Sadly, to many people this deal is not about trade, it is about transferring control of Australia’s sovereignty to the multi-nationals to determine exorbitant prices for pharmaceuticals.

It is about placing Australia’s food labelling laws under threat, enabling big business to deceive Australian consumers about whether a product is Australian made or grown, Australian owned or whether it contains genetically modified ingredients.

It is about potentially and significantly curbing our on-line freedom making Australian’s vulnerable to legal challenges for potential breaches of copy write. 

Of course, details of alleged breaches will be divulged to the multi-nationals upon a freedom of information request utilising the provision of recent “terror” data retention laws – Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015. 

Our own government will have agreed to surrender your private, personal and confidential records to multi-national foreign corporations.

The TPPA will make Australia and its states more vulnerable to legal action from multi-national corporations should an act or omission be proven to have impacted on the future profits of the multi-national corporations, such as requiring them to pay their fair share of company tax.

These disputes will be resolved via Investor-State Dispute Resolution (ISDS) at an international court paid for by the Australian taxpayer. 

I note that our federal member lauded the signing of the TPPA in relation to a host of agricultural products, but many of the markets mentioned will not allow access for some years, whereas, as usual, Australia has rolled over immediately. 

If the TPPA was so great, Australian politicians would have had no hesitation showing Australian voters the details of what exactly they had signed, but, alas, we are not to be trusted.

There are a few Australian politicians who seem to care – independent senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon, who labelled the TPPA a dud and Nationals senator for Queensland Matt Canavan has suggested he may cross the floor because of the effect the TPPA will have on Australia’s remaining Australian owned sugar businesses.

Of course, the big end of town represented by the Business Council of Australia is gleeful that Australia will be opened up for pillaging by its members and all that will be left for ordinary Australians will be cheap foreign-made products that will last a year and if those products don’t last that long you will have a phone number you can ring where you’ll be routedto a nice person in the Republic of India or the Philippines and waste half your day trying to geta resolution, and, so, we’ll just have to keep replacing that product every year because no one will insist it should last any longer. 

I often wonder about and fear or the future we will leave our kids.

Mark Rodda

Tamworth