Is it time to make Australia great again? Shorten’s Trumpian turn
Politics of protection makes strange bedfellows of Labor, One Nation and Greens
Bill Shorten sounding a protectionist note speaking at a factory in Victoria, Monday:
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead in the water … I am here today because Labor intends to make, as its No 1 issue for 2017, the fight for Australian jobs. We will be talking about building Australian first, making Australian first and employing Australians first.
Shorten, continuing. Oh wait, this is Donald Trump, November 22 last year:
I am going to issue a notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a potential disaster for our country. Instead we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals.
Someone has changed his tune. The Opposition Leader in a media release, October 6, 2015:
Labor welcomes the finalisation of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Today’s news comes at the end of five years of negotiations under both Labor and Liberal governments. The TPP has significant potential benefits for Australia including improving market access for our goods and services in 12 countries accounting for 40 per cent of global GDP. The TPP could also be a stepping stone to closer economic engagement across the Asia-Pacific region.
Anyway, more from Shorten. No, sorry, this is the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young, September 20 last year:
Malcolm Turnbull should stop begging like a dog at the dinner table of the United States and instead stand up for regular Australians by opposing the TPP. This dirty deal actually has very little to do with trade. It is a corporate takeover of our democracy designed to set rules and regulations between member countries that suit the rich and powerful.
If only Hillary Clinton had won the US election the TPP might be more popular. The US Democratic presidential contender in her memoir, Hard Choices, 2014:
One of our most important tools for engaging with Vietnam was a proposed new trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would link markets throughout Asia and the Americas, lowering trade barriers while raising standards on labour, the environment and intellectual property …
Or did she? FoxNews.com, June 11 last year:
The paperback version of Hillary Clinton’s memoir Hard Choices fails to include her support of the (TPP) …
It’s not just the TPP that Shorten has an issue with. The Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 2015:
The Opposition Leader has … doubled-down on his criticism (of a free trade agreement with China) calling it a “dud deal” that would result in Chinese construction workers being brought in on major projects worth more than $150 million.
More from Shorten on the Chinese deal and TPP. Whoops, we mean Pauline Hanson, April 19, 2015:
Job security is a thing of the past. Our recent free trade agreement with China will further erode jobs, with Chinese businesses bringing in their own workers, not to mention the highly secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership which One Nation believes will see more of our industries and jobs disappear.
Hanson (not Shorten), Twitter, Monday:
Bill Shorten just came out against the #TPP. Do you think he’s been reading One Nation policies again? Because it sure seems like it.