2015-09-21
Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson makes the following comments regarding the recent portfolio shuffle:
“It is disappointing that Prime Minister Turnbull hasn’t used this opportunity to bring a new set of eyes and leadership to the Trade portfolio.
“Andrew Robb is a ‘free trade fossil’, a champion for an-out of-touch and broken trade treaty system that is selling us all down the river.
“Australians are so sceptical of these trade deals that our government is now having to spend $20 million of taxpayers money on advertising to spin them, ironically when their own internal modelling suggests they will have no substantive impact on our economy or jobs.
“This government has been dishonest or negligent in its recent claims that its three bilateral trade deals with China, Japan and Korea will deliver 178,000 new jobs over 20 years, when the correct figure is only 5,468 jobs.
“It is time to correct the record and inject some sensible debate and public discourse into whether undemocratic and dangerous trade deals are in the national interest.
“There is no better time for action than now, with more negotiation on the controversial, secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement likely again within weeks,” he concluded.