Posts
On
this darkest of dark days in New Zealand’s history I cannot express
my feelings better than this piece
Economic
& Political Sovereignty robbed as TPPA signed
Martyn
Bradbury
6
October, 2015
The
economic and political sovereignty of NZ has been sold for a few
apples to Mexico and a couple of bottles of milk to America.
The
sleepy hobbits of NZ have been as easily conned over the TPPA as they
have over mass surveillance. The braindead nature of the mainstream
media have not challenged this process and we have been forced into
the American Empire with our new corporate overlords now calling the
shots over our domestic law making ability.
This
is a sad day for NZ democracy in what has been 7 years under National
that have had sad day after sad day.
Voting
in NZ elections is now genuinely a moot point as it is now only token
autonomy we gain, not real democracy.
Key
has betrayed us for a sweet job offer post his Prime Ministership, we
will not be able to pass health law (sugar tax or smoking
restrictions) or cultural law (minimum NZ content requirements on our
TV or Radio stations) along with a raft of other laws.
We
are being told that this is great for NZ – no it is not. the entire
thing is a National Security leash for America to stop Chinese
influence in the pacific and the rights being secured are for
American hegemonic power, this was never a free trade deal.
This
has been the greatest erosion of our economic and political
sovereignty in the history of NZ.
It
is time to rage against this machine.
How
bad is the TPPA? Read this now!
Martyn
Bradbury
6
October, 2015
How
bad is the TPPA?
Really,
really, really bad. Watch this now
WikiLeaks
– The US strategy to create a new global legal and economic system:
TPP, TTIP, TISA
We
have been conned into agreeing to this madness. This is a
geopolitical war it isn’t a bloody trade agreement and our media
have utterly ignored this dimension to the TPPA.
This
isn’t a gold standard deal, it’s a gold plated deal. Groser
and Key have come back after selling our cow at the free market with
3 magic TPPA beans.
The
winners here are corporations and the people have lost.
As
Gordon Campbell brilliantly puts it, If
the TPP was the Rugby World Cup, the New Zealand team probably
wouldn’t be making it out of pool play...
If the TPP was the Rugby World Cup, the New Zealand team probably wouldn’t be making it out of pool play. While the final details will not emerge for a month, the TPP is offering disappointing returns for New Zealand… and over a very long phase-in period… of up to 25 years in major areas important to us, even though many of the concessions we have made would take immediate effect. Typically, Prime Minister John Key has already been spinning the “93% tariff free” outcome across the TPP region, as if that situation was entirely due to the TPP deal. To get that figure, Key is adding all pre-existing tariff reductions and adding them to the TPP. To take a relevant example… 80% of US trade with other TPP members is already duty free.
Yes, the TPP has helped to knock a few points off the tariffs facing our exporters. Yet some of those alleged dollar gains may well have been made regardless over time – and without the negative baggage of the concessions in the non-trade areas (intellectual property, copyright extensions, investor-state dispute mechanisms etc) that the TPP deal also brings in its wake. The annual dollar returns being trumpeted by TPP advocates should be being treated with a few handfuls of salt. It will be a further month before the details are translated and legalled (and while corporations and the parliaments of member countries are fully briefed) before the contents are finally opened up to public scrutiny. Over the period from now until 2030, even the rosier projections for New Zealand see the TPP adding only about 1% per annum to this country’s GDP.
In the meantime, we have got the general gist. On our biggest export commodity – dairy milk powder – we have achieved almost zero extra advantage in the Japanese, US or Canadian markets. As Trade Minister Tim Groser confirmed on RNZ this morning, there will be a 25 year phase-in for the whole milk powder access we’ve “won” to the US market. Any small market opening by Canada – and this has been mainly in liquid milk and yoghurt – will almost certainly accrue to US dairy producers. Over the final phase of the dairy negotiations we actually lost ground – as the US buckled to the pressure from its own dairy producers, and as Canada failed to bail out the Americans by making any significant changes to its own system of dairy supply management.
If
our new corporate overlords can challenge any domestic law under TPPA
– is voting now a pointless token autonomy? We have lost the very
political and economic sovereignty that we waged wars to keep.
This
is how the TPPA has been negotiated…
…and
no amount of wall to wall proTPPA propaganda on the mainstream media
this morning can dent the reality of what we’ve allowed Key to sign
away here.
Mass
surveillance, the killing off of critical media, inequality,
beneficiary bashing, privatisation of social services, union
weakening, corporate welfare and the ability of foreign
corporations to dictate our domestic law – this is the reality of 3
terms of a National Party painted as moderate by the media.
The
middle classes are no longer sleepy hobbits, they are
hobbits a coma from which there is no waking thanks to the
property bubble. They will accept anything as long as their illusion
of wealth continues to grow.
We
have been betrayed and sold down the river by this Government.
From
Ev Gilbert.
The general picture is of a flock of sheep who allow the fascist government they've voted for sell their country from underneath them and then allow themselves be told it wasn't a bad idea.
Open
Letter To National Voters: You Wanted This Deal, Now Live With It.
Ev
Gilbert
6
October, 2015
Dear
National voters,
Look
at this bunch, long and hard. They are wearing their elite gang
colors and when the TPPA activates you are going to start wishing for
the days of the biker gangs. Them’s sweethearts compared to this
lot.
You
will long for the days that all you had to complain about was them
bennies nicking your money, them Maoris just wanting more, a couple
of youngsters tagging your wooden fence in you prissy little suburbs,
with your shiny new houses, bought with money printed out of nowhere,
for which you are still paying extortionist interests, while you lose
your jobs as the economy gets looted by John Key and his banking
mates through this shiny new trade deal. You’ve been given beads
and blankets for your land and your real world wealth.
When
the homeless hordes start roaming, a stolen farm bike or a sheep are
the least of your worries.
There
will be no law and order to protect you from the gangsters you voted
in. There will be no rhyme or reason when John Key’s transnational
masters swoop in and start looting what is left of this country.
There will be no refuge when mixed transnational armies bought and
paid for by your new masters come to subdue resistance.
When
your nearest and dearest start dying of hunger, lack of medicines or
heating they will have the loud party next door celebrating they can
nick your land and other assets for cents on the dollar. When your
friends and family start dying of the cancers their poisons spread
and the fish disappear because Fukushima finally reaches your shores
you will know an anguish you would not wish on your worst enemies.
When
your village drowns in toxins from fracking they’ll be circling to
take the drags while your children die and your cattle can no longer
feed of the land.
When
their bosses call, they will send your kids into their godforsaken
wars and if you think you can call on the “treaty” to protect you
they will laugh and it will sound like a pack of hellish hyenas.
And
then you will know that hell has come to earth, not for them little
black people in them deserts over there with that “dangerous”
religion but for you, the good, honest, hardworking, white middle
classes and you will know what it means to have no options, no matter
how hard you work. You will know what it means to be a tenant on the
land you once owned. You will know what it means to be driven off,
used and abused, and left for dead while you try to make sense of
what just happened.
Hitler
was voted in but trust me, even he will begin to look good when this
lot get going! But don’t worry, John Key says it’s going to be
OK. Nothing to see here, move along, go back to sleep.
Welcome
to the New World Order! You wanted it. Now live with it.
Ecconomist, Rod Oram deals with the purported "benefits" acruing from having sold our sovereignty
Ecconomist, Rod Oram deals with the purported "benefits" acruing from having sold our sovereignty
National
government betrays NZers in TPPA deal
Prof
Jane Kelsey
This
deal is a travesty of democracy’, said Professor Jane Kelsey about
the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in
Atlanta, USA.
‘The
government has ignored, insulted and lied to its citizens.’
‘Minister
Groser has misled New Zealanders. He always knew he was on a hiding
to nothing on dairy. I have predicted many times that he would not do
as he said and walk away from a lousy deal, but would make claim that
there were some intangible future gains from being in the club.
That’s exactly what’s happened’.
‘Professor
Kelsey urged New Zealanders to ask a simple question: “who gave the
Prime Minister and Trade Minister the right to sacrifice our rights
to affordable medicine, to regulate foreign investment, to decide our
own copyright laws, to set up new SOEs, and whatever else they have
agreed to in this secret deal and present it to us as a fait
accompli?’’.’
She
points out the last major sticking point was monopoly rights for Big
Pharma over life saving medicines, showing the TPPA is anything but a
‘free trade’ deal.
‘The
compromise language on biologic medicines agreed between the US and
Australia is apparently so vague the US can and will insist that its
intepretation prevails. Giving Big Pharma another three years
monopoly over the data, on top of other changes to patents and more
leverage over decisions, will undermine the “fundamentals” of
Pharmac and blow out the medicines bill.’
‘While
Australia was fighting US demands on medicines, our government seemed
to be lost in action and obsessed with selling more dairy,’
remarked Professor Kelsey.
‘Not
only is a “dairy for medicines” deal unconscionable – it is a
total sellout. That’s even before we factor in the handcuffs on
future governments in investment, SOEs, financial services,
government procurement, and so much more.’
‘I
suspect any new dairy access is largely smoke and mirrors, with
quotas on carefully selected products and subject to safeguards
should increased New Zealand imports impact on America’s domestic
agriculture. The problem is we can’t see the details to assess
that’.
Under
the US Fast Track law, President Obama needs to give 90 days notice
to Congress before he can sign, and release the text 30 days into
that period.
‘The
government is bound to spin the benefits like crazy, knowing that we
won’t get to see the real deal for another month. The Minister
needs to release the full details immediately.’
Meanwhile,
members of the US Congress and the corporate lobbyists who are
‘cleared advisers’ will get to see the deal. Professor Kelsey
predicts ‘they will be all over it, and seeking to remove what they
still don’t like and add their demands. That will be the first of
many opportunities to rewrite the deal as the US moves into an
election year. The immediate responses from the US show it will be a
dog fight in Congress with almost all the Democrat members opposing
the deal and Republicans abandoning Obama in droves.’
‘This
is far from over yet. There are three months before the TPPA can be
signed. The government’s “trust us” promises were a sham and
New Zealanders have been sold down the river. It is time for
Opposition parties and ordinary New Zealaanders to force the
government to step away, and make it clear to National that failing
to do so will carry the ultimate electoral penalty.
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