Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I wonder if Australians realise that the Australian government—in talking about participating in and signing up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement—understands that in Brunei, with its new criminal law regime, punishments include limb amputation for theft and stoning to death for adultery or homosexuality. Why would we want to be involved in a trade partnership with a country involved in human rights abuses like that? While I hear what Senator Faulkner is saying about complex foreign affairs matters, the Australian community has been absolutely in the dark about the extent of the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and on exactly what is going to be sold out if Australia signs up to it. The sooner we shine a light on what Australia is signing up to, the better.

The Greens have always opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is a bad agreement. It has less to do with trade and a lot more to do with the geopolitics of the Americans pivoting back into the region; that is what it is about. It is also about big pharmaceuticals coming back to get what they did not get from the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

This is a disaster for Australia in a range of matters, but giving the nod to—or ignoring the extent of—human rights abuses in Brunei is inexcusable. I am glad Senator Whish-Wilson has brought this before the Senate.