Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Imagine the breakfast table trauma in WA this morning with people grabbing a copy of the West Australian only to be confronted by the special combo of Clive Palmer and Christian Porter. Now that is some kind of dream team there. Clive Palmer wants to rip off WA to the tune of $300 billion and Christian Porter is trying to help him achieve that using a dodgy international tribunal system called ISDS. We know the coalition loves Clive Palmer. They supported his legal action against WA when Christian Porter was the Attorney-General. We know the coalition loves investor-state dispute settlement arrangements, the dodgy system known as ISDS through which multinational companies try to override public policy in areas like health, the environment and workers' rights; the system that allows billionaires and multinationals to have a go at ripping money out of the public purse. That's what Clive Palmer is trying to do with Christian Porter's help, take the Western Australian community to the cleaners for $300 billion.

I have no idea why those opposite think it's clever to undermine Australian sovereignty in that way, but already this year members opposite have brought motions supporting ISDS. You have to ask: whose side are they on? I can tell you we are not going to do Clive Palmer's bidding on this side of politics and we're not going to roll over for multinationals who want to take Australia for a ride. They can keep Christian Porter and they can keep Clive Palmer. On this side of the House we're going to back Western Australia and we're going to make sure that multinationals and billionaires don't use these dodgy tribunals to rip money out of the public purse.