10 days till Groser swallows the TPPA rat?

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We will know on 3 October (2 October US time) whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will conclude or faces collapse. According to a calculated drip-feed of unofficial information, chief negotiators from the 12 countries will resume talks in Atlanta, USA on 26 September, with the ministers now scheduled to meet in for 3 days from 30 September to 2 October, and the chiefs continuing on until 4th.

This is absolute make-or-break time for the text to beconcluded and processed through Congress under Obama. A new President and Congress, especially a Republican, will seek to rewrite the deal.

Three main obstacles remained after the Maui meeting in late July: market access on automobiles (US, Japan, Canada and Mexico) and dairy(NZ, Japan, Canada and US), plus the monopoly rights of Big Phrma over biologic medicines. All attention has focused on autos, with no resolution so far and the major players due to reconvene this week.

Holding another ministerial that fails is a political risk and destroy the dwindling credibility of claims they can conclude the deal; but not having a ministerial at all would concede that by default.

The meeting is now scheduled several days later than originally proposed, and comes straight after the political leaders are in New York for the UN Sustainability Development Summit at the end of September. Expect a gathering of the TPPA leaders, where Obama can combine charm and pressure to secure the US’s outstanding demands. Game of golf, anyone?

Groser must be feeling cornered and desperate. Contrast his statement on the weekend that ministers will only meet if there is progress on the outstanding issues with that if his Japanese counterpart – failure to agree a deal at the September ministerial means TPPA could be put off for years.

The only and shifting bottom line for New Zealand is something ‘commercially meaningful’ on dairy. Groser says there have been ongoing bilateral talks, but there is no talk of any ‘progress’. Why would Canada, Japan and the US make concessions to New Zealand? We have nothing they need and they will bet that Groser is not going to hold up a final deal. Remember his arrogant – and for us ominous – statement to the press at the failed Maui ministerial that the TPPA was his brainchild and New Zealand would never walk away? I have predicted all along that Groser will swallow the rat and leave it to Key to do damage control at home. “Trust us” – yeah, right.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

We all need to keep the pressure on both Groser and Key.

There is now an increasingly active propaganda machine trying to sell the deal. The latest was a very poor piece of work from the NZIER claiming that concern over the right of foreign investors to sue under the TPPA (investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS) was a big beat-up. Some of it was legally wrong or made questionable interpretation of the data. Majorissues, including preferential protections for foreign investors over locals, inconsistent legal interpretations, conflicts of interest among the arbitrators, no right of appeal, and implications for the domestic courts were simply ignored. We can expect much more of that in the next few weeks.

Fortuitously, the spotlight will shine brightly on thesecrecy of the negotiations bang in the middle of the Atlanta meeting. On 28 September the High Court in Wellington will hear our challenge to Groser’s blanket refusal to release any information from a range of categories I requested under the Official Information Act back in January. We are seeking judicial review of those decisions and declarations that the Minister acted unlawfully.*

There is an impressive list of co-applicants: Consumer NZ, Ngati Kahungunu, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, NZ Nurses Organisation and NZ tertiary Education Union. Matthew Palmer QC is counsel.

Not much can be said about the details of the case until after the hearing, although basic documents for this case and the Waitangi Tribunal claim are on http://tpplegal.wordpress.com. I will write a blog setting out the issues and arguments as soon as the hearing is over. There is a Give-a-Little page where you can help cover the costs and build a fighting fund for the (almost inevitable) appeals – https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/tppnosecrecy.

 

*(To those who have asked whether we could make a similar legal challenge to the one being brought in Japan, the answer is ‘no’. Their case is based on Japan’s constitution).

 

35 COMMENTS

  1. The TTPA the ‘brainchild ‘ of Groser?.

    I think not.

    He is a small player.

    And the surmising that Groser will swallow the rat is quite correct. That is what Key is here for. Its what he was here for all along. The PR man to encourage USA hegemony against Chinese foreign policy in the South Pacific.

    We have 4 men in court this week because of the Hollywood Movie Industry who drew up a large part of the TTPA to be ratified by the American Congress… and that goes back to at least 2010 when USA policy deemed copyright an issue of national security. Under Obama.

    And the ruthlessness by which they are being dealt to is a precursor to what any govt signatory is likely to find themselves in if they breach the conventions of the TTPA – in other words – sued by corporations if they so deem they have been ‘disadvantaged ‘ by legislation of that govt.

    The ludicrous idea that this small economic block ( NZ ) has any sort of heavyweight punch with these other giant economies is beyond any sense of good humor or logic.

    There is a time for self congratulatory patting on the back of our achievements and there is a time for the sober realization of our limitations.

    This is not a game of rugby we are contesting.

    So much so that it serves even more to highlight the sheer lunacy of signing a deal where we are enormously disadvantaged from the start.

    Key knows this , and Groser knows this as well.

    Yet both prepared to gamble on their party’s political capitol ….which begs the question ….what really is their true bloodyminded motives for going ahead with this?

    Just what is their motives?

    In that both know full well this could turn out politically disastrous for not only them but the National party…to such an extent that even members of their own caucus have been bucking the party line over the issue…

    One can only conclude that it is John Key who is the main driver in all of this…think back to his first promises before National was in power… the ‘catching up with Australia ‘ platform …with the staged stunt with the then young Aroha Ireland from MeGehan Close…

    Think back to the promise of ‘300,000 ‘ new jobs created…and we still have an uncompleted bicycle tourist circuit…which was touted to employ 200 staff….

    We have had people dying in mouldy , overpriced rental properties in Auckland with people who’s wages are so low they cannot afford even the power bill to warm those houses…and a Finance Minister who gloats we should be glad we have a ‘low wage economy ; as it encourages foreign investment…their response was to parcel out state houses to overseas private company’s – by deliberately demanding a dividend that made their positions untenable….

    Then we have the issue of taxes… whereby these state homes were supposed to be benefactors of those taxes…yet we find that the tax cuts of 2009-2010 were subsidized by massive overseas borrowing to the tune of $ 250,000,000 – $300,000,000 each week !!!!

    And those tax cuts never went to the lower income earners – but to the top earners !!!! – corporate welfare personified !!!!

    And that foreign investment has seen our own nationals locked out of ever being able to buy a first home in Auckland and elsewhere…along with severe competition for jobs that are and have been scarce for the 7 years National have been in power , – in big part because of an unregulated and unbridled immigration policy…

    And then we have Pike River …the shocking deaths of 29 workers – and this govt’s response after several years was not to tighten Health and Safety issues – but to loosen them down to favour big business… yes – worm farms, people. Worm farms.

    So just what is – and who is – the driver behind all this and what possible motive could they have?

    And just how is this motive carried out – and just when was it conceived?

    The answer my friends … has its origins right back at the Orewa speech of Don Brash…the harsh face of National sought damage control after leaked e- mails, Exclusive Brethren rendezvous , and a book. Called the Hollow Men.

    A certain young and fresh faced Forex Banker was headhunted…one who had no qualms of being ruthless…. one who was the right hand man of Andrew Kreiger in performing the biggest Forex heist in history – against his own country of birth … that country being New Zealand….and almost destroying its economy.

    A person known in the banking industry as the smiling assassin … a reputation gained by the cheerful way he sacked around 600 employees from Merril Lynch…

    Yet one who had enjoyed all the benefits of Social Democratic New Zealand in his formative years… yet eagerly accepted the role of bringing about USA hegemony in the far flung nation of New Zealand….

    Going so far as to even lie about an NSA software mass surveillance programme called XKEYSCORE….which was proven to exist and was being used to collate and collect mega data against the people of the USA – and be illegal in its country of origin the USA at least a year before the issue became widely known in this country by a meeting held at the Auckland town hall…

    The list could go on and on….

    But anyone ….. ANYONE …. who is involved in any way shape or form whatsoever in any rudimentary detection ability would look at this panorama …and would be forced to draw but one simple conclusion…

    That this current ‘ PM ‘ is definitely not here to fulfill that role.

    It was never his ambition , it was never his life’s work , it was never his intention at all. The fruits of his actions speak louder than his words …..and there is no way he can cover up his real intent ,… and his real motives…

    He was NEVER groomed and brought here to be your Prime Minister.

    The reality is that he was groomed for a specific job and that job is simply to provide an inroad into the South Pacific and to be an extension of the United States of America’s hegemony into the South Pacific as a bulwark against Chinese expansion and influence in this region.

    And the tool they are using like a Trojan horse is the TTPA.

    And it is THAT incredibly blatant – in its almost blindingly brilliant tactical simplicity.

    THIS is who and what you are really dealing with New Zealand.

    • +100 Wild Katipo…corporate USA led by Hollywood is here to suck the blood out of New Zealand and make New Zealand their vassal state and kitsch tacky virtual play ground….via King John… the usurper and traitor to his host country…the country that compassionately took his family in as Jewish refugees and gave him a state house and nurtured him with New Zealand social welfare paid for by New Zealand taxpayers in a social welfare state…which he now trashes

      …bugger NZ agriculture and dairy

      ….bugger New Zealand’s beautiful land and landscapes and waterways ( oil drilling and fracking here we come)

      ….bugger New Zealand’s history of fair play and egalitarianism

      …bugger New Zealand’s unique Maori /Pakeha culture and heritage and legal system ( this is why jonkey wants to change the flag)

      …bugger New Zealand’s future entrepreneurship

      ….bugger the future of New Zealand’s children

      ( the Greens , Labour and New Zealand First should be joining forces in Parliament …together with National Party MPs of conscience… and say any such signing of a TPPA agreement is null and void …it has not gone through democratic process)

    • A near perfect summary of the situation we currently find ourselves in. Unfortunately the apathy of the majority of NZ’s eligible voters is stunning. As Bomber repeatedly points out, only a crash in our wildly overinflated housing market is going to put an end to the living nightmare that is The John Key’s administration. Unfortunately most of the harm he’s done won’t be quickly undone, if it’s even possible (e.g. the TPPA).

      • Nitrium I think if everybody in NZ told Key we didn’t want TPP,he would ignor it, we will get what he wants because “he knows best”
        Key dosnt work for us ,we are slaves and nobodies who obey and work for him. Key lives on a different planet,The planet of the darleks, dr who style.
        He might as well say”exterminate exterminate” because that’s his aim .

    • Masterpiece there WK,

      Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize winning economist told the TPPA negotiator’s in January 2015

      “what you negotiate here involves the lives of people and ….we are talking about thousands & thousands of people who will die and thousands of people who will have a different quality of life as a result of what you decide”.

      For us in Aotearoa/NZ it would;
      1/ let foreign investors challenge our laws.
      2/ make medicines more expensive.
      3/ stop sticker GMO labelling.
      4/ over ride Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
      5/ undercut our moves to protect our environment.
      6/prevent new limits on mining, drilling & fracking.
      7/ fuel financial crisis.
      8/ lock in asset sales.
      9/ stop buying kiwi made policies.
      10/reduce internet freedom.
      11/ prevent shopping for new markets for our exports.
      12/control our labour laws.
      13/ Control our civil rights.
      14/ force a standardised low wage economy upon us all is never seen before. – and much much more.

      And we have not seen the whole text of the agreement yet so why should we sign this toxic agreement that no other generation in NZ history has ever been forced to be controlled like this before????

      Refuse to sign Government for all our sakes.

  2. +100 and thanks for all your hard work. Good luck for the Court case and let us all hope the TPP deal against the public interest and our sovereignty will NEVER be signed.

    Just to show what goes on in the US, saw this today (and this would be just the tip of the ice burg if the TPP goes ahead). This is what happens when former hedge fund managers get their hands on assets!

    In a classic ‘free market’ endeavour a pharmaceutical start-up run by a former hedge fund manager just acquired a company and immediately raised the price of a drug to treat infectious disease overnight to $750 a tablet from $13.50.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

    • Hideous – and totally – UN -NEW ZEALAND.

      TAKE THAT , LAND OF THE McCARTHYIST’S.

      WE DON’T DO THINGS LIKE THAT AROUND THESE HERE PARTS, Y’ALL.

      WE GOT MORALS , WE GOT VALUES…

      Y’ALL COME BACK HERE , Y’HEAR?

      But don’t try and squirm in with your crap TTPA deal , Y’HEAR ?

      WHY ?… because we are a decent people .

      But we still like good American common folk like our own. And we wont let you down .That’s just the way we are as Kiwi’s.

      We just don’t like that city slicker TTPA shit.

      You can keep that one at home.

      • The best Americans I knew were in Kentucky, & Tennessee, and were salt of the earth folks (a little simple but honest) as we used to run a property or two there during the 1980s and rent them.

        Yes they were “what you see is what you get’ simple folks that loved sitting around singing country and drinking beer, somewhat like us Kiwis.

        They were not the slime balls that front as CNBC US “expert global merchant Bankers that Shonkey was running with as the wheeler dealers like shonkey and his sidekick Groser are as they would really fit in on Main St NY NY but not my buddies back in the Blue Ridge mountains of Kentucky & Lookout Mountain Chattanooga Tennessee.

        Key is dragging us into a snake pit and will throw the cobra’s in before he departs for NY again.

    • Yep most surely.

      Now you all see the despicable Shonkey uses the “take with one hand & look as if you are giving with the other” as a master trickster he is known for and now history will record him as the most corrupt & dishonest PM NZ has ever had.

      Key actually now is showing his real strips, as he lives up to his persona label as “The smiling assassin” as he dismantles NZ for his wolves to devour.

  3. NZ’s politicians must be deeply concerned that if the TPPA doesn’t ‘ go through’ , they, and their cronies , will no longer be able to dip into the income stream of farmer money once that product is produced. And be aware, once that’s done ( Agricultural product ) it’s no longer their ( Farmers ) product it therefore becomes subject to the highest post manufacture, inflationary pricing of any product produced anywhere in the world.
    The second problem with the spectre of not strangling us with a TPPA agreement is that, that swindle , I call it the Great New Zealand Institutionalised lie , will spill its guts like a drunk teenager at the school dance .
    You will all see what a mind bendingly massive swindle it really is. Billions of dollars secreted away into special accounts in Switzerland ? Billions laundered through producer boards ? Billions spent on NZ’s infrastructure really only to be laundered, then plundered by rogernomes and his very personal and very private friends ? ( Think land banking ) michael fay ? $ 890 million ? david richwhite? Another $890 million? Alan Gibbs ? BNZ ? ron brierly?
    ( Want to bring this scrap to the public domain boys ? )
    There’s much more to the TPPA than a few pig fiddlers and hair fanciers trying to out-ego themselves .
    If the TPPA ‘goes through’ our standard of living will plummet and our farmers will continue to suicide or die of exhaustion in their paddocks while the fancy little special men trip about Wellington as if on fairy wings past old, ragged men begging for change.
    “Can’t stand the smell of beastly famahs dahling but do love their money.”

    • Too bloody right…like the smell of freshly regurgitated ambergris….

      The greed of these elitists in ‘ on-selling’ this country to the lowest bidder reeks of filthy , shitty opportunism.

      We don’t need John Key or his USA policy advisers any more than we need a bad dose of the clap or tuberculosis .

      We didn’t need him or them before and we don’t need them now….

      Whats changed except National needed a sleazeball toady of Obama’s to extend their foreign policy’s?

      Really the question is …what need do we really have of John Key anyhow’s?

      Its not as if he’s done anything our own real New Zealand politicians could have done…so what use is he?

      He’s just a see – through actor for American hegemony in the South Pacific…and not even a good one at that…

      Why do we need him ???

      Why ???

        • YES THE PANDA’S WILL COST $50 MILLION TO MAINTAIN SAY THE EXPERTS WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO RECIEVE THEM, NOT THE TEN MILLION THAT SHONKEY SAID.

          SHONKEY AND ENGLIS SAID THEY CANTN AFFORD A RAIL AND ROAD NETWORK ALSO BUT SHONKWY HAS SINCE HE SAID THEAT IN 2010 HAS BOUGHT MANY OTHER WHITE ELEPHANTS INCLUDING SOLID ENERGY, TIWAI POINT SMELTER TO SAY TILL 2017, SOUTH CANTERBURY FINANCE, ANNEW FLAG AND WARNER BROTHERS TO DO A MOVIE FLOP, A BOAT RACE ANDA HEAP OF OTHER HANDOUTS LIKEN PRISIONS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND THHE LIST GOES ON AND ON.

          SO KEY COULD AFFRD TO KEEP NAPIER GISBORNE RAIL BUT HE WANTS IT FOR HIS SHOKEY MIN BIKE TRAIL.

          HE IS A CRIMINAL OF IMMENSE PROPORTIONS, HISTORY WILL RECORD.

    • What office ,did the news say why ,maybe hes staying in usa afraid to come home,or Key has offered him a job as toilet salesman,best offer he deserves.

  4. During the late ’80s Bob Hawke ran a referendum which offered multiple changes to the Australian Constitution.

    -Right to freedom of religious choice.

    -Right to trial by jury.

    -One man, one vote. (eliminate jerrymander practises)

    -Right to freedom of speech.

    Four obvious winners, one would think.

    The govt opposition started a campaign against change by a massive publicity effort.
    The key phrase used was “the hidden agenda”.

    Although it was hard to see any negatives in the new legislation the shitty campaign pushed Vote No to Change.

    It failed to pass and left Hawke stunned in disbelief.

    Anti-TPPA people who care for our society could start using the same technique to strike some fear, or just some doubt, into the minds of the complacent voters who appear to be taking Groser and Tosser’s words at face value.

    What is the hidden agenda?

  5. You only need to look back and wondef why such people as Don Brash, Max Bradford, John Key and Tim Groser were enticed away from their pretty cushy lifestyles to go into politics. This has been on the agenda for a lot longer than many would realise. They were enticed by swift promotion to cabinet positions to do exactly what you have seen over the last 20 years; i.e, the privatisation of all the wealth once held in the hands of govt. They must go and quickly.

  6. @ WK – you are not alone in your thinking.
    And Thanks to you Jane, I shall donate to this court case, In the hope it proves fruitful.
    You people are my heroes – not a rugby team!

  7. Here here KIM DANDY.

    So what would happen if Volkswagen did avoid any action by our piss weak Government or the angry Volkswagen customer’s who want compensation here, when we all have signed up to this conglomeration of TPPA/TTIP (“Transatlantic trade and investment partnership”)?

    Will Volkswagen then say “we will sue you for this if you allow legal action against us”?????

    How would we know as Irene, Jane and me, and all of you have never even seen the TPPA?

    Or TTIP but Groser will be sure to be gone when the shit hits the fan wont he?

    “ALL CARE & NO RESPONSIBILTY” – EH the creeps!!

    https://www.quora.com/If-Volkswagen-is-found-guilty-of-the-accusations-made-by-the-U-S-Environmental-Protection-Agency-EPA-and-has-to-pay-a-fine-of-18-billion-dollars-for-violating-emission-standards-what-is-the-aftermath-that-can-be-expected

    (latest press release; Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn – today 22/9/15 admits the accusations are true & apologises for placing software in vehicles to cheat EPA Standards.)

    (hiding Volkswagen are producing potentially up to 40 times more than the amount of nitrogen oxide permitted.)

    http://www.capitalradiomalawi.com/index.php/component/k2/item/5056-vw-apologises-for-emissions-blunder

    “Volkswagen’s chief executive has said sorry after US regulators found some of its cars disguised pollution levels.” Source – BBC

    Volkswagen is found guilty of the accusations made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and has to pay a fine of 18 billion dollars for violating emission standards, what is the aftermath that can be expected?

    On September 18th, 2015 the EPA publicly announced that VW is currently undergoing investigation for supposedly having sold 482,000 diesel engine vehicles equipped with illegal emission control software. This software controls emissions during lab testing so that the vehicles can pass with flying colours but deactivates the control system during real-world driving, producing potentially up to 40 times more than the amount of nitrogen oxide permitted.

    If found guilty, under federal law VW may have to pay a fine of up to 37,500 dollars per vehicle, amounting to a total of 18 billion dollars which will be the largest fine ever in U.S. history against a car manufacturer.

    How probable do you think it is that this will occur, and if it does, what kind of impact can be expected for the Volkswagen group in not only the United States, but worldwide? Does a fine of 37,500 dollars per vehicle seem excessive or adequate to you?

    Sources:
    Page on autonews.com
    cnbc.comVolkswagen told to recall nearly 500K vehicles

    Monday, 21 September 2015 09:31

    VW apologises for emissions blunder
    Written by BBC World News

    The German carmaker was ordered to recall half a million cars on Friday The German carmaker was ordered to recall half a million cars on Friday

    Volkswagen’s chief executive has said sorry after US regulators found some of its cars disguised pollution levels.

    “I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,” Martin Winterkorn said.

    He has launched an investigation into the device that allowed VW cars to emit less during tests than they would while driving normally.

    The company’s shares were down 18% in early trading.

    The German carmaker was ordered to recall half a million cars on Friday.

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found the “defeat device” in diesel cars including the Audi A3, VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models.

    In addition to paying for the recall, VW faces fines that could add up to billions of dollars. There may also be criminal charges for VW executives.

    The EPA said that the fine for each vehicle that did not comply with federal clean air rules would be up to $37,500.

    With 482,000 cars sold since 2008 involved in the allegations, it means the fines could reach $18 billion.

    That would be a considerable amount, even for the company that recently overtook Toyota to be the world’s top-selling vehicle maker in the first six months of the year. Its stock market value is about $75 billion.

    The company has stopped selling the relevant diesel models in the US, where diesel cars account for about a quarter of sales.

  8. Key is putting us out to pasture for the vultures to devour and he will also make a profit. He is not NZ’s friend and just listen to his smarmy and elitist demeanor in parliament. He is insulting and degrading to anyone who challenges his smiling assassin ways.
    Watch the price of meds go sky high as they deny this as well.
    Elitist smiling assassins are not to be trusted and it is not just about the US pulling his strings. This goes much deeper and the tppa pressure comes from many corners of the 1%’s world.

    https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/category/tpp/

    http://www.flushthetpp.org/tpp-corporate-insiders/

    https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=tppa+and+ralph+nader&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=q-kAVuTCNqPpmQWOroO4DQ

  9. A conspiracy theorist could say that a cabal of hedge-fund managers, bankers and such have designed TPPA to entrap those afflicted by Lyme disease (which is sprayed in chemtrails amongst other stuff) and profit hugely.
    Snowden’s revelations on the NSA’s evil information gathering demonstrate that the illegal harvesting of intellectual property is not only possible but probable; again, we are helpless little people getting our brains tapped and this equates to getting our pockets tapped.
    No way TPPA.

    • How about……if we arbitrarily sell your house/housing portfolio, confiscate your business or dismiss you without warning from your place of employment ….and finally ….deport you to Surtsey Island off the coast of Iceland….(pop :0 ) ,( landmass : 1.6 km ).

      Sound harsh ? …. well buddy ….THAT is EXACTLY what you advocate when you support the TTPA … only it doesn’t just affect one individual – but all 4.2 million of us.

      Get lost.

      • Democracy is an imperfect system for sure. You get a vote every so often and put someone into power for a term.

        Having put them into power they can enact laws and negotiate trade deals. Both of which are often way too complicated for the average punter to comprehend.

        What you’re doing is trying to re-litigate the last election. You lost: Get over it!

    • Rubbish andrewo just a waste of meaningless words.

      Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize winning economist told the TPPA negotiator’s in January 2015 “what you negotiate here involves the lives of people and ….we are talking about thousands & thousands of people who will die and thousands of people who will have a different quality of life as a result of what you decide”. For us in Aotearoa/NZ it would; 1/ let foreign investors challenge our laws. 2/ make medicines more expensive. 3/ stop sticker GMO labelling. 4/ over ride Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 5/ undercut our moves to protect our environment. 6/prevent new limits on mining, drilling & fracking. 7/ fuel financial crisis. 8/ lock in asset sales. 9/ stop buying kiwi made policies. 10/reduce internet freedom. 11/ prevent shopping for new markets for our exports. 12/control our labour laws. 13/ Control our civil rights. 14/ force a standardised low wage economy upon us all is never seen before. – and much much more. ‘ And we have not seen the whole text of the agreement yet so why should we sign this toxic agreement that no other generation in NZ history has ever been forced to be controlled like this before???? Refuse to sign Government for all our sakes.

    • Democracy doesn’t happen behind closed doors….

      But trade negotiations do, and always have.

      Nonsense, Andrew. You’re simply parroting the National Party line.

      Of course negotiators know what the trade negotiations are about. Otherwise they’d have nothing to negotiate.

  10. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize winning economist told the TPPA negotiator’s in January 2015 “what you negotiate here involves the lives of people and ….we are talking about thousands & thousands of people who will die and thousands of people who will have a different quality of life as a result of what you decide”. For us in Aotearoa/NZ it would;

    1/ let foreign investors challenge our laws.

    2/ make medicines more expensive.

    3/ stop sticker GMO labelling.

    4/ over ride Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

    5/ undercut our moves to protect our environment. 6/prevent new limits on mining, drilling & fracking.

    7/ fuel financial crisis. 8/ lock in asset sales.

    9/ stop buying kiwi made policies.

    10/reduce internet freedom.

    11/ prevent shopping for new markets for our exports.

    12/control our labour laws.

    13/ Control our civil rights.

    14/ force a standardised low wage economy upon us all is never seen before. – and much much more. ‘ And we have not seen the whole text of the agreement yet so why should we sign this toxic agreement that no other generation in NZ history has ever been forced to be controlled like this before????

    Refuse to sign Government for all our sakes.

  11. BIG thanks to Prof Kelsey for taking the time to write this . I can only imagine how busy she is at the moment .

    She is the NZ’er Of The Year for me that’s for sure!

  12. While the ambitions of John Key or Tim Groser may seem to be the main drivers of NZ’s push to get the TPPA signed, for me that famous Thatcherism “there is no alternative” is just as powerful. Those who built the edifice of Neoliberalism have somehow constructed a monster which has been accepted so totally by some sectors of society that they cannot conceive of a universe without it. To this way of thinking opposition to the TPPA is madness.

    To the rest of us the insanity of the TPPA is clear and even Key & Groser must understand the possible consequences. But these people are in thrall to an ideology and when it is one that coincidentally seems to increase their status and influence among the wealthy and powerful you begin to understand how wilful blindness sets in.

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