2018-10-17
The Morrison Government and the Labor Party have thrown Australia under the bus in teaming up to pass the dodgy Trans-Pacific Partnership today, giving big corporations more power than elected Governments.
“Labor has abandoned its own party platform, Australian workers, our environment and our sovereignty in rolling over for the Morrison Government to pass the TPP,” Greens trade spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“This is a deal for big corporations, at the expense of the rights of the community.
“The economic benefit to Australia from the TPP is something between nothing and a rounding error – while the cost to everyday Australians, and our environment, are huge.
“Our environmental policy limbo and action on climate change cannot be addressed without serious risk of multinational corporations suing our nation. If the US decides to re-join the costs of new cancer medications would go through the roof. And, as the deal stands, vulnerable workers from six nations will be put into jobs without offering them first to Australians looking for work.
“We cannot address the TPP’s most devastating failures - ISDS provisions and weak labour market testing - now the deal is done. Labor has squibbed the opportunity to do the right thing, and to hold the Morrison Government to account.
“We must, of course, be a trading nation, but what has happened today is chaining us to trade for the sake of multinational corporations and shareholder profits, rather than engaging in deals that help take our nation forward.”