Federal election 2016: Greens won’t barter over trade deals

The Greens won’t move to reopen our trade deals with China, Japan and South Korea if they win the balance of power.

The Greens will not move to ­reopen Australia’s trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea if they win a balance-of-power position after the elect­ion, despite opposing them in the last parliament.

In an interview with The Australian, Greens leader Richard Di ­Nat­ale said, “that’s not on our policy agenda’’, but the Greens would continue to oppose the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that has been signed by Australia but not ratified by parliament.

Senator Di Natale said the Greens remained opposed to ­investor-state dispute mechan­isms, which were included in the deals. These allow multinational corporations to take government policies to court in international tribunals.

“We think they are a very dangerous tool and shouldn’t be included in free-trade agreements,’’ he said.

The Greens were scathing of the China free-trade agreement, with trade spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson issuing a dissenting Senate report on the deal and declaring it “lopsided’’ and having “serious problems’’.

Senator Di Natale has also defended the Greens policy of building six submarines instead of 12 in Adelaide, questioning whether the dozen subs will ultimately be built.

He said the billions that would be spent on the extra submarines should be redirected to renewable energy, which could create tens of thousand of jobs, including building a solar thermal plant in Port Augusta.

He defended his address to the Lowy Institute last month that called for a re-examination of the US-Australia defence alliance. He said a “genuine relationship’’ was not one “where you follow your major partner into every single conflict since World War II’’.

He said Australia had been ­involved in actively committing troops to combat, “not in the name of defence but in the name of ­foreign incursions, because we are an ally to the US’’.

With the polls pointing to the possibility of a hung parliament, Senator Di Natale said “voters should expect that we will want to see our policies implemented’’.

He said any power-sharing ­alliance after the election would be decided by his MPs and the Greens party, and there were different ­options, including demanding a ministry through to an agreement on confidence and supply, and “issue by issue”.

While Bill Shorten has ruled out a negotiation with the Greens, Senator Di Natale has repeatedly said he believes Labor would negotiate in the event of a hung parliament. “I certainly won’t be putting any preconditions on any negotiation,’’ he said, but the issues that the Greens were campaigning on would be key elements of any negotiation.

“There is no question that strong action on climate change, change to the way we treat refugees, unfair tax breaks, inequality and the renewable energy economy … are key campaign themes and they’ll be the key part of any negotiation.’’