Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

This week could be a very dark week for many struggling families in Australia, because it looks like they are about to be sold out once again by the people they voted for to represent them. It looks like we will soon be witnessing one of the greatest betrayals of the Australian worker that this country has ever seen. It looks like the coalition and Labor have finally found some common ground in their shared love of the deeply flawed Trans-Pacific Partnership. The coalition has always been quick to put the interests of their Nationals mates ahead of Australian workers, but it is utterly shameful to see that the Labor Party is about to roll over and wave through this piecemeal trade deal. It seems that Labor's hypocrisy knows no bounds. They have betrayed the trust of their voters and the workers they so often claim to champion. They have happily taken union money and now they are laughing all the way to the bank as they sell them out. Honestly, after Labor politicians take their places in parliament, they treat rank-and-file union members like complete mugs. Let me quote what Senator Doug Cameron said on Wednesday, 26 September 2018:

Well I have had concerns about these so called free trade agreements for a number of years. They are not really free trade agreements. Technically they are bilateral preferential trade agreements, so people trade off bits and pieces and it's not true free trade and I have always been concerned that workers need to be considered, the social impact needs to be considered as well as the economic impact.

If you listen to Senator Doug Cameron now, you won't hear those words. The Labor Party are going against the core principles that they claim to stand for. I quote from the ALP National Platform:

Labor will oppose low-quality piecemeal trade agreements in favour of fair and transparent multilateral agreements. When multilateral trade negotiations are not making satisfactory progress, Labor will consider high-quality regional or bilateral trade agreements that are in Australia's national interest and that support the multilateral trading system. Trade agreements must be consistent with Australia's social and economic values, be based on widespread consultation, provide for appropriate minimum and enforceable labour and environmental standards, take account of social and economic impacts and allow sovereign governments to make decisions and implement policies in the interests of their citizens.

That doesn't sound anything like what Labor are doing in this parliament if they're going to support the TPP. I will say it again: the Labor Party are voting against their core principles. When you look at a party that does not stand by its core principles, what you see is a party of no principle. No Labor Party of my parents' generation would have allowed this trade deal to pass, but I suppose that should come as no surprise, because Bill Shorten's Labor Party is not the Labor Party we used to know.