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

I just want to point out the irony of our being senators and doing our job here in this chamber tonight, looking at making amendments to legislation, which is what we're elected to do. Because of the treaty process and the way it's set up, we can't actually amend any of this enabling legislation. Even one change in one paragraph would kill and torpedo the entire 13 years of negotiations. How outrageous!

What a farce it is that we come in here pretending to do our job, coming up with good ideas on how we can actually improve the TPP. Even Senator Bernardi's got a good idea on improving the treaty process; reviewing treaties after 10 years is a very sensible and logical thing to do. May I refer Senator Bernardi and others to the Senate report on the treaty-making process, which went into some detail on how we need to improve this so we don't have this farcical situation that we're in tonight where we come in to do our job and we're not able to do our job. I know there are people in the Labor Party who would desperately like to see elements of this TPP changed, as do the Greens, Centre Alliance and a number of other senators in the chamber. But we can't change a thing. One change and it's all off, all deals are off.

This agreement has been negotiated behind closed doors by our trade representatives in DFAT. Occasionally a minister or a ministerial appointment will check up on negotiations. And guess who's behind closed doors? It's big business, business representatives and associations representing industry. When we think about trade deals, most people think of the Australian government doing deals with America, Canada, Chile and Japan. Actually, the Australian government are there to facilitate it, but we're not doing the deals. We didn't initiate the TPP. No government did. It was initiated by big corporations. That's what trade deals are. If you boil it down to its basics, it's stakeholders trying to get an advantage. We call it the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. It should be the 'Trans-Pacific Profit agreement'—because that's actually what it is.

There are so many misnomers and furphies around trade and I've heard it ad nauseam in this place. This deal has very little to do with traditional trade. We've reduced most of our tariffs down to next to nothing. We've killed our existing industries in recent years after the Japanese free trade deal and the Korean free trade deal. Most of the countries in the TPP we've already got bilateral trade deals with. Yes, there's some increased market access, but it is minuscule, it is puny, compared to the advantages in trade, investment and services. This is an investment agreement driven especially by digital companies, financial services companies, healthcare companies and big pharmaceutical companies. There are 29 chapters in the TPP and counting. That covers every facet and every aspect of life here in Australia and in every country that signs this deal.

But we can't change a thing—not a thing. We can't do our job. As much as I feel sorry for Senator Reynolds having to answer our questions—or trying to answer our questions—what's the point? If we change this deal, the whole thing's off. We can't send it back to the House and say, 'We'd like you to amend it to remove this clause or improve this aspect or put in something that reviews this deal,' et cetera. Once it's changed—one small thing—the TPP's finished. That's because this treaty process is so corrupted. It is so desperately in need of reform. It is so anti-democratic and so dangerous. It has removed the role of parliament. I'm talking about synchronising rules and regulations across 11 countries—rules and regulations that will impact everyday citizens in those countries. And it is negotiated outside of parliament completely—by a de facto level of government. This is the power of the executive on steroids in this country. Governments and ministers are dictating outcomes in industries—and we can't change a thing. Minister, I'd like to ask some questions but I might actually allow that vote to be put and then I'll ask some other questions.