How New Zealanders can win a referendum on the (CP)TPPA treaty
The time has finally arrived when New Zealanders can nudge our Parliament towards giving us a vote on whether or not to join the (CP)TPP(A) treaty.
Although you won’t hear about it in the corporate media, it is nevertheless the case that Parliament is currently considering how to proceed on the controversial treaty. One option available is to set up a national referendum on whether to join the treaty, such as many New Zealanders have been requesting for years.
Here’s how the opportunity for a referendum has arisen.
Yesterday, Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee presented their report to the New Zealand House of Representatives on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) Amendment Bill that, if passed in its current form, would allow the TPPA to pass into NZ law.
Of interest to concerned New Zealanders, it is in the coming week or so prior to the Committee stage that any MP is able to lodge a Supplementary Order Paper proposing an amendment to the Bill. In particular, an amendment can be proposed that requires a national referendum on the TPPA to be held as a prerequisite for passing the treaty-enabling Bill into legislation.
If such an amendment is proposed then it will be debated and then Parliament will hold a vote on whether or not a national referendum is required in New Zealand before the TPPA treaty can pass into law.
If the proposed amendment passes the vote then New Zealanders will finally get our referendum on the TPPA!
New Zealanders are therefore presented with a window of opportunity — extending over the next week or so — where we can usefully contact our MPs to request a national referendum on the TPPA treaty.
It’s democracy in action!
For those who wish to participate in asking for a referendum, it can be as simple as sending an email, or a tweet, or making a phone call, to your local MP and/or other MPs who may be likely to act in support of the referendum.
For your information, contact details for all of our MPs are here, and here is an alphabetical list of all MPs, with email addresses (.pdf)
All MPs can be reached by phone at: 04 817 9999.
The following MPs might be particularly valuable to contact.
Golriz Ghahraman; Green Party Spokesperson for Trade
email: golriz.ghahraman@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Ms Ghahraman, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please propose a referendum on the TPPA’)
Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister; Leader Labour Party
email: Jacinda.Ardern@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Prime Minister, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please drop the TPPA, and if not then please support a referendum’)
“We’ve inherited a dog. The ISDS clauses are not in New Zealand’s best interests.”
— Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Radio NZ, 6 November 2017;
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister; Leader NZ First Party
email: Winston.Peters@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Deputy Prime Minister, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please drop the TPPA, and if not then please support a referendum’)
“the expansion of [Investor-State tribunals such as in the TPPA] threatens to undermine the justice systems in our various countries and fundamentally shift the balance of power between investors, states and other affected parties in a manner that undermines fair resolution of legal disputes.”
“WE THEREFORE CALL UPON all governments engaged in the TPP negotiations to follow Australia’s [then] example by rejecting the Investor-State dispute mechanism and reasserting the integrity of our domestic legal processes.”
Hon Andrew Little, Minister of Justice; Labour Party
email: Andrew.Little@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Minister, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
“…the requirement to allow other TPPA countries, their citizens (including corporates) to have a say on changes to many New Zealand laws and regulations… is unheard of. Every citizen is entitled to know their parliament is responsible only to them, not subject to the direction and influence of outside forces.
As a social democratic party, we have always stood for effective parliamentary democracy. That means a system that is accountable only to those who elect its representatives and which serves all citizens, not the privileged and the elite.
There can be no trade-off between citizens’ democratic rights and economic interests. We don’t put a price on our democratic system, and it is not for sale.
This marks the TPPA out as being different to any other free trade agreement I know. I do not support the TPPA in this form.”
Marama Davidson; Co-Leader Green Party
email: Marama.Davidson@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Ms Davidson, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
James Shaw; Co-Leader Green Party
email: James.Shaw@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Mr Shaw, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
Hon Simon Bridges; Leader National Party
email: Simon.Bridges@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Mr Bridges, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
David Seymour; Leader ACT Party
email: David.Seymour@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Mr Seymour, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
Hon David Parker, Minister of Trade; Labour Party
email: David.Parker@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Minister, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
Hon Kelvin Davis, Deputy Leader Labour Party
email: Kelvin.Davis@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Minister, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
Fletcher Tabuteau; Deputy Leader NZ First Party
email: Fletcher.Tabuteau@parliament.govt.nz (Dear Mr Tabuteau, …)
phone: 04 817 9999
(‘Please support a referendum on the TPPA’)
[END]
My articles on the TPPA:
UPDATED on 2019–01–22: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, and now Vietnam, have recently fallen under a TPP Federal Government — 7 November 2018
To the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand: please call a national referendum on the CPTPP treaty — 25 October 2018
New Zealand’s democracy hangs by a thread as Parliament’s consideration of TPPA treaty enters its final day — 24 October 2018
We have one hour! Or New Zealand will be overthrown by a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Super-Government — 23 October 2018
We have 5 hours to save New Zealand from overthrow by a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) super-Government; here’s how — 23 October 2018
How New Zealanders can win a referendum on the (CP)TPPA treaty — 9 October 2018
CPTPP Treaty with ISDS now an Existential Threat to New Zealand — 18 August 2018
Superb upcoming anti-TPPA events in New Zealand — 25 January 2016
BREAKING: release of full text of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) fuels concern over potential loss of sovereignty for TPPA member countries — 5 November 2015
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