2016-02-09
Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has labelled the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) National Interest Analysis, tabled today in Parliament, a farce and reiterated his call for the Government to refer the entire TPP text to the Productivity Commission for independent assessment.
Senator Whish-Wilson said, “The TPP National Interest Analysis presented to Parliament is not an independent assessment of the costs and benefits of this agreement; it is simply a more detailed set of talking points coming from DFAT and Andrew Robb’s office.
“Unsurprisingly DFAT and Andrew Robb have marked their own homework and given themselves top marks.
“The Parliament needs to have a proper independent assessment of the TPP and the Government should refer the entire agreement to the Productivity Commission for assessment.
“If Andrew Robb wasn’t so afraid of his spin being shown up as hollow rhetoric then he would have no problem whatsoever referring the TPP to the Productivity Commission.
“Not only is Parliament unable to change one line in this 6000 page text but Andrew Robb is too frightened to give Parliamentarians the opportunity to see an independent assessment of its impact on Australia.
“Andrew Robb is rushing this process despite no sign that the US Congress will begin their assessment and ratification process of the TPP in the foreseeable future.
“Rushing the TPP ratification leads to risks that Australia will have signed up to an agreement that will then be subject to changes made by Congress at a later date,” he concluded.