Malcolm Turnbull in joint push with Japan to save Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has hit back at Bill Shorten, saying he was a disgrace to the legacy of former Labor leaders Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.
National
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THE Prime Minister has hit back at Bill Shorten’s comments about his push to keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership alive, calling the Opposition leader a “shallow populist” and a disgrace to the legacy of former Labor leaders Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.
And when asked today whether he was concerned about Coalition members jumping ship to One Nation after a Queensland state MP defected on Friday, Mr Turnbull also simply said “no”.
Speaking in Toowoomba about the Government’s commitments to jobs today, the Prime Minister also rejected criticism from Nationals MP Barry O’Sullivan that he was too slow to act after revelations about Sussan Ley’s travel expenses.
“Bill Shorten is a shallow populist,” Mr Turnbull told reporters.
“He is a disgrace to the legacy of economic reform that his predecessors as leaders of the Labor Party demonstrated, Hawke and Keating in particular.
“Now, there are arguments being made for greater protectionism in other economies, but my job as Prime Minister of Australia, and frankly Mr Shorten’s job for someone who wants to be Prime Minister of Australia, is to promote policies that deliver jobs, better-paid jobs for hard-working Australian families here in Australia.”
Mr Turnbull said there was precedent for Mr Trump changing his mind on the TPP, previous American presidents had spoken out against free trade deals during campaigns and then supported them in office including Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
In response to Mr O’Sullivan’s criticism, he said changes to the entitlements system he announced last week following Ms Ley’s resignation were “the most far-reaching reforms” to politicians expenses in a generation.
“The Australian people pay our bills and they have every right to be satisfied that when we spend money on travel expenses or accommodation, we’re doing so as a legitimate business expense,” he said.
Mr Turnbull’s comments came after Bill Shorten attacked the Prime Minister over his summer of “scandal and stuff up”.
The Labor leader said he would start the year as he meant to go on.
Taking aim at the Centrelink debacle and MPs’ entitlements revelations at a press conference in Queensland, Mr Shorten said Labor would be highlighting jobs as the party’s number one issue for 2017.
“I am fired up and refreshed and I am starting the way I intend to play the whole of this year, talking about Australian jobs,” Mr Shorten told reporters.
“I have to say as Malcolm Turnbull, my opposite number, returns from his leave, he has suffered a summer of scandal and stuff-up.
“I watched with disbelief some of the mess which occurred in Centrelink, where people were being pursued for debts that they simply didn’t owe.
“We saw the expenses scandal, with Sussan Ley, which actually affects and decreases Australians’ confidence in all politics and we see the pension cuts being experienced by hundreds of thousands of Australian pensioners.
“My focus this year is on standing up for Australian jobs.
“My opposite number’s focus is just fighting for his own job.”
.@BillShortenMP says Australians are sick and tired of politicians they perceive to be serving their own interests #auspol pic.twitter.com/trE1x6mWMw
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) January 16, 2017
Mr Shorten also took aim at Mr Turnbull’s intention to make a last-ditch effort to save the Trans Pacific Partnership in the face of Donald Trump’s vow to tear up the agreement.
The Prime Minister will call for a vote to ratify Australia’s commitment to the trade deal soon after Parliament resumes, The Australian reports.
Mr Turnbull met with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the weekend, where the two leaders reportedly committed to pursuing the deal despite Mr Trump’s opposition.
Mr Shorten declined to say whether Labor would support Mr Turnbull’s bid to ratify the TPP but took aim at the Prime Minister’s focus on the deal.
.@BillShortenMP says @TurnbullMalcolm is wasting his time on a dead trade deal in the #TPP. More: https://t.co/93jHIGe6um pic.twitter.com/S4W4F2MSVJ
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) January 16, 2017
“When you talk about the TPP, it takes two to dance,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Queensland.
“The Americans aren’t even up for the dance,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s push to ratify the deal is believed to be part of a joint plan with Japan to lobby the 11 other signatory nations and the US Congress to also ratify their commitment.
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, the US and Vietnam are all signatories to the TPP deal, which outgoing US President Barack Obama supported.
It’s believed Australia could pursue trade deals with Mexico, Peru and Canada, the only TPP signatories it does not have agreements with, if the trade deal collapses, The Australian reports.
TRUMP WARNED: RAISING TARIFFS A DISASTER
America’s top trade official said it would be a “regressive manoeuvre” if US president-elect Donald Trump executed a vow to slap tariffs on other nations. Michael Froman, US President Barack Obama’s trade representative who led America’s failed attempt to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Congress, said US workers and farmers would suffer if a trade war broke out and other countries retaliated with tariffs.
Trump’s transition team has reportedly discussed a 10 per cent tariff on imports in an attempt to stimulate US manufacturing and the president-elect has threatened via Twitter to impose a “big border tax” on companies expanding outside the US.
“Raising tariffs is a particularly regressive maneouver,” Froman told CNN on Sunday.
“It has the biggest effect on the lowest income Americans — the people who can least afford it — because low income Americans spend a bigger portion of their income on tradeable goods like clothing, footwear, food.” Froman also said if the Trump administration pressured companies to close their factories in other nations and build their products in the US other countries could also retaliate by imitating the policy.
Trump has promised to kill America’s participation in the proposed 12-nation TPP on Friday — the day of his inauguration.
Australia, Japan and other nations in the TPP were still holding out hope Trump would re-visit the proposal.
Trump said he was only in favour of signing trade deals that favoured the US. Despite Trump successfully using an anti-TPP stance to rally voter support, Froman said polls showed the large majority of Americans support free trade and agricultural states like Iowa that voted for the billionaire would benefit from the TPP.
The trade official said there was a “disconnect”, but the answer for the US was not to close its markets.
“It is not to withdraw from leadership,” Froman said.
“It certainly isn’t to hand the leadership over to China and live under a system of rules China designed.”
— with AAP
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