Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk on the motion moved by the member for Forde, noting that open trade and investment policies in global, regional, multilateral and bilateral contexts are important to the Australian economy as they do provide opportunities for Australian businesses and they do help create jobs. There's no disagreement with this view. However, the TPP—both in its first incarnation and now in its second incarnation as TPP-11—continues to be controversial, raising strong opposition from within the Australian community. This is despite the promise of the huge benefits to the Australian economy.

When I spoke on the original TPP in this place in February 2016, I raised the concerns that were also being raised by members of the Australian community, suggesting that that TPP would have negative impacts on our national interests in the area of labour market testing and also in undermining our sovereignty. I said then that the Australian people expect our free trade agreements to create job opportunities for them so they too can share in the prosperity that is being promised. They don't want a free trade deal that denies them job opportunities as does, in this case, the TPP-11, because it abolishes labour market testing and carries no enforceable protection for labour rights and workers. They certainly do not want a free trade deal that undermines our sovereignty and our democratic processes by allowing corporations to bypass national courts and sue governments and restrict government regulations of essential services. These are areas of great importance to the Australian community.

The Australian trade unions have also been concerned about the TPP-1 and now the TPP-11. Often we will praise the benefits of free trade agreements and ignore the negative ramifications at our peril, as was the case, I remember, with the then Thai free trade agreement some years ago. Locally in my electorate, many of my constituents knew that this was a bad deal for our local car manufacturing industry. Unions and others in the community advocated and appealed to the then government to take measures to protect our car manufacturing industry, but that was to no avail. The decision by Ford Australia to cease production of car manufacturing in 2016, as we all know, led to the end of car manufacturing in this country, and, of course, Ford was our biggest employer locally.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union stood solidly at the side of our local car-manufacturing workers. Alongside the rest of us, they fought hard to deal with the devastating impact that the job losses that followed had on my community. Today, I want to quote Tony Mavromatis, the state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, who recently wrote to me about his members' concerns regarding TPP-11. He says:

Free trade agreements must not allow big business to exploit vulnerable temporary visa workers and undermine the standards we fight for every day.

The Government's ability to use its purchasing power to provide safe, secure jobs and support local business must not be undermined or comprised; and our sovereignty must not be traded away.

Other unions are also raising similar concerns about TPP-11, because, like its predecessor, it still carries these controversial clauses. It still carries the investor-state dispute settlement clause, which many perceive to be an opportunity to undermine our national sovereignty. The government should have been batting hard on Australia's behalf on these key areas of concern, because they go to our national interests as much as the trade opportunities do and opening up markets does.

Of course, this doesn't make me un-Australian, nor should I feel any shame, as has been suggested by some colleagues in this place at other times during this debate. I shouldn't be ashamed because I recognise the legitimacy of and share the concerns raised by many in the Australian community and, therefore, would have liked to have seen the member for Forde's private members' motion call for this parliament to make the changes necessary to TPP-11 so that we can get the best deal for Australia, give Australian workers a fair go and protect our national sovereignty. Unfortunately, the government doesn't appear to be too concerned about these important issues, and this private members' motion is silent on these issues. In contrast, a future Labor government would not sign new agreements with such provisions and would seek to remove ISDS clauses from the TPP-11 by negotiating side letters with other nations, as the New Zealand government recently has been successful in doing.

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