Frustrated, angry, disillusioned about the resurrected TPPA? – it’s not over just yet – make a submission by 18 April (instructions enclosed)

From It’s Our Future NZ Don’t give up! It’s incredibly important to make your voice heard at the select committee, otherwise they will say people are happy with the ‘new’ deal. It’s Our Future has prepared some short templates for submissions. You can send as they are or add to and change them. They have to be sent using Parliament’s submissions webpage. THE CLOSING DATE IS 18 APRIL You can access the submissions page here Also make sure you say if you want to speak to the submission in person in the city nearest to you.   Templates for submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (aka the TPPA-11)   Option 1: I support international agreements that address the challenges of the 21st century: climate change, Treaty justice, inequality and poverty, ending corporate rule by and for the 1%, survival of the planet and all its species.   The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, in any form, does the opposite.   That is why I oppose it, and why I demand that you, as our elected representatives, provide a real future for us and our children’s children, as set out in the petition presented to Parliament on 8 March 2018.   You cannot just ignore our voices.   If you ratify this Agreement, I will join the campaign for New Zealand to withdraw at the review you have promised within three years.   Option 2: I oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, in any form. In its place, I call for a positive and progressive trade agreement that meets these 10 bottom lines: An end to secrecy, with democratic oversight at every stage of the treaty making process Unrestricted rights for government to protect the public interest, public services and the environment Unfettered rights to regulate overseas investment and investors, and no investor-state dispute settlement Honouring te Tiriti o Waitangi and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Guarantee that international obligations on human rights, labour, women, health and environment have precedence over commercial interests Positively create job opportunities through local procurement, public services, support for small businesses, and diversification of the economy Conduct independent impact assessments of the impacts of proposed agreements for the economy, jobs, health, te Tiriti and the government’s right to regulate Exclude local government from obligations under those agreements Protect the public role and responsibilities of the State Protect access to knowledge, privacy and digital rights Option 3: Labour and New Zealand First, you promised no TPPA. The CPTPP is the TPPA in drag. It was unacceptable before and it is unacceptable now.   I want you to negotiate agreements that will serve the people of this country, based on the petition presented to Parliament on 8 March 2018, not agreements that profit the 1%.   If you ratify this Agreement, I will join the campaign for New Zealand to withdraw at the review you have promised within three years.    Option 4: Our Tiriti, not your treaty. _______________________________________________________________ Ensure you have your say! Nga mhi nui Chatelle Campbell It’s Our Future Coordinator

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Five Eyes military exercise takes place under pretext of ‘Air Show’ as Jacinda Adern welcomes Obama in preparation of US joining TPPA in 2020.

From the Facebook page of Postman Investigates New Current affairs NZ Investigative News  with Ben Vidgen, Glenn Holmes, John Minto, Dave Hoppy and Dai Mitchell.

The United States Air Force has confirmed its intention to have the world-renowned F-16 Fighting Falcon Jet Demonstration Team attend Wanaka from the Misawa Air Force base in Japan. Also displaying at the Airshow will be the C-17 Globemaster Demonstration Team out of Hawaii. Both the F-16s and the C-17 will operate out of Christchurch International Airport for the duration of the Airshow. Christchurch Airport is to host the Americans on the ground as according to the airshow organisers they’re unable to land at Wanaka. The RNZAF will help out with flying members of the US contingent through to the Airshow at various times over the weekend say the show’s organisers.

The timing of the visit which can expect aircraft to fly in ahead of the show coincides with the visit of former President Barack Obama and a month ahead of Hillary Clinton’s visit organized by the US Chamber of Commerce and US Business Council, the organization heavily involved in lobbying for the TPPA and believed to be in discussion regarding the reentry of the US into the treaty following the next American election (thought Trump hinted at the re-entry of USA into TPPA at Davos in Janaury this year). Therefore potentially the aircraft may also be participating in the anticipated visit by Obama to the South Island following the sighting of private jets, used in the advanced Secret Serivce of Bill Clinton during APEC 1999, in Dunedin earlier this month.

The American aircraft will not only ensure the biggest ever line up of modern military aircraft at the Wanaka airshow but the RNZAF intends to have one of the largest turnouts of its aircraft types at the Airshow. This is in addition to other Five Eyes (the defacto military arm of the TPPA) members attending the show including the Australians who are sending a Spartan transport aircraft along with Hawk Jets while the French are coming with the CASA transport jet.

Wanaka is currently also the site of a NASA facility funded by the US military, one of several facilities to pop up or expand using equipment built by known military contractors, these include the expanded Waihopai facility in Blenheim, Rocket lab in Gisborne, a private facility however funded by the US Navy, expanded tracking facilities in Bluff, among other known or suspected sites upgraded or added to in the past few years.
Further the visit by contemporary military aircraft at this year’s air show is not the only time we have seen an influx of Five Eyes military aircraft to New Zealand.

On August 3 2017,” New Zealand Defense Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed that Singapore’s fighter jets would be participating in an upcoming military exercise between the two countries. The news came as the two sides consider options for basing these aircraft in one of the country’s largest airfields for training as part of their broader effort to further their military cooperation in the coming years”. (Ohakea will also be basing a Singapore cyber intelligence unit and comes at the time Five Eyes is using Information Dominance warfare to suppress dissenting voices on social media).

Singapore is believed to have left equipment when their intelligence, cyber intelligence and artillery trained here during Operation Rolling Thunder while the USA left helicopters and other equipment here during Operation Koru in 2015. These exercises mark an escalated presence by Five Eyes security forces since 2011 including several visits by the US marines based in Hawaii. Our sources suggest this includes building barracks for the Marines (at this stage able to house 300 soldiers) in Waiouru for permanent “winter training”.
In January 2017, Singapore and New Zealand officials discussed stepping up cooperation through various ways. One of these opportunities had been for Singapore to set up a pilot training base at Ohakea Air Base, New Zealand’s third largest airfield, recently subject to a $2 billion dollar upgrade, as the land-scarce city state continues to look for other partners that can provide room for it to train its armed forces.

In February 2017 two Singapore F-15s were at the Ohakea Air Base for celebrations commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. And in June, when New Zealand’s air force chief Tony Davies paid a visit to Singapore, he viewed a static display of the F-15 fighter aircraft at Paya Lebar Air Base.

On August 3, Mitchell, the defense minister, announced that a Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) training exercise hosted by the Royal New Zealand Air Force would take place at Ohakea Air Force base from 30 August to 25 September. Jacinda Adern and Winston Peters who have both confirmed their commitment to both the TPPA and the Five Eyes security alliance have yet to suggest this proposal or the 20 billion earmarked under national will be scrapped under their administration.

This month Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her ministers were working to get an exemption for New Zealand from the US’ imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminium. This supports the Postman’s claims last month that the current trade war and aluminum tariffs would be used by the USA to reinstate it self in the TPPA and have the currently suspended TPPA provision reinstated. The Tiwai smelter employs over 3000* people and is the backbone of Southland economy which generates over 20% pf the country’s gross domestic product.

Adern told reporters New Zealand had a strong case for an exemption because of its “long defense and security relationship with the United States stating New Zealand was clearly not an intended target of the tariffs, given its steel exports to the US were small. Ardern stated New Zealand’s relationship was similar to Australia’s in many ways and Australia had been given the exemption. Both New Zealand and Australia are ‘five eyes’ intelligence partners with the US.

*Tiwai’s website cites 800 employees

Sign the TPPA-11 Petition – Aotearoa is STILL not for sale

We request the House of Representatives to urge the Government to reject the resurrected Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

We request the House of Representatives to urge the Government to reject the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership, and that the House 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.

READ MORE & SIGN AT THE LINK:

https://dontdoit.nz/

What you need to know about the ‘new’ & still secret TPPA that isn’t new & doesn’t bode well for Maori, or anybody else really except of course the corporations

Ah… this is good for you but we can’t tell you how good because it’s all been negotiated in secret and we aren’t allowed to tell you what it says but trust us Kiwis … it’s good for you … Tui anyone?

 

Posted by Jenese James

This is a trade deal NZ should NOT SIGN – The TPPA is a corporate passport to exploit the natural wealth of a nation by ‘legally’ robbing its citizens and the environment of that natural wealth

I want to point out the reason why so many politicians promise this and that before they get elected but once in power reneg on that promise – its because of the T&C of various trade deals done through membership of various organisations often in secret – to give an example …”…..Trade Minister David Parker says NZ First’s policy of taxing bottled water exports would breach various international agreements because it is discriminatory. But there is a much bigger risk that foreign investors could threaten to bring an ISDS dispute if moves to resolve water claims affect their commercial interests….”

here is another example

“…….The new government is rushing through changes to the Overseas Investment Act to restrict foreign purchases of residential housing. They admit that the law would breach the TPPA if it was passed after the agreement came into force….”

Its vital to grasp this because this is the key to understanding how policies are now made via these agreements and why voting really doesn’t make much difference once deals are done and always these deals are not done in public view but behind closed doors in secret as this trade deal reveals it – the secrecy behind it is tantamount to a betrayal of the people because it will allow corporations to steal the wealth of the people of the nation for private profit,

example … “…….The separation of cutting rights from the land was a device used by the Labour government in 1988 to allow corporatisation of the forests and separation of the land from the trees so the forests could be privatised…..”  …. this was the Roger Douglas’ cabinet.

Another example …  “…Labour and NZ First want to restore the right of NZ, and Maori, ownership of the forests. They have to change the foreign investment law before the TPPA comes into force because they can’t do so afterwards…..”…

so when you protest you are protesting against a much bigger force than you realize – politicians’ hands are tied once deals are signed.

Read it all below

This is about the TTPA and Te Tiriti o Waitangi..

Written By Jane Kelsey

The state of play with TPPA

Ø The original Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement was signed by the 12 negotiating parties in Auckland on 4 February 2016, in the face of a massive protest led by tangata whenua.

Ø Japan and NZ completed their domestic processes to ratify (adopt) the original agreement during 2016.

Ø In January 2017 US President Trump withdrew the US’s participation from the TPPA.

Ø The 11 remaining countries met 7 times in 2017 to rescue the TPPA minus the US.

Each country tabled a list of provisions in the TPPA that it wanted removed or suspended.

Apparently, NZ under the National government did table a list of requests, but that remains secret.

The new Labour-NZ First government, supported by Greens, only had input into these negotiations at the very end.

Labour asked other TPPA countries to suspend the right of foreign investors to sue the NZ government in offshore tribunals over new laws and policies (investor-state dispute settlement/ISDS), but it failed.

Labour did not seek to make other changes or even suspend other provisions of concern to Maori.

Ø In December 2017 in Vietnam, the TPPA-11 agreed to suspend 20 items from the original text, pending the US’s re-entry; 4 matters remained to be finalized.

Ø In January 2018 in Tokyo the TPPA 11 announced a new deal, one year to the day from Trump’s withdrawal.

Ø Canada insisted that it needed changes to protect its culture sector. Reports say it also achieved changes on automobiles, although that was not on the list. These were done through side letters that remain secret.

Ø The TPPA-11 will contain the entire old agreement. 22 of the 1000+ original provisions have been suspended, pending US re-entry, but they have not been removed.

Ø The TPPA has been rebranded the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP or TPPA-11) even though the substance is the same as the old TPPA.

Ø They intend to sign the TPPA-11 agreement in Chile on 8 March 2018.

Ø The text of what they agreed remains secret. Japanese officials say the text will not be released until after it has been signed. The National Opposition, which ran the secretive negotiations, wants the text released.

Ø In January 2018 President Trump said he would consider re-entering the TPPA, but the terms would have to be more favourable to the US than the original agreement.

Ø The process for US re-entry will require consensus. Labour says some suspended items may never be re-activated. But the US domestic political processes mean any US re-entry will inevitably require more benefits to the US, not less.

Ø The TPPA-11 will reportedly come into force after 6 of the 11 parties have ratified it by completing their domestic processes. Again, the actual text of this provision has not been released.

The new government and the TPPA

Ø Labour, New Zealand First and the Greens all wrote dissents to the majority select committee report on the TPPA and said they would not support its ratification.

Ø Labour said the economic modelling was flawed and there must be a robust cost-benefit analysis that includes impacts on jobs and on distribution, as well as a health impact assessment. Neither report has been done for the TPPA-11.

Ø Labour now claims the new TPPA-11 meets Labour’s 5 pre-conditions for change, but it does not: it provides market access for exporters (but it has no new economic analysis of net costs and benefits); it protects the Pharmac model for buying medicines (but the provisions are suspended not removed); the Treaty of Waitangi, the sovereign right to regulate and restrictions on foreign ownership of property are all protected (which they are not, see below).

Ø Winston Peters says the TPPA-11 is a very different deal from the one NZ First opposed and they will now support it. That is not true. The ISDS provisions and core protections for foreign investors that NZ First so staunchly opposed remain the same and have not even been suspended.

Ø New Zealand’s ratification of the TPPA-11 requires another round of submissions to the parliamentary select committee on which National has 4 of the 8 members, including the chair and deputy chair.

Ø If legislation is needed to implement the agreement, National has said it will vote with Labour and NZ First. The Greens remain opposed.

Ø So the parliamentary process is a foregone conclusion.

The Treaty of Waitangi Exception

The Treaty of Waitangi exception in the TPPA is a copy of one that was drafted in 2000 for the Singapore free trade agreement (FTA).

The same exception has been rolled over in agreements since then, without any consultation with Māori, even though today’s agreements impose much greater restrictions on what governments can do.

Prime Minister Ardern says NZ ‘has an exemption that says it is always able to legislate and act to protect its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi and that can’t be challenged by other nations’. That is not true.

Ø The Waitangi Tribunal in the TPPA claim (Wai 2522) said the Treaty exception ‘may not encompass the full extent of the Treaty relationship’ because it only covers Crown actions that give preferences to Māori, not laws or policies that apply generally but are at least partly for Treaty compliance (water, mining, fisheries).

Ø The PM said the Tribunal found the ‘exemption provides protections for the Treaty’. That is also not true. The Tribunal found no breach of Treaty principles because the exception was ‘likely’ to offer a ‘reasonable degree’ of protection for Māori. But it did not accept the Crown’s claim that ‘nothing in the TPPA will prevent the Crown from meeting its Treaty obligations to Māori’.

Ø The Tribunal was not convinced that the exception protects Crown actions from a dispute by a foreign investor, for example on water or mining.

Ø The Wai 2522 claimants made proposals for more effective protection. These have been ignored. There has been no consultation on any stronger protection.

Ø The wording of the exception hasn’t changed in other negotiations since the TPPA. Officials say that they can’t change the wording because they tell other countries they must have this wording because it’s in all NZ’s agreements. New wording would open the text for negotiation.

Ø But New Zealand got additional new wording on UPOV 1991 at the last minute in the TPPA (see below), so it’s not true the Crown can’t demand and win different wording.

Ø Labour seems to be accepting the Crown’s advice and accepting an ‘imperfect’ Treaty protection as a trade-off for other commercial benefits it sees in these deals.

The Waitangi Tribunal claim is ongoing

Ø The Waitangi Tribunal granted urgency to the TPPA (Wai-2522) claim, but limited its scope to whether the wording in the Treaty exception provided effective protection for Māori interests. It didn’t address other parts of the claim (eg water, mining, health).

Ø The Tribunal’s time for preparing its report was cut back because the National government pushed through the legislation to implement the TPPA; once the Bill was introduced the Tribunal had no jurisdiction.

Ø The Tribunal found there was a reasonable level of active protection in the Treaty exception, but suggested there should be consultation on better protection, and it kept oversight of the UPOV 1991 issue (below).

Ø The Crown wants the Tribunal process terminated. The claimants point to a lack of good faith consultation over TPPA-11 negotiations since the Tribunal’s report and issues not addressed in the urgent hearing remain.

Ø On 30 January 2018 the Tribunal asked the parties (basically the Crown) to say by mid-February (a) when the text of the new agreement would be available, (b) what its effect would be on the Crown’s engagement with Maori on the Plant Varieties regime and adopting UPOV 1991, (c) what issues in the TPPA claim remain live, and (d) ‘when would be the appropriate time for the Tribunal to commence inquiry into the remaining substantive claims that have been filed with respect of the TPPA?

WAI 262 and the UPOV 1991 convention

Ø The TPPA required NZ to adopt the UPOV 1991 Convention that creates rights to claim intellectual property rights on plant varieties, which Wai 262 report and the Cabinet have recognized is inconsistent with te Tiriti.

Ø Legal arguments from the Wai-2522 claimants showed the Treaty exception would not protect a Crown decision not to adopt UPOV 1991, because the decision only applies to a ‘preference’ to Maori. Not adopting UPOV 1991 is not a preference to Maori.

Ø The Crown convinced the other TPPA countries to adopt an annex that allows NZ to either adopt UPOV 1991 or pass a domestic law equivalent to UPOV 1991 that complies with te Tiriti. But it has to do one or the other within 3 years of the TPPA coming into force.

Ø That obligation hasn’t changed in the TPPA-11. National and Labour didn’t try to have it suspended.

Ø The Waitangi Tribunal has retained oversight of this matter and is actively monitoring it.

Ø The claimants say MBIE’s consultation process is unacceptable and have set in train their own process for expert advice and consultation.

Foreign investors’ rights

Ø The TPPA (and earlier NZ agreements) allows foreign investors from the countries involved to challenge laws, policies and decisions of a NZ government in controversial ad hoc offshore investment tribunals (known as investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS). An ISDS tribunal can award massive damages against a government for breaching special protections the agreements give to foreign investors.
PM Ardern has called ISDS a ‘dog’.

Ø The new government tried to protect NZ from ISDS in the TPPA-11, but failed.

Ø Australia signed a side-letter with NZ not to allow their investors to use ISDS against each other. But that side-letter was in the original TPPA and in other agreements. It’s not new to Labour.

Ø The new government says some other countries will sign a similar side letter, but won’t say who. Unless all the other ten countries sign side-letters, they don’t protect NZ from the risk of ISDS disputes.

Ø A provision that allowed investors to use ISDS to enforce infrastructure contracts has been suspended (not removed); but that is marginal and doesn’t change the TPPA’s special protections to foreign investors or the ISDS process through which they can enforce them.

Ø The Treaty of Waitangi exception is unlikely to protect NZ from an ISDS case over new laws to promote compliance with te Titiri.

Ø The Waitangi Tribunal noted ‘uncertainty about the extent to which ISDS may have a chilling effect on the Crown’s willingness or ability to meet particular Treaty obligations in the future or to adopt or pursue otherwise Treaty-consistent measures.’(p.50

Ø The government points to other protections for public policy measures, but those protections don’t apply to the main rules that investors rely on in ISDS disputes.

Ø The new government has instructed officials to oppose ISDS in future agreements, which is a positive move. But that doesn’t mean it will walk away if other parties insist on it. Officials are likely to advise that any new market access for agriculture is an acceptable trade-off.

Water

Ø Trade Minister David Parker says NZ First’s policy of taxing bottled water exports would breach various international agreements because it is discriminatory. But there is a much bigger risk that foreign investors could threaten to bring an ISDS dispute if moves to resolve water claims affect their commercial interests.

Ø NZ has protected the right to adopt discriminatory measures in the TPPA-11 ‘with respect to water, including the allocation, collection, treatment and distribution of drinking water’. But it says: ‘This reservation does not apply to the wholesale trade and retail of bottled mineral, aerated and natural water.’

Ø That reservation of the right to regulate on water does not apply to the main rules that investors rely on when they bring ISDS disputes against governments.

Ø The Treaty of Waitangi exception would not stop investors challenging such measures.

Ø There is a serious risk that the government would back away from a proposed solution to Māori rights over water if MFAT or an investor from a TPPA country, says the solution would breach NZ’s obligations.

Land and forestry

Ø The new government is rushing through changes to the Overseas Investment Act to restrict foreign purchases of residential housing. They admit that the law would breach the TPPA if it was passed after the agreement came into force.

Ø In January 2018 the government also sought consultation with Maori over proposals to redefine sensitive land under the Overseas Investment Act to include forestry cutting rights.

Ø The separation of cutting rights from the land was a device used by the Labour government in 1988 to allow corporatisation of the forests and separation of the land from the trees so the forests could be privatised.

Ø Labour and NZ First want to restore the right of NZ, and Maori, ownership of the forests. They have to change the foreign investment law before the TPPA comes into force, because they can’t do so afterwards.

Ø The TPPA only allows the government to keep the categories that are subject to foreign investment vetting which exists when the TPPA comes into force.

Ø The TPPA text says the vetting applies to ‘sensitive land’. If the government wants to implement its election policy, it has to rush through these changes to the law.

Ø But if the TPPA enters into force the government won’t be able to change the investment law to address other failed treaty settlements, such as fisheries quotas, or policies like carbon credits for forests.

Ø Even if changes are made to allow restrictions on future foreign investors, any existing investors from TPPA countries could still bring an ISDS dispute claiming their rights have been breached by the new laws because they can’t get as much for selling their assets as they had expected.

‘Consultation’ and tino rangatiratanga

Claimants in Te Paparahi o te Raki (Wai 1040) have challenged the Crown’s right to negotiate international treaties without the full and equal participation of nga iwi me nga hapu.

Ø The original TPPA was negotiated in total secrecy, aside from leaks. So were the meetings after the US withdrew. National was not interested in genuine consultation with anyone, let alone recognising te tino rangatiratanga o nga iwi me nga hapu. The same secrecy continues under the new government.

Ø The Waitangi Tribunal advised the Crown to consult with Māori to make the Treaty of Waitangi exception stronger. That hasn’t happened.

Labour has kept the same exception. Labour held meetings in various cities in early December and January. But this is not a good faith dialogue: they say the TPPA-11 is the best deal they can get, no further changes can be made, and they are prepared to sign it. The ‘consultation’ can’t change anything. That’s not a Treaty partnership.

The new government says it wants to develop a ‘new and inclusive trade agenda’ that makes trade and investment work for Māori, small business, women, and address climate change, environment and regional development.

That sounds positive. But the examples it gives are clip-ons to existing agreements that don’t address, let alone override, the problems the agreements create. And they are usually unenforceable.

Labour and NZ First’s positions on TPPA and te Tiriti show that it’s businesses as usual for the Crown.

They will try to shut down the Waitangi Tribunal process, while they run consultations around the motu (eg Wellington, 12 February) to promote an agreement the majority of parliamentary parties say they will support.

Other processes to advance Titiri-based continue over UPOV 1991.

Public meetings will be held in February in

Auckland on 12th,
Wellington on 14th,
Nelson on 20th,
Christchurch on 21st
and Dunedin on 22nd.

The arguments being used to promote the agreement don’t stack up for Maori or for Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The parties that make up new government promised change. If they are going to deliver, their positions on TPPA have to change.

Professor Jane Kelsey, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland, 1 February 2018
Prof Jane Kelsey
Faculty of Law
The University of Auckland
New Zealand
J.kelsey@auckland.ac.nz

 

Come along and hear experts Professor Jane Kelsey, Dr Burcu Kilic, and Laila Harre speak in Auckland and Wellington, and Professor Jane Kelsey plus other speakers in Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin about what the TPPA-11 will mean for New Zealand.

 

Click HERE for further details of the meetings

The re-branded TPPA-11 with little changed is set to be signed in Chile on March 8th! See details of PUBLIC MEETINGS coming up

From It’s Our Future:

The TPPA-11 has had a rebranding to the CPTPPA (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) – yet there is very little that is comprehensive or progressive about it, and very little has changed from the original TPPA.

The 11 nations that are party to the agreement will be meeting in Chile to sign the TPPA-11 on 8th March.

Come along and hear experts Professor Jane Kelsey, Dr Burcu Kilic, and Laila Harre speak in Auckland and Wellington, and Professor Jane Kelsey plus other speakers in Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin about what the TPPA-11 will mean for New Zealand.

Event Details

Auckland:  

Monday 12 Feb, 6.30pm, Ellen Melville Centre, corner of High St and Freyberg Place, Auckland CBD
https://www.facebook.com/events/865008510327414/

Wellington: 

Tuesday 14 Feb, 6.30pm, Wesley Church, 75 Taranaki St, Wellington

https://www.facebook.com/events/1578636985577465/

Nelson: 

Tuesday 20 Feb, 7pm, Masonic Lodge, 107 Nile Street, Nelson
https://www.facebook.com/events/1387701038008990/

Christchurch:  

Wednesday 21 Feb, Knox Chruch, 28 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch
https://www.facebook.com/events/405312726576602/

Dunedin: 

Thursday, 22 Feb, Knox Chruch, 449 George St, Dunedin
https://www.facebook.com/events/987240044767300/

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE TPPA-11

 

TPPA: NZ’s Treaty obligations protected with an exemption? the PM has been ‘very badly advised’ says Prof Jane Kelsey

Video From Bryan Bruce’s TV Channel

Comment: PM Adern says: “The TPP has an exemption for NZ that says NZ is always able to legislate and act in order to preserve our obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi and that can’t be challenged by other nations”.

My personal understanding is that it is corporations not nations that will challenge anything and everything they want, and we are now all aware I’m sure of how corporations basically have nations by their short and curlies. Cold comfort really. When can we ever trust a corporation? Like never? Watch The Corporation movie & see, they tell bold faced lies and their only obligation is literally to their shareholders & nobody else. Consider this, why have all their negotiations for the TPPA been conducted in SECRET? Like all the corporate council meetings these days. They’re doing/talking stuff they don’t want you to know about. Not rocket science.  EnvirowatchRangitikei

A clip from yesterday’s filming of a crowd-funded documentary on Free Trade we are making in which Law Professor Jane Kelsey comments on a Facebook video by Prime Minister Ardern in which she assures New Zealanders that the Treaty Of Waitangi is protected from in the TPP-11 (CPTPP) Kelsey says ” the Prime Minister has been very badly advised” and Maori have much to be concerned about in this trade agreement.

Important notice re TPPA ‘consultation’ meetings by MFAT

If you want to slide something under the public radar, do it just before Christmas, a time worn tactic. Important info here on meetings being conducted around NZ on TPPA which by my recollection was a no go for the new government/corporation that let’s face it isn’t really new… please share this info from It’s Our Future       EnvirowatchRangitikei

Our Government and MFAT may think that trying to keep Auckland’s meeting under wraps, and only visiting a small amount of cities is transparent consultation, we don’t. Kia ora koutou This week David Parker and New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) are leading a series of meetings around the country to discuss the TPPA. The meetings  kicked off in Dunedin last night, Auckland tonight, Tauranga tomorrow and Hamilton on Thursday see here for more details. In collaboration with The Daily Blog, It’s Our Future is able to livestream tonight’s Auckland meeting. The meeting starts at 6pm and runs through until 7.30pm. The Daily Blog will be hosting the livestream which you will be able to find here. Please share the link out through your networks. Our Government and MFAT may think that trying to keep Auckland’s meeting under wraps, and only visiting a small amount of cities is transparent consultation, we don’t. But we think a livestream of the meeting adds a bit more transparency to the process. Nga mihi nui Chantelle Campbell It’s Our Future Co-coordinator

The TPPA is dead!

Here is It’s Our Future’s latest update on the TPPA and it’s very good news! Please share this … EnvirowatchRangitikei

The TPPA is dead After years of campaigning the TPPA is finally dead. In the aftermath of the United States election, President-elect Trump has made it clear that he intends to withdraw from the agreement on his first day in office.  Republicans and Democrats in the US House of Representatives and Congress have also stated that they will not try to push the agreement through before Trump is inaugurated on 20 January 2016. Although there was some half-hearted talk of the TPPA going ahead without US involvement at the APEC summit in Peru, there is no realistic chance of this happening.  First, as Professor Jane Kelsey has pointed out, for the TPPA to go ahead without the US would require the consent of all parties involved, including the US itself.  Any arrangement between the remaining countries would have to be renegotiated as an entirely new agreement. Secondly, the chances of this happening are close to zero as many of the TPPA countries were engaged in the negotiations in the hope of gaining increased access to the US market for their goods and services.  The Japanese Prime Minister has since written off a TPPA without the United States as “meaningless“. The death of the TPPA is a victory for the campaigners and activists who have fought the agreement in all of the potentially affected countries.  While it is Donald Trump who will formally kill the agreement in January next year, the TPPA was on its last legs long before Trump was elected.  It was the efforts of grassroots campaignersthat delayed back the negotiations so that they fell within the US election cycle, and who made the agreement a political liability for both the US political parties and for the politicians pushing the negotiations elsewhere.  In New Zealand, the civil society campaign against the TPPA has been enormous and in February this year saw the biggest protests the country has seen in many years.  In doing this we were part of the international movement that ultimately stopped the agreement in its tracks.  Thank you all for your efforts. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Amendment Bill  Despite Trump’s strong anti-TPPA position, the National-led government insisted on pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Amendment Bill through Parliament during the media black-out that followed the US election.  This has understandably caused alarm for some, but fortunately there is nothing to worry about. Although the TPPA implementing legislation was passed by the New Zealand Parliament, it cannot and will not come into effect unless the TPPA “comes into force for New Zealand” – see s 2 of the Bill here. The TPPA will not come into force unless ratified by countries representing 85% of the GDP covered by the agreement.  This cannot happen with the US, whose GDP vastly exceeds 15% of the GDP of TPPA countries.  For more detail, check out the excellent analysis of the implementing legislation by Professor Geddis of the Otago University law school. The National Party’s stubbornness in passing implementing legislation for a dead agreement was a wasteful exercise in futility on the Government’s part, as pointed out by new Green Party MP and former It’s Our Future Coordinator Barry Coates. What next after the TPPA? Although the TPPA is gone, there are other international agreements to be concerned about. The most immediate possible threat to the New Zealand public is the Trade in Services Agreement (“TiSA”), a proposed agreement to create restrictions on the regulation of international trade in services, particularly banking, health care and transport.  This agreement, like the TPPA, is being negotiated in secret.  There are 23 parties to the TiSA agreement, most significantly the US, the EU, and Japan.  It was rumoured that TiSA was due to be completed at a meeting of the member countries’ finance ministers in early December.  This meeting has been cancelled, however, because of both disagreement between the US and EU on certain key issues, and because it is unclear what stance the Trump administration will take on the agreement.  For now, at least, TiSA is looking shaky. A further concern is the recent announcement that New Zealand and China will renegotiate their free trade agreement.  At this stage there are few details available about the scope of the new negotiations.  We will monitor this very closely and keep you updated, particularly if there is any hint that some of the more toxic elements of the TPPA (such as ISDS) are on the table. Finally, with the TPPA dead there is some speculation that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations (involving China and India) may become more significant. This remains to be seen. As with the US-NZ FTA and TiSA, will keep you up to date with any RCEP developments through this bulletin or on the It’s Our Future facebook page. Thank you again for your campaigning against the TPPA.  The end of the agreement is a victory for the people over corporate interests, and we should celebrate. It is, however, bitter-sweet that the end of the TPPA may be associated for some with the rise of a xenophobic and bigoted populist to the presidency of the United States.  In resisting the TPPA, we have stood against corporate power and its influence on the political process. We have also stood against the neo-liberal globalisation that has grown inequality within and between nations just as activists in the 90s and early 2000s fought against the WTO and the toxic policies of the IMF and World Bank. Rejecting these things does not mean rejecting a diverse and inclusive society, nor is it no excuse for bigotry or xenophobia. We are fortunate in New Zealand to have seen very little of this in the campaign against the TPPA and I hope there will be none in the future.While the TPPA is over, there are and will continue to be other similar agreements to monitor and to resist.  As well as being part of a coordinated international campaign, your efforts part of the tradition of resistance to unfair trade agreements and corporate power that stopped the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1997 and the Doha Round of the WTO in the years that followed.  This struggle will continue and we all have to remain on our toes. Kia kaha koutou, Stephen Parry It’s Our Future Coordinator Itsourfuturenz@gmail.com www.itsourfuture.org.nz

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TPPA “Key government regards the Treaty as an inconvenience rather than as the founding document of our nation…” Prof Jane Kelsey

Bryan Bruce, one of my favourites, an award winning documentary maker and best selling author,  updates us on Prof Jane Kelsey’s comments on TPPA ‘progress’ as it relates to Aotearoa’s founding document the Tiriti o Waitangi – visit his website, “Knowledge is Power” for further articles.
EnvirowatchRangitikei

Te Tiriti o Waitangi – The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840

That Incovenient Treaty Thing Again

Bryan Bruce

Professor Jane Kelsey says that the reason why the government suddenly announced it is fast-tracking the report date for the select committee considering the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) from the end of May to 4 May is now clear.

In a press statement released today she states:

“It gives the Waitangi Tribunal three rather than seven weeks to produce its urgent report on the claim brought by prominent Maori that the Agreement violates the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi”….

 

There’s no need for the Waitangi Tribunal to be rushed into making its decision.

As Professor Kelsey points out :

” The earliest the US Congress will consider implementing legislation is during the lame duck period after the presidential election in November.”

This shortened consideration process demonstrates ( if you were in any doubt) that the Key government regards the Treaty as an inconvenience rather than as the founding document of our nation.

And that is an insult to us all – because the thing that makes us unique in the world as a nation is that we are the people of the Treaty.

If we dishonour it – then who are we?

Read more: SOURCE

You can also read Jane Kelsey’s Press release here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/…/government-seeking-to-stymie-repor…

 

 

 

Warning: New Zealand Government And Big Banks In Collusion For Farm Land Grab: The Same Scam As Run In The United States And Australia

March 11 2016 | From: WakeUpKiwi / Various

We are about to see the mass sell off of NZ farms. And 95% of them will go to foreigners under the TPPA- timed to perfection of course. You are now watching the United Nations Agenda 21 / Agenda 2030 bei…. Wake up. Share this information.

What you have seen happen in Auckland in the past 15-20 years was just the start- a test bed. The evidence here is irrefutable.

Related: Fonterra Drops Forecast Milk Payout

Possibly the most painful part of this will be watching all of the big bank / corporate sponsored ‘experts’ in the filthy corrupt media & Government try and explain it all away in terms of “interest rates” and “market forces”. Farmers are enticed into taking out loans at low interest rates which are then intentionally later raised, in a blatantly criminal plan to seize land. It worked in the US. Copy and paste in Australia. And now copy and paste in New Zealand.

New Zealand company Fonterra is the worlds largest dairy exporter, exporting products to over 100 countries

The truth is, it is an agenda planned even before the inception of Fonterra, specifically for this end goal – the ‘Globalization’ of our land and all of our natural resources – using rigged (Libor) interest rates, market manipulations, fake printed debt and various other financial frauds.

READ MORE