2015-10-07
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson
The TPP is a dangerous deal that prioritises corporate interests above yours.
Ask PM Turnbull to come clean with the Australian public and #ReleaseTheText of the TPP deal.
What's wrong with it?
It has very little to do with 'free trade,' it is more about profit and investment protections for some of the world's biggest and most profitable corporations.
The government, whilst keeping the text secret, is in overdrive spinning the supposed benefits of this deal to farmers. Australia already has bilateral trade deals with most of the TPP countries so the economic upside is limited. US government modelling actually predicts zero long term economic benefit to the Australian economy from this agreement.
Our parliament and Australian citizens have been completely shut out of the TPP negotiations, but we know big pharmaceutical and entertainment companies have been at the table pushing for monopoly rights and increased IP protections.
We don't yet know exactly what the implications of the TPP is on our digital rights, copyright laws, health policy, environmental laws, local procurement policies for small business, and financial regulation because the government still refuses to #ReleaseTheText.
As the Productivity Commission has said, the benefits of these deals are often oversold and the costs never discussed. We need an independent assessment of what truly is in our national interest.
Companies can sue Australia
PM Malcolm Turnbull and Andrew Robb have done what John Howard and Mark Vaile refused to do – they have granted US corporations to the right to sue the Australian government when it makes laws in the public interest, if those laws affect their profits.
The United States pushed hard for the inclusion of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in the 2004 US Free Trade Agreement but Australia refused. United States corporations are the most avid user of ISDS and have brought forward at least 127 cases so far. The majority of ISDS cases are either won by the corporation or settled at great expense to the country being sued. Most ISDS cases from the US have involved disputes being brought by energy, mining, oil and gas companies.
But what else have they signed Australia up to in the TPP? We won't know until they #ReleaseTheText.
We have a right to know what the government has signed away in our names.