Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not, because I will be addressing that in my remarks. The truth is that saying that a free trade agreement benefits all is grossly overstated and exaggerated. This is not from me; this is from the Productivity Commission. For example, the Howard government claimed that the US FTA would deliver $4 billion per year of benefits to the Australian economy. Studies have shown that the copyright provisions alone cost $700 million. The Productivity Commission study found a $700 million cost from the copyright changes alone. The Crawford School of Public Policy, Australia's pre-eminent trade academic institution has found that the US FTA diverted trade by $52 billion and actually led to a decline in trade between the United States and Australia.

Mr Nikolic interjecting—

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