TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP - APATHY IN AUSTRALIA WILL RUIN US ALL!

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) issue is one that will come back to haunt Australia and Australians who so far have shown an apathy in relation to this urgent matter which is breathtaking in its ignorance.

When one contemplates the Australian prime minister travelling to "enter" the world stage and when in a certain North American country he calls that country Canadia, and later crosses the border to the currently most powerful country in the world and denies climate change and all the disasters coming with it, we have to understand, with horror, the implications of this "head of government" being in charge of  Australia being ruled by the US government's TPP proponents, we are in for  a rough ride.

We have a great deal of information gathered on our web pages and you can read it in 5 parts starting at:

Trans-Pacific Partnership Part 1

Many thanks to the SUM OF US group for their actions and update.


Almost two weeks ago we took the fight against the Trans Pacific-Partnership (TPP) right to the doorstep of our democratic representatives in Canberra. We delivered a little less than 150,000 SumOfUs' members signatures calling for the TPP to be made public.

But not only were SumOfUs members and signers raising their voices against the secrecy of the trade deals. Other partner groups Avaaz and GetUp also brought members’ signatures totalling a staggering 1.8 million Australians demanding that the TPP be made public. The press and those present also heard from industries which will be negatively affected by the trade deals, MPs who oppose the TPP and members of communities whose rights are under attack as a result of these.

The need to open democracy has never been more urgent. The little we know about the TPP is dangerous enough:

• It will give corporations the power to sue governments for diminishing their profits in a secret court known as the Investor State Dispute Settlement.
• Longer patent allowances which will increase the price of generic pharmaceuticals.
• A systematic erosion of worker’s rights and human rights as corporations gain more power to exploit people and resources unregulated and unchecked by democratic governments.
• Limiting internet and journalistic freedom, which will diminish our ability to stop corporations from abusing power.

In short, the TPP is the handover of our democracies to corporations and their unstoppable pursuit of profit, at the expense of people.

If the details of the trade talks are made public, we will be able to keep fighting to make sure corporate power is out of our democracies with the determination of our members at the forefront.
Thank you for standing against the secrecy of the TPP.

Thank you for all that you do,

Paul, Hannah, Ledys and the rest of us at SumOfUs.