Grey Power November 2015
The Grey Power Magazine is a prime national news source for its readers – New Zealand men and women over 50. Circulated quarterly to more than 68,000 members, Grey Power Magazine reports on the policies of the Grey Power Federation, and the concerns of the elderly, backgrounding and interpreting official decisions which affect their lives.
The Grey Power Magazine is a prime national news source for its readers – New Zealand men and women over 50. Circulated quarterly to more than 68,000 members, Grey Power Magazine reports on the policies of the Grey Power Federation, and the concerns of the elderly, backgrounding and interpreting official decisions which affect their lives.
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20<br />
NATIONAL GREYPOWER MAGAZINE » NOVEMBER <strong>2015</strong><br />
Has the TPPA broken democracy?<br />
I have spent at least 1200 hours researching, writing and<br />
lecturing about the negative health implications of the<br />
Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).<br />
BY DR ERIK MONASTERIO<br />
Medical specialist, consultant in<br />
Forensic Psychiatry, clinical director,<br />
Forensic Services, Canterbury<br />
District Health Board, and senior<br />
clinical lecturer, University of Otago,<br />
Christchurch.<br />
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Dedicated groups of senior medical<br />
specialists in New Zealand<br />
have also voiced considerable<br />
concern.<br />
Together we have energetically lobbied<br />
the Government and in particular have<br />
cautioned about the TPPA’s likely negative<br />
effects on health and sovereignty. We<br />
have consistently requested an indepen-<br />
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dent health impact assessment. Nobel<br />
Laureate economists (Joseph Stiglitz and<br />
Paul Krugman) and broad groups of national<br />
and international health and legal<br />
experts, climate scientists, international<br />
human rights experts, and civil society<br />
have expressed similar concerns.<br />
Most recently the Democratic front<br />
runner for the next US presidency, Hillary<br />
Clinton has joined the chorus of opposition;<br />
she believes the TPPA gives corporations,<br />
including the pharmaceutical<br />
industry too much power and will lead to<br />
loss of employment.<br />
Despite all of this our Government has<br />
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not once acknowledged our concerns or<br />
engaged in constructive discussion. Instead<br />
we have been labelled “politically<br />
irrelevant” and “breathless children”.<br />
Our calls for an independent health<br />
impact assessment remain and will go<br />
unanswered.<br />
The conclusion of negotiations on October<br />
6, <strong>2015</strong> has been trumpeted by our<br />
Government as a great success and the<br />
promised benefits cleverly marketed to<br />
giddy heights. Any downside to the deal<br />
has been brushed off.<br />
To our Government then the sizeable<br />
sector of concerned expert and civil<br />
groups, in New Zealand and elsewhere,<br />
are either hopelessly naïve or selfishly<br />
seeking self promotion.<br />
It is ironic that as I write this, and after<br />
investing so much time and energy, I<br />
hope that we are wrong in our analysis of<br />
the TPPA.<br />
I hope that we are wrong because the<br />
alternative is unconscionable. The alternative<br />
is that New Zealanders have been<br />
lied to and manipulated, and as a consequence<br />
our faith in the political process<br />
will be irreparably damaged. Democracy<br />
is not a toy to be roughly handled and<br />
broken if it doesn’t suit the incumbent<br />
government’s agenda.<br />
Despite what is at stake, it is extraordinary<br />
that our Government has consistently<br />
refused to release any detail of<br />
what is being negotiated, even to expert<br />
panels or select committees.<br />
As if it were a self-evident truth, we<br />
have been repeatedly told that total secrecy<br />
is the only way to conduct such negotiations.<br />
Yet the negotiating documents have<br />
been available to and shaped by 600 US<br />
corporate representatives, who no doubt<br />
have set terms that further their interests<br />
ahead of those of the New Zealand<br />
people. The legality of the NZ government’s<br />
refusal to release information on<br />
the TPPA has been questioned by The NZ<br />
High Court.<br />
It has ruled that Trade Minister Groser<br />
had no lawful basis to withhold some<br />
of the information requested under the<br />
Official Information Act and he should<br />
reconsider his decision.<br />
The Government is considering an appeal<br />
against this decision.<br />
In the meantime even though the negotiations<br />
have been completed we still<br />
have no access to the documents.<br />
We are still forced to rely on leaked<br />
documents and government released<br />
“fact sheets”. Should we not be suspicious<br />
of a deal, over which ministers have invested<br />
enormous political capital and are<br />
congratulating themselves but dare not<br />
release the full text?<br />
In contrast to our widespread concern,<br />
Tim Groser and John Key have repeatedly<br />
told New Zealanders that medications<br />
will not cost anymore and Kiwis won’t be<br />
worse off- “New Zealanders will not pay<br />
more for medicines”.<br />
They also give bland reassurance that<br />
the government won’t be sued under<br />
TPPA provisions for investor-state dispute<br />
settlement (ISDS). This provision is<br />
arguably the most controversial part of<br />
the deal. It allows for secret arbitration<br />
panels to effectively overrule national<br />
regulations by permitting foreign investors<br />
to sue governments over lost potential<br />
future profits.<br />
For example the tobacco giant Phillip<br />
Morris is suing the Australian Government<br />
over its introduction of plain packaging<br />
laws. A pharmaceutical industry<br />
giant is suing the Canadian Government<br />
for $Can500million for not extending<br />
patents on medications that were found<br />
to be ineffective. In both cases the governments<br />
decisions were upheld by those<br />
Continued on page 22
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