2018-01-24
Hold the champagne – this ‘zombie TPP’ may be new, but it’s anything but improved, Greens trade and finance spokesperson Senator Sarah-Hanson Young has said from the World Economic Forum at Davos.
“This ‘trickle-down triumph’ solves none of the problems we need genuine multilateral cooperation to solve, like climate change and tax avoidance,” she said.
“The government is defending this new version of the TPP by pointing to the economic modelling of the old version. They’re expecting us to believe this new deal’s costs and benefits are identical, even though the players have changed and the rules have changed.
“It says everything about this Liberal Government that its big idea to create Australian jobs is to sign us up to a deal that lets businesses bring in workers from six other countries without any need to check if there’s an Australian here, now, ready and able to do the job.
“The original deal gave multinationals the power to override the will of the Australian people by allowing corporations to sue governments, even when a government is acting in the interest of the community.
“It has no protection for local content and Australian creative industries. If this zombie TPP is anything like what was originally proposed, it should have been left dead, buried and cremated.
“At a time when workers and communities are anxious about the changing workforce and the household pressures of low wages growth, governments have a responsibility to ensure that free-trade deals are good for the community – not just the profits of faceless, unaccountable corporations.
“This revived deal is a dead end for Australian workers and the Australian public. It’s all devil, no detail.”