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

Any thinking, intelligent person would think it was reasonable, before this country—

Senator Abetz interjecting—

I will take that interjection—there may not be as many as I would hope in the chamber, but nevertheless! Any intelligent person would think it would be a very reasonable thing to do before our country signed up to one of the biggest deregulation agendas it has seen, in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, to at least do a social and economic cost-benefit analysis. That is exactly what Malaysia are doing and they are not going to sign this deal unless it is in their country's interests. The only reason we do not do it in this country is that the political imperative is that this government wants to sign up to trade deals to get more headlines. This analysis is something this country needs to do. We need scrutiny on this secretive deal and this is a measure that I ask the Senate to support.