3 December 2012

NZ must lift restrictions on access to TPP talks

The New Zealand Government needs to lift restrictions on access to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations immediately, Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.

More than twenty international experts in public health, intellectual property, investment, labour, consumer rights and other issues have been denied access to the entire Sky City Convention Centre for all 10 days except for the stakeholder day on Friday.

“The current restrictions put in place by the New Zealand Government confirm suspicions that the TPP negotiations are inherently anti-democratic,” said Dr Norman.

“These negotiations are being carried out by unelected officials yet the decisions they are making have the ability to affect the way current and future governments can make laws.

“The TPP will open up New Zealand governments, now and in the future, to litigation through the inclusion of investor state disputes clauses.

“These clauses mean New Zealand can be sued in international tribunals for making public policy decisions that may affect multi-national corporations from other countries in the TPP talks.

“The only people that win in these disputes are trade lawyers,” said Dr Norman.

“A report released last week titled ‘Profits from Injustice’ shows the dangers of these clauses to both a country’s ability to make law and the financial penalties countries face fighting legal challenges.”

Link to the profits from Injustice report:
http://corporateeurope.org/publications/profiting-from-injustice

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On The 2013 Budget

Among Thursday’s main talking points:

We are apparently on track for a margin-of-error $75 million surplus, now in sight for 2014/15. But this sickly creature is hobbling out of the lab on the basis of all kinds of facilitative conjuring: such as trimming by $200 million the amount of new spending next time around.

With this strictly nominal surplus in sight, the 1984-ish justification for eternal austerity will have a news talisman: namely, getting Crown debt down to 20% of GDP by 2020. More>>

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Auckland Discord: Govt’s Power Hungry Housing Approach A Threat - Labour

Last week the Government said this, ‘The Government commits not to use any proposed or existing powers ... to override the council's planning and consenting processes’. But its housing Bill says this; ‘If an accord cannot be reached in an area of severe housing unaffordability, the Government can intervene by establishing special housing areas and issuing consents for developers’. More>>

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Extending Protest Ban, Relaxing Permit Rules: Govt Abuses Urgency To Extend Anadarko Amendment

The Government is trying to pass legislation under urgency which would make the Anadarko Amendment – which limits protest at sea – apply to an additional 1.7 million square kilometres, the Green Party said today. More>>

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