Andrew Leigh

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS TO STAFF AT THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

CANBERRA

THURSDAY, 9 JUNE 2022

As a stats nerd, this is a pretty exciting job to have.

I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to have Assistant Ministerial responsibility for the Bureau of Statistics, and I do so with a huge respect for the work that you all do. As you know, the great maxim ‘what gets measured gets managed’ really holds up. You determine many of the key things that Australians focus on. You shape the national conversation around inflation, unemployment and growth, but also deeper conversations too about the social statistics - about how we're tracking as a country in terms of our environmental measures, the social health in the nation, the levels of trust.

AUSTRALIA RECONNECTED

ADDRESS TO THE AUSTRALIAN PROGRESS CONFERENCE

CANBERRA

TUESDAY, 7 JUNE 2022

It's an honour to be in the room with so many friends, activists, people who I greatly admire. The Australian Progress conference is Davos for altruists.

I want to talk about the civic crisis that Australia is facing today. Over the last couple of generations, we've seen a four-fifths decline in the number of organisations per person. We've seen a decline in the share of Australians who say they can trust government to do the right thing. We've seen a drop in the volunteering rate from 35 per cent of the start of the millennium, now down to 25 per cent. In the 1950s, half the population used to regularly attend a religious service – now that’s down to a seventh. In the 1980s, union membership was half the workforce - now down to a seventh. Australians are less likely to participate in team sports. Compared with the mid-1980s, Australians have half as many close friends and know half as many of their neighbours.

Now I've been involved in progressive politics for over three decades, since I joined the Labor Party in 1991. If you'd asked me when I first joined the Labor Party how much should we care about community and social capital, I would have said it's not that important an issue. I've fundamentally changed my view over that period, as I’ve come to believe that it goes to who we are as a society. Just as inequality is a choice between a society of ‘we’ and a society of ‘me’, so too civic community is a choice between a society of ‘we’ and the society of ‘me’. Inequality and community are two sides of the same coin.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC CANBERRA MORNINGS

MONDAY, 6 JUNE 2022

SUBJECTS: The resignation of Gary Johns; Labor’s plans to support the charities sector; Canberrans and donations; ACCC.

ADAM SHIRLEY, HOST: Gary Johns - head of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission - will step down at the end of next month. Now his stewardship caused some consternation and open criticism from the then opposition, now federal government. Andrew Leigh is the federal Member for Fenner and newly appointed Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Dr Andrew Leigh, good morning to you and thank you for your time.

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

SHIRLEY: You've had some days to get, well a few days to get your knees under the desks of these new portfolios. First of all to Dr Gary Jones, you were quite critical of some of his decisions and he in that role in the months prior. Did you ask for his resignation?

THE RESIGNATION OF GARY JOHNS

SENATOR KATY GALLAGHER
LABOR SENATOR FOR THE ACT

ANDREW LEIGH MP
MEMBER FOR FENNER

DAVID SMITH MP
MEMBER FOR BEAN

ALICIA PAYNE MP
MEMBER FOR CANBERRA

MADDY NORTHAM
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR THE SENATE

BETTER HEALTHCARE FOR CANBERRA FAMILIES UNDER A LABOR GOVERNMENT

Under an Albanese Labor Government, Canberra’s families will have increased access to cheaper urgent medical care that they need by providing sick or injured Canberrans a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic as an alternative option to the Emergency Department. 

Labor has committed to 50 Urgent Care Clinics across Australia and the Federal ACT Labor Team has announced that one of these clinics will be established on Canberra’s southside.

RECONNECTING AUSTRALIA

ADDRESS TO THE CONNECTING UP CONFERENCE

MELBOURNE

THURSDAY, 12 MAY 2022

*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

Over the course of the last two generations, Australia has become more disconnected. We've seen a decline in the share of Australians who give money to charities. We've seen a fall off in the share of Australians who volunteer their time. There are now fewer associations per person than they were in the late 1970s, and our big mass membership organisations - whether they be Scouts, Guides, Rotary Lions, or indeed political parties - have shed members of an alarming rate. We've surveyed the number of close friends Australians had in the 1980s and done so again more recently, and those surveys show that Australians have half as many close friends as they did a generation ago. The same is true of neighbours. Australians know about half as many of their neighbours as they did in the mid-1980s - ironically, when Neighbours itself first hit the screens.

CHRIS STEEL MLA
ACT MINISTER FOR SKILLS

CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT

ACT FEDERAL LABOR TEAM

DELIVERING A BETTER FUTURE FOR CANBERRA’S VULNERABLE STUDENTS

An Albanese Labor Government will invest in a Youth Foyer at the Woden CIT campus to deliver student accommodation for young people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness.

Delivered in partnership with the ACT Government as part of the revitalisation of Woden Town Centre, this $10 million commitment by Federal Labor would provide accommodation for up to 20 young people at a time, aged between 16 and 24.

MICHELLE ROWLAND  

SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS  

MEMBER FOR GREENWAY 

BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP 

SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE 

MEMBER FOR GORTON 

ANDREW LEIGH MP 

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TREASURY 

SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES 

MEMBER FOR FENNER 

LABOR TO IMPROVE MOBILE COVERAGE IN JERVIS BAY TERRITORY 

An Albanese Labor Government will help keep Jervis Bay connected by improving mobile phone coverage for the region. 

Mobile coverage is unreliable and at times unavailable for many residents in the Jervis Bay Territory, who face a dangerous bushfire season surrounded by the Booderee National Park with only one road in and out.

HAVENS NO MORE

The Canberra Times, 7 May 2022

THE COST OF AUSTRALIA’S ‘PHENOMENAL FAILURE’ ON VACCINATION

The Australian, 6 May 2022

Australians aim high. Whether it’s the quality of our beaches, the speed of our Olympic swimmers, or the talent of our novelists, we like to think that we can be the best of the world. And we often succeed.

Yet a year ago, Australia was doing the very opposite. Of all the advanced countries in the 38-member Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Australia had the lowest rate of full vaccination. This wasn’t a temporary thing. From 12 May 2021 to 26 July 2021, Australia ranked last in the OECD, underperforming countries with significantly lower levels of economic development, such as Mexico, Turkey and Portugal.