Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy President. Opposition leader Bill Shorten's idea that you can sign off on the full agreement today and then put blind faith in your ability to renegotiate and remove ISDS clauses as well as introduce labour market testing is pretty ridiculous. That's not how it works, and, if that is how you think negotiations happen, then God help us all. If you want to change the TPP, now is the time to do it. The Greens oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it is a dud deal. It is a rotten deal. Time and time again, we get sold out by the big parties with empty promises that rarely, if ever, come to fruition. 'Trust us,' they say. Every time, we are promised all the jobs and the wealth in the world, and, inevitably, the big end of town gets the benefits and the people bear the costs. We know we are being sold a lemon by this government.

Anis Chowdhury, former director of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, notes that most TPP partner countries already have trade agreements with one another. Thus, additional trade from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will be modest. Even the World Bank admits that the Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030 and at a real cost. The Tufts University report shows that Australia is likely to lose some 39,000 jobs in energy products, primary commodities, manufacturing and services industries. We could stop this today. We could say, 'No ISDS.' We could say no to putting the rights of corporations above people. All we need is the Labor Party to stop their reckless devotion to neoliberalism. You will very likely be the next government in this place, but, if you pass this legislation today, you will prove to millions of Australians who don't want the TPP forced down their throats that you are not listening, that you don't care and that you will always put your big business mates first.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a fraud. It is all about benefiting big multinational corporations and the wealthy one per cent. Thousands of jobs will be destroyed only to benefit the big end of town, yet we are told that we must support it for the greater good. What a sick joke! It is a sellout of Australian workers, it is a sellout of our precious environment and it is a sellout of our public services. I stand with trade unions, I stand with the community, and I stand with activists against this toxic deal. The real question is: why isn't the Labor Party? I'm deeply appalled that the Labor Party is joining with the Liberals when they know what this bill will do. The Australian people are sick of the two big parties selling them out time and time again in secret deals like this. Once the Liberals and Labor have signed and sealed this deal, it will be incredibly difficult to get out of. We know that big business will want more and more and more. If you can't stand up to them today, how will you do it tomorrow? Let's act to save our universal health care, our environment, our climate and our workers' rights. Let's stop this today.