Greens to introduce Bill to protect Australia from dodgy trade deals

Trade deals should not be able to include clauses that allow foreign companies to sue the Australian Government for legislative changes, known as ISDS clauses, the Australian Greens have said.

The Greens Finance and Trade spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has announced that she will introduce a Bill into the Senate that would disallow any ISDS clauses from future trade negotiations.

"The Greens will introduce a Bill to ban these insidious clauses from Australian trade deals on the first day of Parliament in 2017," the Greens' finance and trade spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.


"The Greens are not anti-trade, but we will oppose any deal that will leave regular Australians worse off.

"The major reason the TPP has fallen over is the fact that it was built by corporations, for corporations, and it completely ignored the needs of regular people.

"Allowing ISDS clauses into our trade deals is fundamentally undemocratic and will open a Pandora's Box that could have devastating effects on our nation.

"We've already seen the government sued by tobacco companies for trying to protect our children's health, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Any moves to tighten environmental protection, such as a moratorium on new coal mines, would open future governments up to legal challenge from the international fossil fuel industries who are only worried about protecting their own profits.

"The only way to protect the Australian tax payer from these predatory multinational companies is to legislate against ISDS clauses in trade deals, now and into the future.

"This is a test for Labor and the cross bench. We will be pushing for this legislation to be dealt with in the Parliament before any new trade deals are agreed to."
25 January 2017