To the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand: please call a national referendum on the CPTPP treaty
Dear Prime Minister, in the interests of New Zealand as a democracy, please call a national referendum on whether or not NZ should join the CPTPP treaty.
Yesterday at 6 pm, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) Amendment Bill was approved by our House of Representatives in Parliament.
Now it’s your decision on whether or not to forward the Bill to the Governor-General with a recommendation to sign it into law. In practice, that decides whether or not NZ commits to join the CPTPP treaty.
Before that happens, it’s certainly within your powers to ask for a national referendum so New Zealanders can finally get to vote on the controversial treaty.
In 2015 and 2016, when the treaty was still called the TPPA, town hall meetings were held up and down the country to express concerns around the treaty.
Lots of New Zealanders marched in the streets — perhaps as many as 100,000. There were no marches in support.
Then, in the 2017 General Elections, New Zealanders voted out the National Government that had supported the treaty. Your Government was voted in, comprised of parties who had all campaigned on opposing the treaty, at least as it was then drafted.
It is accepted that your Government has since negotiated changes to improve the treaty. The treaty’s name has changed to the CPTPP.
Even so, it is clear that many New Zealanders are still strongly opposed to the treaty. For instance, it was reported in Parliament yesterday that two-thirds of submissions to the recent Select Committee examination on the CPTPP were opposed to it. All of the submissions from individual New Zealanders were opposed.
It’s a part of our democracy that New Zealanders should be consulted, in national referendums, on the most important issues affecting our nation.
In 2015, New Zealand held two referendums around changing our flag. Deciding on joining this treaty is certainly a more important decision than the flag decision.
It is widely accepted that whether or not New Zealand joins the CPTPP treaty will be of profound importance to our future.
In these circumstances, please call a national referendum on whether or not NZ should join the CPTPP treaty.
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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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