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

You might learn something Senator Williams; I'll take that interjection. You might think this is about agricultural exports or you might think this is about selling more commodities to the world. Have a very close look at the fine detail; this is a deal about trade and investment. And what do we mean by investment? We mean direct foreign investment which, by definition, is significant investment. It's significant investment between countries. And, of course, the companies that conduct significant investment are, by their nature, usually large multinational corporations—the exact 300 or so businesses that had exclusive access to the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. These were negotiations that civil society was excluded from, negotiations that we senators were excluded from, and negotiations about which I could get no detail from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials at numerous estimates over recent years: 'This is it; you can take it—lock, stock and two smoking barrels.'

And the US has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but, in case you didn't notice, there are 22 clauses that have been suspended in the TPP-11—including clauses related to monopoly pricing of medicines and pharmaceutical companies—that will be reopened if the US rejoins the TPP. What is the process we have to go through if the US wants to join the TPP? So far, we have very little illumination on that point. I would ask senators to think very closely about whether you want to sell your sovereignty down the river in a so-called trade deal.