. We want to attract and retain the best people to child care and early learning for all of the community’s benefit.”

The NQF pledge supports a Community Child Care Co-operative campaign for quality child care and education.

Acting Director at the Goodstart Early Learning Centre at Braddon, Jessica Dakin, was delighted the local member took up her invitation to visit the centre and commit to future support.

“It was great to have Andrew come and pledge his on-going support for the NQF reforms,” said Ms Dakin. “The children also enjoyed chatting with him.”

“Goodstart is committed to quality education and care for each child and is fully supportive of the reforms, and at Braddon we are always looking for opportunities to connect and share with our local community.”

After the first election debate, I locked horns with Shadow Finance Spokesman Andrew Robb about the government's plans for managing the economic transition, and the need for the Coalition to bring their policies into the sunlight.