Category: Trade

Feb 05 2015

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: the dirtiest trade deal you’ve never heard of

As someone who’s been warning for a while about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP – see my previous posts on the issue here and here), I’m pleased to see a large activist group like GetUp! come out against it.

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Feb 02 2014

Great Barren Reef: the cost of coal exports

On Friday the Abbott government approved the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredged seabed in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. That’s enough waste to fill 150,000 dump trucks. This outrage is occurring because of a planned coal export boom. Environment Minister Greg Hunt quietly approved the dredging in December while you were …

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Jan 09 2014

The Xmas attack on the climate

“Happy is the country which is more interested in sport than in politics.” – Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott You might think the big news story of the Xmas break was that Australia won the Ashes. But in the same month you were relaxing and watching the cricket, the new Liberal/National Government quietly continued attacking …

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Oct 31 2013

Continuing trade talks secrecy threatens sovereignty

In what is ironically Global Transparency Week, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has uninvited a journalist from a briefing on the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations. The agreement is expected to be signed before the end of the year and could mean a radical transfer of power from governments to …

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