Several Coalition members have stepped-up their resistance to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, vowing to oppose giving potentially contaminated US beef access to Australia in exchange for Australians receiving increased sugar access.
Liberal Senate agricultural committee member, Bill Heffernan, has been particularly outspoken against the TPP, with The Land reporting the following:
“I’m not going to lose this battle: forget about bringing in beef from America, there’s no traceability,” he said at Senate budget estimates hearings this week.
Senator Heffernan grilled Department of Agriculture officials about potential threats to Australia’s biosecurity system and export market access, due to risks of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in US beef imports.
He claimed to possess an email trail – which included Australia’s Ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley – proving a draft of the TPP had proposed giving access to US beef in exchange for allowing Australian sugar into the US…
Senator Heffernan said he was aware some people in the Coalition government were philosophically aligned to the proposal to allow US beef, “even though politically they’re finding it a bit difficult”.
“I don’t give a rat’s who they are, they’re going to cop it,” he said…
“We only get the one opportunity at this, and let me tell you, Australia’s cattlemen will absolutely blockade parliament if we go down that path,” he said.
Heffernan’s public outburst follows last month’s warning “about unintended consequences” of the TPP, in particular the Investor State Dispute Settlement clause, which would empower multinationals to sue governments if new laws such as food safety standards harm their profits. Heffernan also asked that the TPP be released to the public so that it can be tested by people with “dirt under their fingernails”.
Meanwhile, the National’s Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has stated that biosecurity should not be compromised by economic agreements with other countries, such as the TPP. From Farm Weekly:
“We’re not going to compromise our biosecurity – it’s not some ruse – it’s a real thing and we make sure that it is unencumbered by negotiations in other fields,” he said.
“The biosecurity status of our nation should not be compromised by economic agreements and I don’t think in this case, that is the case.
“In fact I’m absolutely certain it won’t be”…
He said Senator Heffernan didn’t want BSE entering Australia on US beef exports tied into TPP negotiations and “neither do I”…
“America or any other country would not tolerate us asking them to withdraw their concerns about a biosecurity issue.
“They would tell us to go and jump in the lake and rightly so.”
As he so often does, Trade Minister Andrew Robb has labelled concerns around biosecurity as “scaremongering”, and has insisted that Australia’s laws will not be compromised:
“Let me be clear, Australia’s robust biosecurity regime is based on the best of science and it is not up for negotiation in the TPP, full stop,” Mr Robb said.
“Sadly, this is the latest round of scaremongering by people who are prepared to say or do anything to derail the negotiations and to deny Australia the benefits.”
Except that the so-called “scaremongering” has come from within your own party, Andrew.
It is worth highlighting, once again, that US Congressmen have received access to the draft TPP, as have the Malaysian parliament, whereas Australia’s parliamentarians have been kept completely in the dark.
One wonders how many other gremlins are lurking within the draft TPP text to which we are completely oblivious.
