Jane Kelsey To Deliver Public Lecture On PACER

Public Lecture: PACER A Tool To Recolonise The Pacific - Jane Kelsey

Prof. Jane Kelsey will present a public lecture at AUT University's School of Art and Design, focusing on recent developments in the negotiation of free trade agreements in the Pacific.

In her 2001 reports for the Pacific Network on Globalisation, Big Brothers Behaving Badly and A People’s Guide to PACER, Jane Kelsey outlined what the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands Countries might mean for Pacific peoples. Australia and NZ are now pushing for Pacific leaders at the Forum Leaders’ meeting in Cairns in August to agree to negotiations for a free trade agreement known as PACER-plus. Jane Kelsey’s talk will examine the geopolitical, social and economic implications of a ‘trade’ treaty that is the latest tool for recolonising the Pacific.

Prof. Jane Kelsey is one of New Zealand’s best-known critical commentators on issues of globalisation, structural adjustment and decolonisation. She is an active member of a number of international coalitions of academics, trade unionists, NGOs and social movements working for social justice. She has written numerous books and articles on the neoliberal restructuring of New Zealand since 1984, including the best-selling ‘The New Zealand Experiment. A World Model for Structural Adjustment?’. Her latest book on globalisation, ‘Serving Whose Interests? The Political Economy of Trade in Services Agreements’, was published in 2008.

Jane Kelsey will be welcomed by Tina Engels-Schwarzpaul (School of Art and Design), Isabella Rasch (Pacific Media Centre), and Wayne Hope (School of Communications). I'u Tuagalu, Pasifika Academic Lecturer, will provide a response to Prof. Kelsey’s presentation. The lecture is open to the public.

Venue and Time:
WE240, Art and Design Building, Gate 4 (off Lorne Street)
Thursday, May 21, 5-6pm
The lecture is co-hosted by AUT University’s School of Art and Design, the Pacific Media Centre, and the School of Communication.

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