Here's an update of my upcoming mobile offices and community forums.

Community forums

• West Belconnen (Ginninderra Labor Club, Lhotsky St) Friday 18 November 2.00-3.30pm

Mobile offices

• Civic bus interchange Thursday 10 November 8-9am


• Gungahlin (Hibberson St) Saturday 19 November 9-10am


• Dickson Woollies, Saturday 19 November 10.30-11.30am

Past forums and mobile offices

• Community Forum @ Belconnen (Belconnen Community Services, Swanson Court) Tuesday 25 October 6.00-7.30pm (focusing on the National Disability Insurance Scheme)


• Dickson Woollies, Saturday 20 August 9:00am


• Civic bus interchange, Wednesday 7 September 8:00am


• Community Forum @ Dickson (Majura Hall, Rosevear St) Saturday 27 August 10-11.30am (starting with a speech on climate change)


• Kippax Saturday 17 September 9:00am (with Chris Bourke MLA)


• Charnwood shops 17 Sept 10:45am (with Chris Bourke MLA)


• Jamison Trash & Treasure Sunday 25 September 9-10am (with Chris Bourke MLA)


• Community Forum @ Gungahlin (Gungahlin Resource Centre Function Room, Ernest Cavanagh St) Wednesday 28 September 12.00-1:30pm (starting with a speech on early childhood)


• Gungahlin (Hibberson St) Saturday 22 October 9-10am


• Dickson Woollies Saturday 22 October 10.30-11.30am

The federally-funded Financial Information Service are running a free seminar next week on 'Understanding retirement income streams'.

Details, details...

Wednesday, 17 August
6pm – 8.30pm
Belconnen Premier Inn, 110 Benjamin Way, Belconnen.

Update: Due to the popularity of these seminars, Centrelink scheduled another one

Thursday, 18 August
6pm – 8.30pm
Belconnen Premier Inn, 110 Benjamin Way, Belconnen.

Please RSVP to 13 6357 or [email protected]

I met with residents in the historic village of Hall recently, a community in the northern part of my electorate that has social capital aplenty. Here's the local writeup, courtesy of the Hall & District Community Association.

It's census day, and my AFR column is on the importance and history of the census.

Take Control of Your Census, Australian Financial Review, 9 August 2011

In the 1947 film ‘Magic Town’, James Stewart plays an opinion pollster who discovers the town of Grandview: a perfect statistical mirror of the United States. Anything you want to know about the country can be found out merely by tallying the residents of Grandview.

Increasingly, we’re starting to feel like Grandview residents. A few decades ago, one survey found that 23 percent of Americans are been polled annually – a figure that’s probably risen as telephone calls have become cheaper and demand for poll results has grown.

But the deluge of polls makes us more reluctant to participate. So surveys have become less representative, with response rates mostly below 50 percent and falling. Consequently, the only way of making surveys accurate is either to pay respondents a fee (as the longitudinal HILDA survey does), or to compel a response (as the Australian Bureau of Statistics does). And for the ABS, the mother of all its surveys is the quinquennial census.

Censuses have their origins in assessing military strength. From 508 BC, the Romans conducted censuses to determine the tax base and number of men who could be called to arms. Military expansion under the Han Dynasty was facilitated by China’s first census in 2 AD. William the Conqueror’s 1086 census (which resulted in the Domesday Book) ensured that he could properly tax the country he had recently invaded.

The questions we ask say something about Australia as a society. For a century, we have asked Australians their religion, but it wasn’t until 1976 that income became a regular question. By contrast, the US census has asked about income since 1940, but never about religion. Over the past century, the Australian census has ceased asking people how long they’ve been married and whether their house has a bathroom, and added questions about unpaid work and internet access.

Census questions have political power. Historians Len Smith and Tim Rowse point out that it was not until 1966 that the ABS was confident it had enumerated all Indigenous Australians (previous censuses had assumed a few thousand undetected Aboriginal people in remote areas). Full enumeration led to a 1969 Census publication that compared socio-economic outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians: a forerunner to today’s Closing the Gap reports.

Similarly, the recent inclusion of a question about ancestry has led some migrant groups to lobby their members to provide a consistent answer, in order to gain greater public recognition. Meanwhile, there are still members of the Jewish community who say that the lesson of the twentieth century is never to write ‘Jewish’ on any official form.

For researchers, the ABS provides a 1 percent sample of the Australian census, which represents one of the largest datasets around. When I was an economics professor, I found the census particularly valuable for looking at rare events – such as whether couples with a son and a daughter are more likely to be married than those with two children of the same gender (answer: yes).

From a public policy standpoint, censuses are one of the ways that we decide how to allocate resources across communities. A constituent emailed me recently to point out that elections are virtually never decided by a single vote, but every additional person who answers the census brings resources to the area. She argued that it was more important to fill out the census form than to vote (a conclusion I could not possibly endorse, since I encourage everyone to participate in both activities).

Will we ever abandon the census? The Scandinavian countries have done just that, taking the view that their extensive national registers (linked by a unique identification number) make census-taking unnecessary. In the United States, questions about income, education and disability have now been taken out of the decennial census and moved into a new ‘American Community Survey’ which samples 3 million people annually. With fewer people to survey, the US Census Bureau is able to devote more resources to obtaining a properly representative sample, which is available on an annual basis.

When you’re filling out your census form tonight, think of the myriad purposes for which it will be used. Whether you’re a researcher or a curious citizen, Australia’s census helps us all to better understand the nation. Better yet, if you tick the box to allow your information to be revealed in 99 years, you might even help your descendents with their genealogical explorations.

Andrew Leigh is the federal member for Fraser.

Thanks to my friend Tim Rowse for a valuable chat when I was pulling it together

The one cute fact I couldn't quite figure out how to squeeze in: the man who ran the census in Roman times was called the 'censor'. His role in between censuses (which were 5-yearly, like Australia today) was to enforce public morals. Hence the origins of the term 'censor' and 'censorship'.

Good news for Canberrans on the cutting edge of radio technology: the ABC has just announced that it'll be participating in the trial of digital radio in our city. I've been encouraging them to jump on board, so am delighted to see that they've joined the stations already participating.

The ACT Deafness Resource Centre remind me that they're holding a 'Hearing Awareness Week' expo in the Hellenic Club, Phillip on Wed 24 August, featuring information and free hearing checks. More information here.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Good morning and welcome to AM Agenda. With me now is the Labor MP Andrew Leigh and Liberal frontbencher Senator Mitch Fifield. Good morning to you both. I want to start with Andrew, on this issue of the South Australian premier being tapped on the shoulder. Another example of the faceless men telling the elected Parliamentarians who should be leader.

ANDREW LEIGH:

Well Kieran this is obviously a matter for the South Australian Labor Party – that Parliamentary team and Mike Rann will make a decision about what they think is best for South Australia. But I think the important thing to remember here is that Mitch is going to tell all kinds of stories about politics and political games and so on. We’re not focussed on that. We’re focussed on actually delivering outcomes, getting good policy result. It’s not clear to me that the modern Liberal Party has had a good policy suggestion since Malcolm Turnbull was last leader. Whereas at the same time, you’ve got Labor focussed on climate change, on building better schools, on improving our hospitals – those long-term important reforms.

GILBERT:

Andrew it’s not a good look for the Labor brand, is it? To have another group – a union leader, the treasurer of South Australia going to the incumbent – someone who’s been in the job for nine years, as Premier, 17 years as the Labor leader – and saying ‘OK, shuffle on.’

LEIGH:

Kieran these aren’t decisions for me, these are decisions my South Australian Labor colleagues will make...

GILBERT:

But it’s a bad look, isn’t it, for the Labor brand? Because there’s already a perception out there that this is what Labor does to its leaders.

LEIGH:

Look leadership are never clean things on any side of politics. My South Australian colleagues will make this decision, but the important thing that we’re doing at a federal level is focussing on those long-term reforms. Looking at the long-game, looking at the big reforms that will make a difference to Australia.

GILBERT:

Senator Fifield, some of those sources from South Australia have apparently suggested that they were worried that Mike Rann was going to ‘do a Howard,’ referring to your former leader. So the Liberal Party doesn’t really have the greatest track record, certainly not at the federal level, of managing these transitions either.

FIFIELD:

Look I don’t think there’s ever been a head of government who has looked for an opportunity to leave office. They tend to like to stay for as long as they possibly can. But Labor is making the same mistake in South Australia that they’ve made federally. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Mike Rann or Jay Weatherill as leader at state level, or federally whether it’s Kevin Rudd, Simon Crean, Julia Gillard, Stephen Smith or anyone else. Changing leaders won’t solve the problem that Labor has. Labor’s problem is bad policy. What they need to do is change their policies. Whether it be state or federal, they need to start focussing on cost of living issues. We’ve heard today that there will be $200 million extra which Australians will have to pay simply to take their rubbish to the tip as a result of the carbon tax. The problem isn’t so much leaders, it’s policy. Labor are foisting policies on the Australian public that they don’t want. They’re foisting policies on the public which will increase cost of living pressures. What Labor need to do is to start putting themselves in the shoes of the average Australian. They’re struggling. They need to change tack.

GILBERT:

We’ll get onto the carbon tax a bit later in a bit more detail. Andrew Leigh I want to ask you, though, about the first boat arrival under the Malaysia deal. There are still uncertainties around this. The accommodation arrangements -  apparently there’s some delay there which could cause a blowout in the time for processing the first group of asylum seekers to arrive since the deal was finalised. Also the immigration officials telling us that it could take longer for the first group as they get the mechanics in place. Why has the Government not been able to be a bit firmer on this? It’s been months in the making and still we hear delay after delay.



LEIGH:

Well Kieran everything you do takes a little longer the first time. But it’s important to remember that this is a historic regional agreement. It stems from the Bali process in March, where countries throughout the region agreed that we have a global problem – 43 million internally displaced people, 15 million refugees around the world. So we’ve got to find a regional solution to a global problem, and that’s what this is about. We’re taking an extra 4000 refugees, boosting that humanitarian intake by the biggest amount since the early 1990s. I’m extremely proud of that. And we’re sending a clear message to people smugglers, saying, ‘if you come to Australia, if you put people on boats to Australia, then they will go back to Malaysia.’ And we’re doing that because we don’t want to see infants and kids injured.



GILBERT:

We’ve got a comment of the Prime Minister – she was asked about this issue this morning on the ABC.

JULIA GILLARD (file footage):

There will be pre-assessment procedures. Then there will be returns to Malaysia. We are in the first phase of this – this is the first boat. So those returns will take some time. When the system is up and in full operation those returns will happen in 72 hours.



GILBERT:

There’s nothing to say, though, that this is going to stop the boats just yet. If you look at the signs initially, they’re not good, are they? 54 people have arrived, the quotas 800. What happens when you hit 800? You’re back to square one.



LEIGH:

Well Kieran, our hope is that we don’t get 800. We’re sending a very clear signal throughout the region – don’t come to Australia. If you put children on a boat to Australia as we saw with the Christmas Island tragedy – there was the death of a two-month-old infant in that tragedy – we’re trying to ensure that people smugglers do not send vulnerable people to Australia. That’s a humanitarian message we’re getting out there, as long as with the humanitarian message that Australia can be generous. We can take another 4000 refugees.

GILBERT:

Senator Fifield, this plan is in its early stages. As I mentioned, 54 people have arrived on this first boat, but the numbers do seem to be down on last year, and that’s even before the Government had finalised the deal. So the Coalition might have egg on its face if the boats do slow and indeed stop?



FIFIELD:

This policy is already a fizzer. Since it was first announced, there have been 621 arrivals. We’ve got the boat in addition that’s arrived overnight. This policy isn’t working, and apart from its efficacy, this is bad policy. Labor always said that they wouldn’t embrace any solution that didn’t have the sign off from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. This policy does not have that sign off. We’ve said all along that the solution is to adopt the policies that we had when we were in office which stopped the boats. Pick up the phone to the President of Nauru. Set up the processing centre in Nauru. Reintroduce temporary protection visas. These are the solutions. They’ve worked before. They’d work again. It’s pride that is preventing this Government from introducing those policies. We’ve heard time and again the Government say that they want to break the people smugglers’ business model. Well, the business model that the people smugglers have is a direct result of the policies of this Government. They have given the people smugglers the product which they have been selling. The way to stop the boats is to reintroduce the policies of the Howard Government.

GILBERT:

Andrew Leigh, for years the Labor Party was critical of the Coalition for being too tough, too hard. Yet now you’re putting in what is arguably an even tougher policy. This could get messy, couldn’t it? If the AFP is forced to push people onto planes if they say they don’t want to get on and the AFP has to use force. This could all get very, very ugly.

LEIGH:

Kieran, this isn’t a voluntary return arrangement, it is true that people will be compulsorily returned, but I have confidence in the AFP doing their job. They have great expertise in doing things with an absolute minimum of fuss. But it’s important to recognise what this is. This is groundbreaking policy, working with the UNHCR who have said that if this is successful, this regional model could well be a model for other regions in the world. To pretend that asylum seekers are a specifically Australian problem is just missing the big picture here.

GILBERT:

OK let’s move onto another issue – David Cameron endorsing the Government’s carbon price at the weekend. He described it as a bold move, Senator Fifield, adding momentum to world efforts. This is a fellow conservative; this is the Tory Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. That’s a bit embarrassing for the conservatives in Australia, is it not?

FIFIELD:

I’m much more concerned about what the Australian public thinks than I am about foreign heads of Government. Sure, there’s always a bit of backslapping between heads of government in Western democracies. But I think what Julia Gillard should be focussed on much more is what the Australian public are telling her, and what they’re saying is that they don’t want to pay more for their goods. They don’t want to pay more for electricity. Sure, we can talk about David Cameron – I’ll raise you a John Della Bosca and a Morris Iemma. Two Labor figures, two substantial Labor figures, who actually care about jobs for Australians, who actually care about cost of living pressures. I think Julia Gillard should be paying far more heed to those people, those sensible people in her own party than she is to foreign leaders.

GILBERT:

Do you respect the opinion of David Cameron, the Tory Prime Minister?



FIFIELD:

David Cameron is responsible to the voters of Great Britain and the Parliament of Great Britain. What he does is a matter for him. But we, as Members of the Australian Parliament, are responsible to the Australian Parliament and the Australian public. That’s what I’m concerned about – their cost of living pressures, their standard of living – and that’s what Julia Gillard should be concerned about too.

GILBERT:

Let’s hear the Prime Minister’s comment on David Cameron’s weekend endorsement.



JULIA GILLARD (file footage):

Looking at the letter from the UK Prime Minister, it’s another piece of evidence in a mountain pile as high as Mount Everest that nations around the world are acting and we can’t afford to be left behind.

GILBERT:

Andrew Leigh, the Opposition Leader has described this as Labor embracing a bit of cultural cringe. He says he has a great respect for Britain but I don’t think everything being done in Britain should necessarily be slavishly copied here in Australia. That’s fair enough isn’t it?

LEIGH:

Kieran, there are two kinds of conservatives around the world. There are the kinds that are concerned – that believe in markets, that believe in the power of price signals. That’s the British, that’s the New Zealand conservatives and it was John Howard when he was last in office. And then you have the opportunitists – that’s the Tea Party Republicans at the moment willing to let the US renege on its debt and its Tony Abbott who hasn’t come up with a serious policy idea and has walked away from what scientists and economists have clearly told us, that a price on carbon is the best way of dealing with this problem.



GILBERT:

Well Tony Abbott has gone on a holiday. This was, Senator Fifield, after he accused the Prime Minister of not wearing out her shoe leather just last week. The timing – obviously everyone is entitled to a holiday, Mr Abbott has certainly earned that right – but the timing is not the best is it? After last week having a go at the Prime Minister for hiding, now he’s gone off to Europe.



FIFIELD:

Well I don’t think anyone can accuse Tony Abbott of hiding. He has been in all parts of the country, putting the case against the carbon tax. I can’t remember a federal parliamentary leader who has been as accessible as Tony or who has been as ceaseless as Tony. I think he’s entitled to have a short holiday with his family. Good luck to him.



GILBERT:

Yes, he’s certainly earned it, hasn’t he Andrew?



LEIGH:

Look Kieran I don’t speak on people’s holidays, but Tony Abbott has certainly not been accessible. Without being on a Liberal Party members’ special email list, you didn’t get an invite to one of his forums. He’s been going around spreading mistruths. Firstly suggesting that petrol would rise, and then suggesting rampant price rising elsewhere. We know in fact that the price rise will be 0.7%, that’s a third of the impact of the GST. These are going to be very modest price impacts, and 9 out of 10 households will receive assistance. This is an important reform and the great thing about markets is you can do it slowly, you allow the transitions to move through the economy. This used to be bipartisan in Australia. Both sides of Australian politics used to believe in the power of markets. Floating the dollar, liberalising the trade system, enterprise bargaining, all of these are reforms that were supported by both sides of politics. And pricing carbon used to be one of those market based reforms….

GILBERT:



Senator Fifield just one last question on an area of your responsibility. The $6 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme – apparently it’s going to be trialled in Victoria. Do you welcome the progress on this?

FIFIELD:



The Productivity Commission are due to report today, to hand that very important Review to the Government. There is no doubt that the system of support for Australians with disability is broken. It’s a frayed patchwork. Australians with disability and their families do deserve a much better deal. The Government needs to release this report immediately. They do have, sadly, a bit of a track record of sitting on Productivity Commission Reports. They’re still sitting on the Aged Care Report. They need to release this Report today so that we can consider it, and also so that the Australian community can consider it. There is a better deal that is needed for Australians with disability and this is an important step along that road.

GILBERT:

Senator Mitch Fifield thank you for that. And Andrew Leigh, appreciate it.

(Thanks to MF for transcribing.)

With Chris Bourke MLA, I opened the revamped Belconnen Skate Park (aka 'Belco Bowl') today - a splendid facility for skaters and BMX riders that was partly funded by federal money under the stimulus program. It's located on the edge of Lake Ginninderra, which I argued can remind skaters that their sport started when Californian surfers looked out at flat waves, and decided they had to invent another sport.

The original Belco Bowl was opened in the early-1980s, only a few years after the invention of the 'ollie'. I'm told that the revamp makes this the largest skate park in the southern hemisphere. It'll be a great place for skaters to make friends, try new tricks, and enjoy the great view across the lake.

Below is a video and the press release that Chris and I put out.

NEW BELCONNEN SKATE PARK OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Federal Member for Fraser, Andrew Leigh MP, and Member for Ginninderra, Dr Chris Bourke MLA, today officially opened the completed $4.2 million skate park in Belconnen providing the local community with a new state-of-the-art recreation facility.

As a joint initiative, the project received funding of $2 million from the Australian Government and $2.2 million from the ACT Government.

“I am pleased to be here today to celebrate the official opening of the Belconnen Skate Park and Eastern Valley Way Inlet upgrades,” Mr Leigh said.

“This project has restored the “Belco Bowl” to its former glory and rebuilt the park into a high quality facility that meets contemporary international skate-boarding and BMX standards.”

The new skate park design has retained the existing ‘Belco Bowl’ that is famous to local, national and international skaters.  The upgrade also includes a new street skate plaza with a mix of sculptural obstacles, a flow area/snake run, a mini ramp, a large shelter, seating, new lighting and viewing areas for family and friends.

Dr Bourke said the facility has the direct benefit of improving the skate park, but had the flow on effect of also improving the immediate surrounding area.

“This project has not only delivered a refurbished, state-of-the-art facility for skateboarders and BMX riders but also includes improvements to the adjacent foreshore area, creating an attractive recreation spot for the residents of Belconnen,” Dr Bourke said.

To celebrate the reopening of the refurbished skate park today, members of the Canberra Skateboard Association and BMX community held a series of informal competitions and demonstrations to showcase the new facilities.

“The reopening of the skate park completed one of two stages of work which included the skate park and the immediate public realm. The second stage of works includes the establishment of wetlands within the Eastern Valley Way Inlet, boardwalks, a new bridge, toilet block and refurbishment of the promenade area adjacent to the inlet.

“The skate park is part of a wider foreshore redevelopment that will see the Lake Ginninderra Foreshore refreshed in the coming years with new shaded areas, drinking fountains, boardwalk and paths for cyclists. New lighting will ensure the skate park and surrounding area can be enjoyed in greater safety and with greater confidence by Belconnen residents for more hours of the day.

“The ACT Government has provided a further $4.52 million over the next two years for Stage 2 works and construction is expected to commence in early 2012.”

On ABC Q&A last night, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey confirmed that Canberra is on his hit-list if the Coalition ever wins government, with 12,000 jobs to go.

TONY JONES: Well, would you be disbanding this department if it's a department that puts out false figures for political reasons? I mean, you are talking about getting rid of 12,000 civil servants.

JOE HOCKEY: Yeah. Well the Department of Climate Change will be pretty high up the list for very close scrutiny.

TONY JONES: You mean, you'll be thinking of disbanding it.

JOE HOCKEY: Yep.

So much for Liberal Party claims recently that they would only get rid of 12,000 public servants by 'natural attrition'.

Mobile Offices

I'll be holding a mobile office on Hibberson Street in Gungahlin next Saturday (6 August) from 9-10am. Do come along if there are local or national issues you'd like to raise in person with me.

Community Forums

Also, I'll be hosting a Youth Climate Change Forum next Tuesday. I will give a short outline of the key features of the Gillard Government’s clean energy future plan, answer questions that you might have about the clean energy future plan, and discuss how we can work together to achieve this historic reform.

The details are:

Tuesday 9 August
Manning Clark Centre Theatre 2
Australian National University
6.00-7.30pm
RSVP: Andrew.Leigh.MP <@> aph.gov.au

All welcome - young, and young at heart.

Finally, I'll be holding another community forum on climate change in Dickson.

Sat 27 August
Majura Community Hall
Rosevear Pl
Dickson
10.00-11.30am
RSVP: Andrew.Leigh.MP <@> aph.gov.au