Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

are backing off this at a great rate. The European parliament has had a letter from 100 legal and other experts in the field saying, 'Back off this in Europe. It is a bad idea.' They have had to put it on hold and they have had to start looking at what it actually means in the European context to sign up to agreements with investor-state dispute resolution clauses in them.

But think about it: if you have a multinational corporation that is threatening a country, why would a parliament then move to legislate for a ban on fracking or to stop environmental destruction if they knew they were going to incur the wrath of the corporation suing them and the legal costs associated with defending it? The whole point of a parliament and sovereignty is for the parliament to be able to be the ultimate decision makers—