A warning about the Trans Pacific Partnership
Most stunningly, these new rights in a public treaty could be privately enforceable. The U.S. is pushing for inclusion of “investor-state” enforcement. This little-known mechanism allows foreign firms to bypass domestic court systems and directly sue governments for cash damages
The U.S. proposal could also undermine the drug formularies of Australia, New Zealand and other countries that have successfully controlled drug costs.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a mega-treaty across nine or more countries. If the negotiations succeed they will put a straightjacket on the policies and laws our government can adopt for the next century. Corporations will gain massive new powers in Australia. Help us stop the TPPA! OCCUPY T.P.P.A PPA – A Stealth Attempt to Undermine Democracy March 7, 2012
Lori was recently in Melbourne for the TPPA talks and spoke at Occupy Friday on 2 March 2012.
It takes quite a “trade” agreement to undermine financial regulation, increase drug prices, flood us with unsafe imported food and products, ban Buy America policies aimed at recovery and redevelopment, and empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards before tribunals of corporate lawyers. Trade, in fact, is the least of the TPP.
Backdoor deregulation and imposition of new corporate investor and patent rights via “trade” negotiation began in the 1990s, with the “mission creep” of the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement. But the TPP now threatens a slow motion stealth attack against a century of progressive domestic policy, of an unprecedented scope. At stake is nothing less than a democratic society’s ability to regulate a market economy in the broad public interest…….. Continue reading
Some important details on the Trans Pacific Partnership
Article 12.8 gives rights holders the right to demand personal information about customers of Internet Service Providers – or other service providers – on a mere accusation. . This is a fundamental attack on the privacy of the citizens of all signatory countries. There is nothing to stop rights holders going on extensive fishing expeditions, searching through millions of users, looking for people to sue. This power is not granted to law enforcement without due process. Handing such powers to corporations without any requirement to show a breach has occurred is an attack upon the process of law. We have a right to not be placed under surveillance by companies based upon their word that illegal activity has occurred
Pirate Party Australia’s Presentation to Trans-Pacific Partnership Stakeholders Meeting in Melbourne March 4, 2012 Here is the speech that was presented by Pirate Party Australia President David Campbell at 11.45am at the TPPA stakeholders meeting in Melbourne. Thanks to Simon Frew (Deputy President) for authoring the speech and Mozart Palmer (Media Relations) for his contributions.
Pirate Party Australia, like many other attendees at the intellectual property section of this Agreement negotiation, first became aware of the proposed intellectual property provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement when the United States negotiating position was leaked last year.[1]
Much of the content of the leak is a wish-list for old media corporations who refuse to adapt to the Internet and instead pay massive “donations” to their government in order to push their legislative agenda against the interests of modern society. This wish-list echoes that of the intellectual property segments of the Stop Online Piracy Act – known as SOPA – and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – known as ACTA. The US TPPA provisions have been nicknamed “the son of ACTA”. The proposed solutions to online file-sharing will fundamentally change the operation of the Internet, to its detriment.
The extreme position of the leaked United States’ Intellectual Property chapter is highlighted by the unprecedented request for the negotiating texts to remain secret for four years after the agreement is signed. This secrecy is a perversion of democracy. The public would not be given a chance to oppose such a draconian attack on both the Internet and the civil liberties of citizens in all of the signatory countries. All of this to protect the corporate interests of a small sector of one industry? What about the cost to our democratic rights?……..
In Australia, we have seen the harm that tighter intellectual property restrictions can cause through the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement. The Productivity Commission, a body that investigates the economic benefit or hindrance of various Australian economic policies, warned that agreeing to intellectual property provisions in free trade agreements needs to be subjected to a rigorous cost/benefit analysis.
The Australia–US Free Trade Agreement is believed to cost the Australian economy between 88 million and 763 million dollars a year in copyright enforcement alone. This is wealth being directly transferred from Australia to the United States – there is no net benefit to Australia derived from the tighter restrictions.[2]
If the US delegation gets its way, that and more will be forced upon your people and local economy, to what benefit? We urge delegates to reject the inclusion of any intellectual property provisions in your own national interests as they WILL harm your economies. Continue reading
ASX investigation casts shadow over Toro uranium company’sAGM
18 Oct 13 At today’s AGM Toro Energy is expected to face strong criticism from shareholders over an investigation by the ASX into claims that the company has released misleading information.
The investigation follows complaints to the ASX and ASIC by the Conservation Council and a shareholder, claiming that Toro has misled shareholders and investors by inferring that a newly discovered uranium deposit is included in their existing uranium mine proposal at Wiluna.
Toro Energy has an existing application to mine uranium at Wiluna which is limited to its Lake Way and Centipede deposits. This mining proposal has received a conditional environmental approval but requires a number of other approvals from both State and Federal regulators.
Nuclear Free Campaigner, Mia Pepper explained “The new deposit mentioned in Toro’s latest release to the ASX is not part of the current Wiluna mining proposal as suggested, and will require new and separate environmental and mining approvals which will add further delays and costs to Toro’s mining plans at Wiluna.
“This is not only misleading for shareholders, but we are concerned Toro Energy is attempting to avoid proper environmental assessment for their long-term plans for a uranium precinct at Wiluna.
“Toro want the ‘best of both worlds’ by promoting an expanded project to their shareholders and investors, while withholding the details of this expansion from the community and government regulators.
“We have also written to State and Commonwealth regulators calling on them to halt further approvals for Toro’s Wiluna proposal until they are able to undertake a full cumulative impact assessment of the company’s long-term plans.”
In addition to the lack of approvals, there are a range of serious environmental and other constraints to the expansion of the already problematic Wiluna proposal.
Ms Pepper continued “The Wiluna uranium proposal as it is, is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen with plans to dump 9.1 million tonnes of radioactive mine waste in a Lake bed, and with only enough water for a third of the life of the mine.
“If Toro were to incorporate additional deposits, the proposal would be drastically different. A 100km network of small shallow uranium mines and waste dumps across two Lake Systems is very different to a single mine. The cumulative impact of these operations must be fully assessed.
People will be handing out economic reports to shareholders entering the AGM from 8.30am – 9am at the Celtic Club – 48 Ord St West Perth.
Media Comment – before and after the shareholders meeting:
Greens urge Abbott govt to come clean on Trans Pacific Partnership
Greens will move to review flawed and dangerous Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) 08 Oct 2013 | Scott Ludlam Prime Minister Abbott should immediately stop the clock on negotiations over the secret text of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which threatens to further extend the power of foreign multinational companies.
In the event that Parliament ever resumes, the Australian Greens will move for the Joint Standing Treaties Committee to urgently review what the Abbott Government is proposing to sign us up to.
“Most Australians would be horrified if they knew what Tony Abbott might be about to sign away: Australia’s health, environmental and consumer protection laws are on the chopping block,” said Senator Scott Ludlam.
“The transnational tobacco, pharmaceutical and media corporations want to grant themselves the power to sue governments for passing laws they don’t like. Draft copies of the secret trade agreement have been provided to corporate lobbyists but not ordinary citizens. The TPP is an example of massive corporate overreach, and Australians would do well to join with people in other countries objecting to this agreement.
“We understand there are still significant areas of disagreement between governments on the TPP, but that it could be signed as early as the first week of December.
“Last year the Australian Greens secured a recommendation in a Treaties Report that: “prior to commencing negotiations for a new agreement, the Government table in Parliament a document setting out its priorities and objectives including independent analysis of the anticipated costs and benefits of the agreement”.
“Making a statement setting out the costs and benefits of such a dangerous treaty instrument is the very least the Government should do. In the meantime the Greens will work to force disclosure of what this secretive Government is actually up to,” said Senator Ludlam.
The JSCOT Report http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Represe…
Joint statement from Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Greens on TPPA issued August 2012 http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/news-stories/joint-statemen…
Tony Abbott ready to sign up to secretive Trans Pacific Partnership
The TPP seeks, among other things, to rewrite the global rules on intellectual property enforcement that would give Big Media new powers to lock users out of our own content and services, provide new liabilities that might force ISPs to police our online activity, and give giant media companies even greater powers to shut down websites and remove content at will. It also encourages ISPs to block accused infringers’ Internet access, and could force ISPs to hand over our private information to big media conglomerates without appropriate privacy safeguards. You can see a more complete list of new restrictions below, but it appears that the TPP would turn all Internet users into suspected copyright criminals. In fact it appears to criminalize content sharing in general.
Abbott set to sign highly secretive TPP agreement this month http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/abbott-set-to-sign-secretive-tpp-agreement-this-month/ WHAT SORT of “Trade Agreement” manages to both criminalise internet use and force coal seam fracking onto communities?
The answer to this is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact that has the ominous potential to achieve both these corporate objectives — and many more.
Of course, we cannot know the exact effects of the TPP, as the negotiations over the past few years have been held in secret. However, two leaked chapters – out of the 26 or more under negotiation – have caused more than their fair share of concern.
TPP: The Biggest Threat to the Internet You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
One of these chapters threatens to undermine both our existing domestic and international legal systems, throwing away the protections and rights achieved over hundreds of years.
How? Through tribunals linked to a system of International Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS). The one in the TPP led to an open letter signed by prominent Australian judges, lawyers, politicians and academics insisting that the government should not sign an agreement that includes ISDS. The letter states:
‘…the increasing use of this mechanism to skirt domestic court systems and the structural problems inherent in the arbitral regime are corrosive of the rule of law and fairness.’
But ISDS is most definitely included in the proposed TPP put forward by United States negotiators. The Gillard government made it clear that Australia would not sign another trade agreement that included international dispute settlement by tribunals. This followed Australians being burnt by an agreement that has allowed Phillip-Morris to take Australia to an international tribunal over its plain packaging laws, even though our own High Court already decided against Phillip-Morris.
Other countries are experiencing equally serious consequences. Continue reading
Radio: Adelaide the hub of military industrial intelligence nuclear complex
The issue isn’t nuclear power. The issue is processing uranium for nuclear power that then can be used for defence
You have to understand this in terms of in terms of Adelaide, -it’s a military industrial intelligence complex
Simons is connected to the University College of London but basically he’s a front man for business interests, We can clearly question what he is doing given the fact that he’s getting funding from indirect corporate sources.
AUDIO: https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/nuclear-power-in-south-australia-a-golden-age/ Nuclear Power in South Australia – a golden age? Radio Adelaide 23 Aug 13 Chris Komorek spoke with Dr David Palmer from Flinders University to explore the changing landscape. Produced by Ian Newton. TRANSCRIPT by Christina Macpherson
Chris Komorek As the uranium debate heats up, so does the destroyed reactor in Fukushima, Japan.The International Energy Policy Institute at the University College London’s Adelaide campus is advocating a ramped up nuclear industry here in South Australia. We’re joined by Dr David Palmer from Flinders University.
Four Mile uranium project – Australia’s dirtiest and most dangerous uranium connection
(Christina Macpherson, originally posted on 4 Nov 2012) Leaving aside its nasty little internal squabbles, Australia’s fifth uranium mine Four Mile uranium project in South Australia is without doubt the most striking example of all that is wrong about Australia’s uranium industry. Well, next door, is Beverley mine – equally bad. But they’re practically the same, in that they are both practically owned by USA’s General Atomics. Neal Blue is the chairman of Quasar Resources, which is affiliated with General Atomics, a major United States weapons and nuclear energy corporation. He is CEO of Heathgate Resources. a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of General Atomics (GA) which owns Beverley uranium mine. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors for General Atomics
General Atomics has a murky history It develops nuclear technologies including arms manufacture. Especially those Predator drones which kill anybody that the Pentagon thinks is “suspicious” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Neal Blue was one of the designers of Predator. At its uranium processing plant on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, General Atomics for years covered up radioactive water and gas leaks.
General Atomic has spent $thousands’ lobbying and ferrying of USA politicians to Australia, , and Australian federal and state politicians to USA . In 2000 Heathgate applauded police brutality against environmentalists and local Aboriginal people. An online video clip details this brutality. the police action (in a 2000 media release which is no longer available online). After a 10-year legal case, 10 people were awarded a total of $700,000 damages.
General Atomics flew a group from the US Congress to Australia, accompanied by company executives, to persuade the Federal Government to buy the company’s Predator unmanned aircraft
As well as its interest in unmanned spy planes, General Atomics has employed human spies. In 2008 it was caught hiring a former undercover police officer turned private investigator to infiltrate Australian environment groups and report on their actions.
In 2008 General Atomics and Neal Blue were sued for fraudulently hiking uranium prices and manipulating costs. In the settlement One of General Atomics’s customers, Exelon, received $US41 million from the company. It is estimated Mr Blue made $US200 million by breaking the contracts and selling uranium on the spot market
Heathgate Resources have been promoting the view that low-level radiation is beneficial, and funding the Australian visits of people like Dr Doug Dr Boreham prepared to promote those views.
Heathgate is not required to clean up Four Mile uranium mine. and there is no requirement it decontaminate the Beverley site when mining ceases. Christina Macpherson 25 Oct 12,
Go-ahead for disputed uranium joint venture BY: BARRY FITZGERALD From: The Australian October 25, 2012 THE much-delayed Four Mile uranium project in South Australia – a joint venture between ASX-listed Alliance Resources (25 per cent) and US group Heathgate (75 per cent) – is finally being developed.
Australian company Paladin’s uranium contract with Malawi -the “worst possible swindle”

Malawi gov’t and Paladin: Act on Kayelekera uranium raw deal now! By Veronica Maele-Magombe Nyasa Times, By Veronica Maele-Magombe July 30, 2013 Since last week’s stinging observation by UnitedNations (UN) Special Raportuer on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter regarding Malawi’s Kayelekera Uranium Mine deal, two elusive culprits remain pretty much intact in their hard shells. It is as if the country’s most guarded contract between government and Australiancompany, Paladin Africa Ltd has not been unravelled as the worst possible swindle. Continue reading
Plutonium blown up at Maralinga, in secret “Vixen B” tests
Dig for secrets: the lesson of Maralinga’s Vixen B The Conversation, Liz Tynan, 26 July 13 “……….The tests of far greater consequence were the 12 Vixen B tests, only held at Maralinga These experiments used TNT to blow up simulated nuclear warheads containing a long-lasting form of plutonium.
Vixen B scattered 22.2kg of plutonium-239 around the Maralinga test site known as Taranaki. This form of plutonium has a half-life of over 24,000 years. The extreme persistence of radiation and the threat of cancer posed by inhaling small particles in dust at the site make it especially dangerous.
The Vixen B tests took place amid total secrecy in 1960, 1961 and 1963. Maralinga’s toxic legacy can be summed up in one word: plutonium. When the Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee (MARTAC) reported in 2002 on efforts to remove contamination from the area it said “Plutonium … was almost entirely the contaminant that determined the scope of the [Maralinga rehabilitation] program.”
The British carried out some clean-up operations after Vixen B and provided a report (by British physicist Noah Pearce) in 1968 that made claims about the level of plutonium contamination at the site. The Pearce report provided the technical basis for the Australian Government to release the UK from any further liability for the Maralinga site.
The technical advisory committee later confirmed that the plutonium contamination at Taranaki was wrong by a factor of 10: “A comparison between the levels reported by the UK at the time (Pearce 1968) and the field results reported by the Australian Radiation Laboratory…(Lokan 1985) demonstrates an underestimate of the plutonium contamination by about an order of magnitude.”……..” http://theconversation.com/dig-for-secrets-the-lesson-of-maralingas-vixen-b-15456
Paladin Energy – the Ugly Australian uranium mining company in Malawi
the British silently stole our uranium and left when their projections did not add up to their whims, and now we have the Aussies who are refusing to deal fairly.
Honestly I loved Crocodile Dundee the movie but this Aussie corporation turning Malawi land into some ‘plunder outback’ is making me sick
Killing Malawians through the rotten extractives deals: The case of Paladin’s uranium mining Nyasa Times, by Patrica Masinga, 24 April 13, Malawi has in the few weeks been engaged by a plethora of stakeholders discussing strategies to revive, or more on the ground, reclaim the benefits that Malawians are been milked of by the so-called extractive industry multi-national corporations.
They call themselves investors, and government believes that the Malawi Development Goals (MDGs – who cares if it’s the second phase) will be boosted, particularly that mining alone through Kayerekera of Paladin Energy Limited group of companies (trading as Paladin (Africa) Ltd in Malawi?) could provide a large economic base.
But that is all a fat lie. Paladin and many other foreign multinational mining countries are least interested to contributing to the Malawi economic growth. They are here to milk the country – exploiting all that it has rich in minerals and dump us when the time is right even poorer.
Imagine, to screw Malawians of their rightful economic gains, the company, incorporated in Australia first listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on March 29, 1994 under code ‘PDN’, and quickly changed its name from Paladin Resources NL to Paladin Resources Ltd in 2000 and listed under the Toronto Stock Exchnage (TSX) in Canada April 29, 2005, and again changed its name to Paladin Energy Ltd in November 2007 and listed on the Namibian Stock Exchnage on February 2008.
By such trends, one is compelled to question the motive, considering also that in Namibia itself the company owns the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine where it started production in 2008 and has Kayerekera Uranium Mine as its second largest mining venture in this part of Africa acting also as a good supllment to the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine. Continue reading
Christopher Boyce speaks out on USA interference in Australian politics.
Freedom, Flight and The Falcon WikiLeaks Party , 13 July 13 WikiLeaks Party member Gary Lord (@Jaraparilla) interviews Christopher Boyce, whose experiences as a US whistle-blower were documented in the 1985 Sean Penn movie “The Falcon and The Snowman.”…….In 1974, Boyce found himself working in the secretive “Black Vault” communications center of a US aerospace firm, where he had free access to allegedly “misrouted” Central Intelligence Agency cables. And like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden some 40 years later, he became increasingly angry at his government’s covert actions around the world.
What particularly incensed Boyce, however, were CIA discussions about removing Australia’s Prime Minister from power, along with CIA infiltration of Australian workers unions. At the time, Gough Whitlam was proposing the withdrawal of Australian troops from the Vietnam War and the closure of US military bases including Pine Gap. But Australia was nevertheless a loyal US ally, whom Boyce believed deserved to be treated with more respect. Continue reading
Edward Snowden reveals Australia’s role in USA’s spying web
Snowden reveals Australia’s links to US spy web Hume Weekly, By Philip Dorling July 8, 2013, United States intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has provided his first disclosure of Australian involvement in US global surveillance, identifying four facilities in the country that contribute to a key American intelligence collection program.
Classified US National Security Agency maps leaked by Mr Snowden and published by US journalist Glenn Greenwald in the Brazilian O Globo newspaper reveal the locations of dozens of US and allied signals intelligence
collection sites that contribute to interception of telecommunications and internet traffic worldwide.
The US Australian Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs and three Australian Signals Directorate facilities: the Shoal Bay Receiving Station near Darwin, the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Facility at Geraldton and the naval communications station HMAS Harman outside Canberra are among contributors to the NSA’s collection program codenamed X-Keyscore.
The New Zealand Government Security Communications Bureau facility at Waihopai near Blenheim also contributes to the program.
X-Keyscore reportedly processes all signals before they are shunted off to various “production lines” that deal with specific issues and the exploitation of different data types for analysis – variously code-named Nucleon (voice), Pinwale (video), Mainway (call records) and Marina (internet records). US intelligence expert William Arkin describes X-Keyscore as a “national Intelligence collection mission system”. Continue reading
Uranium miner Paladin among many suspected Australian tax cheats
Advocacy group ActionAid claims poor countries are losing more than $130 billion in tax revenues a year by giving generous tax breaks to big companies, including Australian miners. There are about 240 Australian mining companies with operations in Africa.
Perth-based uranium miner Paladin Energy, came under scrutiny for its tax arrangements in Malawi where it runs a mine in Karonga. A report by the group Norwegian Church Aid alleges there are discrepancies between Paladin’s reported tax and its tax paid. It also alleges other payments by Paladin in Malawi are lower than the company reports.
Paladin has subsidiaries registered in Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands, both tax havens. Last year’s annual report showed the company accumulated losses that mean it will need to make profits totalling $208 million in Australia before paying any tax.
Tax man takes scalpel to energy and resources firms http://www.theage.com.au/national/tax-man-takes-scalpel-to-energy-and-resources-firms-20130705-2phat.html July 6, 2013 Georgia Wilkins The Tax Office will open 60 cases of suspected tax dodging by Australian and international companies amid global pressure to crack down on profit shifting.
The investigations will add to the 26 cases of offshore restructuring already under review by the government body.
Under scrutiny are companies that deliberately restructure their business to route profits through low-tax jurisdictions or tax havens to avoid paying higher taxes in Australia, often through the use of post box companies or marketing hubs that have little real substance. Continue reading
Hypocrisy ! Australian Pipeline Industry Association wants GAS to be treated as RENEWABLE ENERGY
Gas sector wants access to renewable energy support Climate Spectator, By a staff reporter 5 July 13 The Australian Pipeline Industry Association has called for gas suppliers to be able to access government support currently available to renewable energy.
In a policy document released today they suggest government establish a technology-neutral energy investment program, allowing renewables, clean coal, gas and any low-emission technologies to compete for investment funds……http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/7/5/renewable-energy/gas-sector-wants-access-renewable-energy-support
Australia’s secret nuclear places
Off limits: 10 places you will never go in Australia, SMH, June 17, 2013 David Whitley
“…...Pine Gap While it’s hardly a top secret base, there’s a remarkable reticence to state exactly what goes on at the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility. Located 18km south-west of Alice Springs, it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that this Australian-American military base is used as a satellite tracking station. The large antennas pointing at the heavens give that away. But information on any other intelligence activities conducted at Pine Gap is kept deliberately hidden.
Unless you work there, you’re not getting in. Road signs nearby are very clear about this. And don’t think about a scenic flight overhead either – there’s a no fly zone……..
The Ranger Retention Pond
An absolute shoo-in for the title of Australia’s least appealing swim, this large billabong on the cusp of Kakadu National Park is one you can’t dip a toe into anyway. That’s probably a good thing – even though the local wildlife seems to be treating it as an idyllic wetland refuge.
To protect from possible contamination, by law, all water that falls on the Ranger Uranium Mine site has to be kept there. And during the wet season, that’s a hell of a lot of water.
It’s not just potential radiation that’s the issue, however – traps by the side of the pond indicate that saltwater crocodiles have taken up residence in there. Prime snorkelling territory it is not……..
The Woomera Prohibited Area
Across the wilds of outback South Australia, an area the size of England is kept cordoned off from the public so that the Australian defence forces and various arms manufacturers can practice blowing things up.
The Woomera Prohibited Area is divided into zones. Some are only out of bounds for part of the year. But the red zone just to the north of the Stuart Highway between Woomera and Glendambo is a complete no-no, full of old bits of metal you really don’t want to pick up……http://www.smh.com.au/travel/off-limits-10-places-you-will-never-go-in-australia-20130617-2odqj.html#ixzz2WdHD8s4m





