Shorten calls for Productivity Commission to model TPP

Bill Shorten says Labor will back the trans-Pacific partnership trade deal if it’s good for Australia.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten says Labor will back the trans-Pacific partnership trade deal if it’s good for Australia, but is demanding the Productivity Commission conduct an independent analysis of the deal first.

Mr Shorten’s comments came after Treasurer Scott Morrison dismissed Labor’s calls for modelling, saying the opposition would need to commission modelling to decide whether “to put their pants on one leg at a time.’’

Independent international modelling published in The Australian today has shown Australia stands to reap an increase of up to 1 per cent of GDP from the deal, struck between 11 Pacific Rim countries on Tuesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Opposition trade spokesman Jason Clare has repeatedly refused to say whether Labor will support the passage of legislation relating to the TPP, calling for modelling and citing union concerns over labour market testing as a key sticking point.

Speaking at a primary school in Sunnybank Hills, south of Brisbane, today Mr Shorten said Labor needed to see the detail before deciding if it would move to vote against the TPP in the Senate.

“If it’s good for Australian jobs, if it’s good for Australia, then we’ll back it 100 per cent,” Mr Shorten said.

“That’s why we’re calling upon the government to do full and independent modelling, that’s what the parliament is there for, to scrutinise the decisions of government to make sure they’re getting it right.”

He denied Labor had departed from its trade liberalisation roots, saying the party had backed the Korean and Chinese trade deals after detailed modelling was completed.

“I make no apologies, I’ll stand up for Australian jobs,” he said. “We’ve seen all around the world that when developed countries have done trade agreements, sometimes they lead to the hollowing out of our own manufacturing sector and losing Australian jobs.”

“I don’t mind what the government call me, I’ll always fight for Aussie jobs. Having said that, in recent times, under my leadership, we supported the Korean free trade agreement, we supported the Japan free trade agreement, and after we won significant concessions, we supported the China free trade agreement. Our track record is fine.”

Mr Shorten also hit back at Mr Morrison’s comment that Labor would need modelling to decide how to dress themselves.

“I don’t know if he wants to be on comedy TV, but I wish he’d start acting like the Treasurer,” Mr Shorten said.

“The fact of the matter is, for us, asking for evidence, asking for proof of a significant economic development, that’s the right thing to do.

“If he wants to cover up a dodgy deal, that’s up to him. Asking for independent modelling, full modelling of the benefits and the disadvantages of the agreement, that’s just sensible.”

Labor ‘has no economic instincts’

Mr Morrison said Labor shouldn’t need economic modelling.

“This is economic common sense. I mean you don’t need modelling to prove economic common sense,” he told Sky News. “I mean our instincts on these issues I think are very clear. Labor’s instincts are all over the shop. They don’t have economic instincts.

“Labor would think you’d need economic modelling to decide whether to put your pants on one leg at a time, and that’s because they just hate having instincts on this. They just don’t get it.

“Every time they look for an excuse and a waffle and they carry on. I mean it’s a no-brainer. We’ve been doing it for 200 years. It’s what’s made our country prosperous and will continue to. If they haven’t got it after 200 years, when will the Labor Party ever learn? You’ve got to have strong economic instincts to manage the Australian economy.”

Mr Morrison said Labor would see details of the deal in due course.

“By all means have a look at the deal, and they’ll do that, but honestly, on every occasion, they were the same on the China free trade agreement, they’ve actively resisted us on lowering the tax burden for Australian businesses,” he said.

“Bill Shorten and Labor’s economic instincts are haywire.”

.@ScottMorrisonMP: Reports suggesting the revived TPP will lead to an increase of up to 1 percent in GDP are on point. The agreement is based on common sense. #AMAgenda https://t.co/yjANQDqwqf pic.twitter.com/VjmsOtwJyW

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) January 24, 2018

Labor MP Jason Clare refuses to commit on trade deal

Mr Clare said he wanted to see more modelling and look closely at the deal itself before deciding whether Labor would support the deal.

“What I said last year, what I said yesterday, is if a different deal can be put together involving the other countries, then we’ll judge it on its merits,” he told ABC radio.

“We support trade that creates jobs. It was the Labor Party under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating that opened up the economy that created more jobs, created more businesses by cutting tariffs, and what I said yesterday is what you’d expect a prudent opposition to do, and that is: ‘show us the details’.

“We haven’t got the text of this agreement yet. We’ll get it in a couple of weeks.

“I’ve asked the government for a briefing and I’ve also made this suggestion to the Prime Minister: that we should get some independent economic modelling of the agreement so we know where the jobs will be created, how many will be created and what are the different parts of the economy that will benefit.

“I don’t think you should expect an opposition to sign up to a blank cheque. You don’t buy a car without seeing what it’s worth. We want to see the details.”

Mr Clare said Labor shared the ACTU’s concerns over labour market testing in the new TPP, and was unconvinced by Trade Minister Steven Ciobo’s assurances that there was “no dilution” of the Australian parliament’s ability to regulate our labour market under the deal.

“What I’ve said about this is that we shouldn’t be removing labour market testing as part of trade agreements,” Mr Clare said.

“At the moment if an employer wants to bring in an electrician or a carpenter or a plumber or a mechanic to Australia, first they’ve got to check if there’s an Aussie who can do that job. Now I think that’s fair enough. That’s not protectionism.

“They’ve waived that as part of the China Free Trade Agreement, the Japanese Free Trade Agreement, the Korean Free Trade Agreement.

“In all of those cases we’ve said, look, you shouldn’t have done that. We think it’s going to take a Labor government to fix that down the track.

“We’ve said a Labor government, a Bill Shorten Labor government won’t sign up to trade agreements that waive labour market testing, and we’ll go back and work with countries where the government has negotiated this away, to put it back in.”

Mr Clare said Labor had been “proven right” in saying last year that the original trans-Pacific partnership was “dead” without co-operation from US President Donald Trump.

“We said the trade agreement signed in New Zealand two years ago was dead, and we’ve been proven right,” he said.

“This time last year Malcolm Turnbull was saying he could convince Donald Trump to change his mind. He couldn’t. This is a different agreement.”