2016-02-04
Today Andrew Robb has signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) on behalf of the Australian government. Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, provides the following comments:
“When the Government signed the China-Australia Free Trade agreement they made a month-long song and dance about it. But you would barely notice that the Government has signed the TPP because this time around they have been quite muted. I haven’t seen them ask a single Dorothy Dixer question in Question Time all week.
“Ever since the World Bank modelling has come out, showing barely any benefit to the Australian economy, the Australian government has been very quiet on the TPP.
“All Andrew Robb can do is attack groups with legitimate concerns by calling them scaremongers.
“Andrew Robb may call them scaremongers, but he is the one running scared. He is too afraid to listen to those with concerns and get the TPP independently assessed.
“He is too afraid to send it off for independent scrutiny at the Productivity Commission. He is acting gutless. Andrew Robb is running scared.
“If the TPP is so good for Australia Andrew Robb would listen to the community and to the Productivity Commission and get the TPP independently assessed.
“Recently the Australian Senate offered ten moderate and sensible recommendations to improve community participation in the process of negotiating trade agreements and yet the government has outright rejected them,” he concluded.