During the rally outside Parliament at midday, a petition will be handed over by Oliver Hailes to Green Party MP Golriz
Ghahraman calling for a democratic overhaul of the process for negotiating and signing the trade, investment and
economic integration agreements. Mr Hailes is the spokesperson for It’s Our Future, New Zealand’s network of opponents
to the TPPA, which has gathered more than 5,000 signatures in support of the petition over last fortnight.
“We stand united by the demand that never again will we be kept in the dark while technocrats trade away control over
our future,” Mr Hailes said. “The petition urges Parliament to call upon the Government not to sign or ratify the TPPA;
to undertake a principles-based review of New Zealand’s approach to free trade, investment and economic integration
agreements that involves broad-based consultation; and to engage with Māori to reach agreement on effective protection
of their rights and interests consistent with te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
“The petition also calls on Parliament to pass new laws that exclude the rights of foreign investors to sue the
government, and to require independent assessments of impact on the economy, health, human rights, the environment and
climate action, and a review by the Waitangi Tribunal, prior to signing any future agreement, such as the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) presently being negotiated with countries including India and China.”
Once Ms Ghahraman receives the petition, she will deliver it to the clerk of the House who will refer it to the Foreign
Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. “We call on all the members of the select committee, in particular Labour MPs
Duncan Webb, Louisa Wall and Willie Jackson, to take seriously this petition and place it on the fast track for
discussion.”
The motion in the House will read: “That the House note the petition signed by 5,099 New Zealanders calling on the House
to reject the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on
Trans-Pacific Partnership, and revise the Standing Orders of the Parliament to ensure the process for negotiating and
signing trade and investment agreements is more democratic, independently informed, and regularly feeds information back
to the Parliament and the people.”
The petition originally was the idea of activist Greg Rzesniowiecki and was drafted with the input of academics and
constitutional lawyers.
Mr Hailes emphasised the importance of having robust treaty processes: “Earlier this week the European Court of Justice
effectively rules that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is incompatible with the autonomy of the European legal
system. New Zealand needs to wake up to the fact that signing the TPPA is a moment of constitutional change by stealth,
whereby future governments will be forced march to the beat of foreign investors rather than their democratic mandate.”
“The Government has said that it wants to reform the way these deals are reached so that they create tangible benefits
for more than the top 1% of society, and the members of It’s Our Future look forward to engaging with Parliament and the
Government on this incredibly important issue.”
ENDS