When a government prepares to surrender a share of its sovereignty, you would expect a compelling reason for doing so. No country would accept limits on its law-making power without an equal trade-off, surely? Well, no country except New Zealand. The TPPA places substantial limits on the government’s law-making powers while offering very little in return.
The Government has released a TPPA ‘National Interest Analysis’. It should be read along with TPP Legal’s extensive analysis of the costs and risks.
The new year begins much as the old one ended, with secrets, evasions and dissent over the TPP and what it means for NZ.
The text of the TPPA has finally been released to the plebs – i.e. we the people. Too little too late.
Bryan Gould on the TPP: “…it is about managed, not free, trade – and trade that is managed in the interests of large, international, and mainly US corporations.”
If this report is accurate it opens an interesting can of worms!
A roundup of the best analysis of and reaction to the TPP. The gains are minor and delayed, the losses are real. In NZ we don’t have any democratic input into ratification, but the US does, and the deal may fall there.
Gordon Campbell (one of the last known practitioners of the dying art of journalism) claims that the TPP dairy deal is already done. He makes a convincing case.
We are giving away the shop and we don’t know what if anything we will get in terms of dairy access yet. Our negotiators have signaled that they are weak. And even if we get what we want it is probably worth bugger all anyway.
For any accounts from the TPP protest marches today.
The excellent Gordon Campbell on Key’s divisive and opportunistic lines on “Maori separatism”.
“TPP Watch” has a shiny new web site, with great resource and events coming up. Check it out.
A press release that is well worth reprinting verbatim. The Green parties of NZ, Australia and Canada speak out about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Fran ‘Sell it all’ O’Sullivan is fuming over the Court decision putting aside the approval of Pengxin’s application to buy Crafar Farms. She knows that Pengxin can’t satisfy the actual legal test because its bid has never been about bringing benefit to New Zealand. Its been about securing strategic assets for China. But some of her whining really needs to be pulled up.
Every time some rightwing ideologue calls 80% of New Zealanders racist or xenophobic because we don’t want to lose control of our future and sell our strategic assets to fall into the hands of a foreign dictatorship that is going around the world buying up key resources to secure their own supply chains at the cost of our sovereignty, and reminds us that National is letting this happen, I smile. Keep it up, Fran.
National says that you’re a racist for not wanting to sell our assets to foreigners, particularly Chinese state-owned companies. It’s not racism. It’s about our sovereignty. We are never going to be able to choose our way in the world if we sell everything abroad and we do not want to become a vassal of the world’s newest empire.
It matters not who owns a thing, what really matters is “who controls it” . We have been watching our house being burgled for to long haven’t we? We seem to forget we are still in control of this country, and we the people need to get back that control, the control of our parliament, that belongs to us!
Next time some righties are protesting in Queen St, will the government call out an army LAV to clear a path for my car so I can go about my lawful business without being blocked by protesters? Or do only foreign multinationals have this government at their beck and call?
From 1999 t0 2009, the economy grew by $8 billion a year. It’s so bad now the Prime Minister hands over $33 million and our sovereignty as soon as foreign capital says ‘boo’. Which international corporate will shake us down next? Maybe if the Nats had a plan for the economy. Then we could stand on our own feet. But they’re asleep at the wheel.
