Senate debates

Thursday, 16 August 2012

Motions

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

11:58 am

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

I, and also on behalf of Senator Ludlam, move:

That the Senate—

  (a)   notes:

     (i)   negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) between the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Brunei and New Zealand is being conducted in secret,

     (ii)   draft texts of the agreement are selectively aired to AT&T, Verizon, Cisco, the Motion Picture Association and other industry lobbyists, but blocked from democratically-elected parliamentarians, advocacy organisations and citizens,

     (iii)   concern expressed by experts and citizens from countries participating in negotiating the TPPA regarding its potential impact on access to medicines, local content media rules, high-tech innovation and limitations placed on governments to make policies and regulations on health, safety and economic stability, and

     (iv)   reports of the latest text of the intellectual property chapter being leaked, revealing the Australian Government's intention to defeat a proposed clause protecting domestic intellectual property laws; and

  (b)   calls on the Government to:

     (i)   make the full TPPA draft texts and negotiations available to the public,

     (ii)   support the proposal of New Zealand, Chile, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam to permit a signatory to carry forward and appropriately extend into the digital environment limitations and exceptions in its domestic laws,

     (iii)   reject trade agreements that put the civil liberties, environment, public health and welfare of Australians at risk, and

     (iv)   commit to ending the exclusionary and undemocratic process of selectively including stakeholders in trade negotiations while blocking others, by making all trade negotiations public.

Question negatived.

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