Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
SENATE COURTYARD, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2022

TOPICS: Multinational tax, ATO corporate tax transparency report, $5 note, energy prices, renewables, industrial relations laws

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY DR ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks very much for coming along. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Well, today we had the release of the Australian Tax Office’s Corporate Transparency Report. This is a report that is brought into the public domain as a result of laws passed under the Gillard Government, to the cries and objections from the Liberals at the time. It shows for 2,468 corporations, their tax that they've paid, their total income and their taxable income. It's really important that all firms pay their fair share of tax. And the Corporate Transparency Report is a Labor initiative that is delivering to Australians more information about tax paid. This is for the year 2020-2021. So it's not yesterday's information, but it is critical to corporate tax transparency.

Labor is strongly committed to making sure that all firms pay their fair share of tax. The recent budget, we funded the ATO's Tax Avoidance Task Force to the tune of $1.1 billion over the next four years to ensure that multinational firms don't get a leg up on their local competitors simply because they're exploiting unfair tax loopholes. We announced we'd be closing down a number of tax loopholes that have been exploited by multinationals. Multinationals will no longer be able to deduct as much debt as a result of our changes to the thin capitalisation regime. We've made changes to the ability of multinationals to use royalty payments inappropriately to minimise their tax bill. And we're expanding transparency for large corporations in Australia. For significant global entities - you can think of these as firms with revenue over a billion dollars - we're requiring country by country reporting detailed tax information, ensuring those firms are paying their fair share. For public companies, listed and unlisted, we'll require the number of their subsidiaries and the countries in which they're located. Again, a measure to ensure that we're not seeing taxes that should be paid in Australia, leaking away to low or no tax jurisdictions. Any firm that's tendering for a government tender worth more than $200,000 will have to disclose its country of tax domicile.

The Albanese government is strongly committed to a level playing field on tax, ensuring that firms are competing based on serving their customers well, being innovative and providing a good workplaces for their employees. The last thing we want is an economy in which firms are competing based on who's got the best tax loophole. That doesn't provide a stronger economy. That's not the foundation for the productivity growth that we know is vital. Very happy to take questions on the report or other economic issues.

The Herald Sun, Wednesday 2 November 2022

A generation ago, rules in some states governed when bakers could bake their bread. Many families had to do their grocery shopping in a mad rush on Saturday morning before stores closed for the weekend. Energy markets were run by inefficient monopolies, and the electricity grid was much less joined up across states than it is now.

The result was less competition and higher prices.

That’s why thirty years ago this month, then Prime Minister Paul Keating asked Fred Hilmer to lead a reform process that became National Competition Policy.

As Keating put it, ‘We brought a new word to the Labor lexicon – competition… we were tired of paying twice as much as we should be paying for cars, for telephones, for clothing, for electricity. By cutting tariffs and by lifting domestic competition, we created a low price structure, thereby allowing people’s wages to go further.’

To think of a part of Australia where bakers could not bake at particular times is to imagine somewhere that feels deeply foreign. It’s like Doctor Who, but with baking regulations instead of aliens.

Address to the Australian Government Solicitor Civil Regulation Conference
Sydney
Wednesday, 2 November 2022

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

Congratulations to the Australian Government Solicitor (AGS) for getting this conference back up and running after some challenging years for events.

The best part of being Assistant Minister is that I get the opportunity to meet some amazingly dedicated people and this group is no exception.

With everyone here today, I want to acknowledge the mountain of work you do acting on behalf of the regulators.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY AFTERNOON AGENDA
TUESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2022

TOPICS: Cost of living, Budget, energy prices, industrial relations laws, competition, banning unfair contract terms

KIERAN GILBERT (HOST): Let's bring in Andrew Leigh, he is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. A huge day for many families, those with mortgages, likely a few hundred dollars a month for many.

DR ANDREW LEIGH, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY: It's a big challenge, Kieran. And we know that the independent Reserve Bank is making its decisions to try and curb inflation, because if inflation gets out of control, that's an even worse hit to the economy and to people's living standards. But the government is aware of the cost of living pressures facing families, which is why in last week's budget, Jim Chalmers focused on the supply side measures. Cheaper childcare, expanding the housing supply, cheaper medicines, fee free TAFE places.

Crime and punishment: can we have less of both?

Opening address, Australian Institute of Criminology Conference, Canberra
Monday, 31 October 2022

Acknowledgements

I begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land we are meeting on. I acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the region, and I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present.

I would like to especially thank Aunty Jude Barlow for her warm Welcome to Country.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
SENATE COURTYARD, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
SATURDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2022

SUBJECTS: Labor’s plans to make childcare, medicines and housing more affordable, Budget, cost of living, Labor’s plans to address power prices

ANDREW LEIGH, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury: Good morning everyone, my name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury.

Labor knows that Australian families are doing it tough right now. This week we had the inflation figure come down at 7.3 percent for the year. Australians are feeling inflation in their regular balancing the household books. Labor knows inflation is a huge challenge and that was why tackling inflation was a central theme of the Budget that Jim Chalmers brought down this week. If you’re a family planning to have kids then our cheaper childcare reforms are taking the pressure of childcare costs for 1.26 million families, 96 percent of families with children in care. If you’re thinking about buying a home, then our Housing Australia Future Fund is aimed at producing some 40,000 social and affordable homes, putting downward pressure on house prices. If you’re looking at buying a car, we’re reducing the taxes on electric vehicles. If you’re looking at getting an education, then hundreds of thousands of fee-free TAFE places will take the pressure off. And if you’re sick, then our reforms to reduce the cost of medicines, are again, helping Australians with cost of living pressures. Labor recognises that cost of living is a huge issue for many Australian households.

Second Reading Speech
House of Representatives
26 October 2022
Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Amendment (Strengthening Land and Governance Provisions) Bill 2022

The Wreck Bay Aboriginal community in the Jervis Bay Territory has an unusual status. It is part of my electorate of Fenner, but residents do not vote in state or territory elections. This means the Commonwealth has a particular responsibility to residents of Wreck Bay.

The Jervis Bay Territory is a special place. In a dozen visits, I have appreciated the chance to learn from and work with members of the community.

I thank my colleague Linda Burney, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, for allowing me to introduce this bill today on behalf of the Australian government.

The Australian government has worked with the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council and the broader Wreck Bay community over a number of years to co-design the Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Amendment (Strengthening Land and Governance Provisions) Bill 2022, with the most recent consultations on the detail of the bill in August this year. This bill will:

• strengthen the council's governance structures;
• enhance the control the council has over its own affairs; and
• help to enable homeownership style leases on Aboriginal land in the Jervis Bay Territory.

The Wreck Bay community is located in the Jervis Bay Territory, on the southern New South Wales coast, 126 kilometres east of Canberra. The Jervis Bay Territory was formally established in 1915, on the land of the Bherwerre Peninsula, through the enactment of the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915. First Nations people had been living in the area since long before that time, and never agreed to the surrender of these lands. Middens on the Bherwerre Peninsula provide evidence of thousands of generations of First Nations occupation of this area.

Summing Up Speech
House of Representatives
26 October 2022
Treasury Laws Amendment (More Competition, Better Prices) Bill 2022

My thanks to the members who have contributed to this debate. I acknowledge the work of both Small Business Minister Julie Collins and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones on this bill. This bill delivers on an election commitment to protect Australian households and small businesses by banning unfair contract terms and increasing penalties for anticompetitive behaviour.

The Australian Labor Party has a long history of economic reform that builds a fairer and more resilient economy. Competition is an essential part of that for three key reasons. First, competition is about fairness. Without government action, monopolists can wield their power to rig the game in their favour rather than compete on even terms. Second, competition deals with cost-of-living pressures and makes our supply chains more resilient. Competition means businesses offer Australians the best prices they can. A diverse and dynamic economy, a resilient economy, helps to absorb, adapt and solve the challenges of an uncertain world. Third, competition is about jobs and skills. Competition helps to ensure that the most innovative, creative and savvy businesses are the ones that thrive. Those are the businesses that are best placed to offer jobs that are stable, secure and well paid. Competition also gives workers more options, empowering employees to negotiate pay and conditions that reflect their true value.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA MORNINGS WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
WEDNESDAY, 26 OCTOBER 2022

SUBJECTS: BUDGET 2022, INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING IN THE ACT.

ADAM SHIRLEY (HOST): One man who had a very clear line of sight on a lot of the Federal Government’s decisions, spends, cutbacks and ultimately final Federal Budget for this year is Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. He’s also the federal member for Fenner here in the ACT. Dr Leigh, thanks for your time today.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES, AND TREASRY ANDREW LEIGH: Real pleasure, Adam. I’m still reeling over this Dr Who decision.

SHIRLEY: Devastating.

LEIGH: Like you, I grew up on Tom Baker and the like, and the idea of it not being part of the ABC and the BBC is very strange.

SHIRLEY: Much like a Federal Budget perhaps – tough decisions have to be made. I mean, you probably won’t talk to us about the things you wish your colleagues, including Finance Minister Katy Gallagher had stumped up for but didn’t. What is your read of what the ACT and broadly Australia will do out of this?

LEIGH: Well, for the ACT, you’ll remember the Coalition budget earlier this year where we got less than a fifth of our fair share of infrastructure spending. That changed last night with a fair share of infrastructure spending going to the ACT - $86 million for light rail, the Scrivener Dam upgrades $38 million, $15 million for the AIS arena, $5 million for the Garden City cycle route, $5 million for the Gorman House Arts Centre, and a range of other smaller projects.

So with Katy Gallagher in the Finance portfolio the ACT is definitely not forgotten and is central to what we’re envisaging for revitalizing the country. And also the investment in ongoing public service jobs, scaling back on those unnecessary consultants and contractors, investing more in stable, full-time public service jobs after a decade of cutbacks in the public service which saw a tenth of the public service go.

SHIRLEY: So a couple of listeners have raised the Canberra Hospital, Woden CIT, separate to, I think – what is it – the hostel at Woden as well. Did you as a government consider or look at better funding for a hospital and health system which you know is desperately overstretched?

LEIGH: We’re certainly working closely with the ACT government on their priorities, and that was why we invested in that youth foyer at the Woden CIT campus and why we’re also investing in active engagement through the University of Canberra’s sports hub precinct.

SHIRLEY: But health and the hospital. I mean, you know any family or individual knows that the real difficulties in getting good care on time in the ACT right now.

LEIGH: Absolutely. So the budget includes investments for a Medicare urgent care clinic on the south side. And that will aim to take pressure off Canberra’s emergency departments. And we’re working very closely with the ACT Government to try and get down those waiting times.

You know, I’m a dad, I’ve spent time sitting in emergency rooms with kids. It’s not fun. We’ve got to make sure that we do a better job in bringing down those waiting times and providing that important care.

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
SENATOR FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

THE HON DR ANDREW LEIGH MP 
MEMBER FOR FENNER

DAVID SMITH MP
MEMBER FOR BEAN

ALICIA PAYNE MP
MEMBER FOR CANBERRA

MEDIA RELEASE

 LABOR’S BUDGET DELIVERS ON INVESTMENTS TO BUILD A BETTER FUTURE FOR CANBERRA

TUESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2022

The Albanese Labor Government’s first Budget delivers on our election commitments and invests in local infrastructure upgrades that will see our city grow.

After a decade of disdain for the National Capital from the former Liberal/National Government, we will ensure that the ACT is not ignored when it comes to infrastructure investments that create jobs, boost our economy and ensure that our city flourishes into the future.

The Federal Budget includes $86 million in funding for Stage 2A of the Light Rail Project to ensure that Canberrans on the Southside get the same transport benefits as those who use the tram between Civic and Gungahlin.

The Government will also provide funding to deliver the National Security Office Precinct in Barton.

This project will be a permanent solution to the critical accommodation and capability requirements of several national security and other Commonwealth agencies, and is expected to be utilised by the Office of National Intelligence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

These major city-shaping investments are in addition to the nearly $39 million that we committed to deliver during the Federal Election, including:

• $15 million to upgrade and reopen the AIS Arena so that Canberrans have access to the facilities they deserve for sports, community events and concerts
• $10 million to build a Youth Foyer at the Woden CIT campus to deliver student accommodation and wraparound services for young people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness
• $3.2 million to improve the health of Canberra’s waterways through revegetation, weed control and water flow management efforts across the Ginninderra, Molonglo and southern ACT Catchments
• $5 million to improve cycling connections on the Northbourne Avenue corridor through the inner-north suburbs of Canberra through the construction of a new Garden City Cycle Route.
• $5 million to revitalise Canberra’s beloved Gorman House Arts Centre to support our vibrant arts community
• $750,000 to undertake a scoping study to investigate the options to give the University of Canberra Capitals WNBL team a permanent home stadium