Andrew Leigh

Appropriations Bill 2022
House of Representatives
22 November 2022

I am pleased to rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023, a bill which reflects on the contributions of the Albanese government in taking action on climate change; beginning to make some of the much-needed investments into housing; and recognising the importance of fixing up parts of our education system that are not working as well as they can. This is a budget which deals with some of the rorts and mismanagement that have been locked in under nine lost years of coalition government. It is a budget which makes an investment in Australians' future.

I want to talk about much of that, but I want to anchor it in the aspirations, interests and commitments of some young Canberrans. I want to do so through an interesting initiative, the Raise Our Voice Australia initiative. Raise Our Voice is a volunteer-run organisation that seeks to amplify diverse young, female, trans and non-binary voices to actively lead conversations in politics and in domestic and foreign policy. They've asked me to amplify the voices of young people from Fenner by reading their words in this parliament. So I'm going to begin my speech today with speeches from four young Australians, beginning with Amelie Toogood, nine years old. Amelie says as follows:

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA MORNINGS WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
FRIDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2022

SUBJECTS: APPOINTMENT OF NEW ACNC COMMISSIONER, regulation of CHARITY SECTOR, cyber-threats, WORLD CUP

ADAM SHIRLEY (HOST): There's been quite a bit of change since the Labor Federal government took the reins in late May. And it's true to say, in the case of the regulator of all charities in Australia, a new boss is in place. Susan Woodward has been announced as full time commissioner to the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission for five years. Andrew Leigh is the Minister responsible. Dr Leigh, thank you very much for your time today.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES, AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure, Adam. Great to be chatting with you.

SHIRLEY: How clear a break are you trying to make from the way the charities regulator was run in the last nine years?

LEIGH: Well, it's a big break from the former head of the charities commission, a bloke called Gary Johns, who had made his name largely as a charities critic before being appointed by the Liberals to head the charities commission. His appointment was snuck through in the hours following the same sex marriage vote, largely in order to cover some of the statements he had made, including describing Indigenous women as ‘cash cows’. This appointment is quite different. He said when we came to office, we would do an open call for nominations and then have an independent panel that would select the head of the charities commission. That independent panel was the head of Treasury, the head of Finance and the first head of the charities commission, Susan Pascoe. They came forward with the recommendation. I was pleased to accept that recommendation. And that's Sue Woodward, somebody with enormous connections, respect and knowledge of the charity sector.

MEDIA RELEASE

Susan Woodward to head Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission

Today I announce the appointment of Ms Susan Woodward AM as the full-time Commissioner to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) for a five-year period commencing on 12 December 2022.

The Albanese Government believes in the value that charities bring to our economy and society, and respects their role in our democracy. The charity and non-profit sector comprises around one-tenth of employment, and a significant amount of GDP.

The ACNC is the independent national regulator of charities, and works to support a strong, independent and innovative not-for-profit sector. It is vital for Australia that the ACNC be headed by an experienced leader, who commands broad respect across the Australian community sector.

Ms Woodward has extensive experience in the charities and not-for-profits sector. Since 2015, she has been the Chief Adviser, Not-for-profit Law at Justice Connect. She has previously served in senior roles in the Australian Government and the ACNC and is a recognised legal and regulatory expert. She was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 for her significant service to the not-for-profit sector, to fundraising and to the law.

Ms Woodward’s appointment continues the Albanese Government’s strong record of identifying capable women for senior public sector roles.

The Albanese Government thanks Deborah Jenkins for her contribution as acting ACNC Commissioner for the past few months.

Warren Hogan Memorial Lecture: Economic Dynamism: A Global Perspective
University Of Sydney, School Of Economics
Wednesday, 2 November 2022

I acknowledge the Gadigal people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather today, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

Thank you to the Sydney University School of Economics for hosting today.

I have fond memories of my first-year economics class in Merewether in 1991.

In the seat next to me was my friend Justin Wolfers – now a professor at the University of Michigan, and co-author of a major first-year textbook.

Last month, I gave a talk to Justin’s Economics 101 class at the University of Michigan, reflecting on the power of economics in public policy.

It's a lesson our first-year Sydney University lecturer embodied.

In 1991, he was just another dashing macroeconomics lecturer, but Yanis Varoufakis would go on to enter the Hellenic Parliament, and serve as one of the most significant finance ministers in Greek history, attempting to help navigate his country’s economy through the 2015 debt crisis.

He had quite the influence on his students – my parliamentary colleague Chris Bowen, who delivered the 2019 Lecture, is another student of this era (Bowen 2019).

At that time, the School of Economics was a mere 69-year-old whippersnapper.

It’s hard to believe it celebrated 100 years in July.

Congratulations to Garry Barrett for your leadership of the school, as well as your pioneering microeconometric research, especially on inequality.

Joint media release with
The Hon Luke Gosling OAM MP
Member for Solomon

CHARITIES CONSULTATIONS CONCLUDE IN DARWIN

The nation’s largest charity consultation reached Darwin yesterday, as the Albanese Government meets with charities across the country to discuss how to rebuild their role in communities.

Over the past generation, Australia’s community bonds have frayed as people have become less likely to join, volunteer and participate in community activities.

And for nearly a decade, the previous government downplayed and discouraged the expertise of charities and non‑profit organisations, and our communities have paid the price.

Yesterday’s Darwin Community Building Forum highlighted that Northern Territory charities are vital for vulnerable Australians and rebuilding community connections.

They deliver critical legal support, health support, and support conservation, land care, and closing the gap.

The forum also highlighted that Northern Territory charities are resilient and innovative, having found new ways to engage supporters and volunteers.

MEDIA RELEASE

Tax treaty network expansion

The Albanese Government will expand Australia’s tax treaty network to support its commitment to boost international trade and investment, provide improved certainty to taxpayers and guard against tax evasion and avoidance practices.

New negotiations are planned with Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These countries add to the current program which includes Portugal, Slovenia, Greece and Luxembourg. The current program also includes Iceland who signed a tax treaty with Australia on 12 October 2022.

Joint media release with

The Hon Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer

The Hon Stephen Jones MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister for Financial Services

ACCC report into digital platform services

The Albanese Government welcomes the release of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) latest report into digital platform services.

The inquiry has identified significant consumer and competition issues across a range of digital platform services including search engines, social media, online private messaging, app stores, online retail marketplaces and digital advertising.

Cost of Living
Matter of Public Importance
House of Representatives
9 November 2022

It is certainly true that in Australia we have a strong egalitarian ethos. Ours is a country where many people would prefer to sit in the front seat of a taxi, where we prefer to use the word 'mate' rather than 'sir', where we don't have private areas on the beaches and where most people don't stand up when the Prime Minister enters the room. Yet, over recent generations, we've seen a steady rise in inequality. As Thomas Piketty outlined in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, we've seen, across the advanced world, an increase in the share of the top one per cent of income earners. We've seen an increase in the share of the top 0.1 per cent of income earners, tripling since the early 1980s. We have seen CEO pay increase far faster than an average worker's pay. Work by Tomas Kennedy and Peter Siminski asks the pertinent question: for Australians born in successive generations, what's the chance that they earned more than their parents? For Australians born in the 1950s, 84 per cent earned more than their parents. For Australians born in the 1980s just 68 per cent earned more than their parents.

We've seen a fanning out of real wages since 1975. Since 1975, wages at the 10th percentile have grown in real terms by 33 per cent. Wages at the median have grown by 55 per cent. But wages at the 90th percentile have grown by 81 per cent. That is, earnings are growing nearly three times as fast for the highest paid as for the lowest paid. Work done by Treasury, which I highlighted in my recent Gruen lecture, shows that market concentration has risen. The biggest firms have a larger slice of the pie than they did in decades past. Mark-ups have increased -- the gap between what firms charge and their costs has grown. Under the former governments we saw the JobKeeper scheme funnel some $20 billion of taxpayer money to firms with rising revenues, some of which used that taxpayer money to pay executive bonuses.

THE HON DR ANDREW LEIGH MP 
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY

MEDIA RELEASE

Beneficial ownership register - consultation

The Albanese Government has opened consultation on the design features for the first phase of a publicly available beneficial ownership register. We announced we would implement the register as part of our commitment to ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax.

A beneficial owner is a person who ultimately owns or controls an entity, legal vehicle, or asset. Beneficial owners are not always the legal owners of the relevant entity, vehicle, or asset.

A public beneficial ownership register is intended to increase transparency of beneficial ownership in Australia and discourage the use of complex structures that avoid legal requirements and obscure tax liabilities. It seeks to support stronger regulatory and law enforcement responses to tax and financial crime, assist foreign investment applications, and facilitate the enforcement of sanctions.

In this consultation on the first phase of the reform, the Government would welcome views on a proposal to require specified unlisted entities regulated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) to maintain beneficial ownership registers. It also seeks comments on proposed amendments to the substantial holding notice and tracing notice regimes in the Corporations Act.

In future phases, the Government intends to consult on approaches to disclosure of beneficial ownership held through other legal vehicles, such as trusts, and the centralisation of information in a single public registry.

Implementation of a beneficial ownership register would broadly align Australia with international approaches to transparency of beneficial ownership information. Currently, Australia is not ranked highly against international benchmarks for the collection and disclosure of beneficial ownership information, including those set out by the Financial Action Task Force.

Ensuring everyone pays their fair share of tax in Australia will help to fund vital services, repair the Budget, and level the playing field for Australian businesses.

We welcome contributions from the community. Submissions close on 16 December 2022.

To access the discussion papers or lodge a submission, visit the Treasury website.