Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

There are no safe carve-outs or exceptions for these investor-state dispute settlement clauses. They are being looked at all around the world. This is not just an issue in Australia around free trade; this is an enormous issue in Europe. The European Union have put their free-trade agreement negotiations on hold for the across the Atlantic free-trade negotiations, pending a large study into these ISDS clauses. They have been around for a long time. They no longer serve any function. The Productivity Commission said they are not needed. They only introduce risk into regulation.

The Australian government is currently being sued by Philip Morris International. That type of litigation against a public health measure could not have been prevented by any carve-outs or exceptions, unlike what the government are saying. John Howard, when he was Prime Minister, refused to sign ISDS clauses into his free-trade agreement with the US, saying that safeguards already in place and ISDS clauses were entirely unnecessary. This is just a way of getting a trade deal through, getting a headline and going up in the polls.

Question agreed to.