Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

The Senate voted 33 to 27 in favour of a motion calling on the government to release the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement to the Productivity Commission for a full review before it is introduced into the House of Representatives or the Senate.

The motion in its entirety was as follows:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) on 6 October 2015, 12 Pacific-rim countries signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,

(ii) to date the text of the Agreement has not been made public, and

(iii) on 24 June 2015 the Productivity Commission released its Trade and Assistance Review 2013-14, which stated 'the emerging and growing potential for trade preferences to impose net costs on the community presents a compelling case for the final text of an agreement to be rigorously analysed before signing'; and

(b) calls on the Government to refer the text of the Agreement to the Productivity Commission for a full-scale review prior to the Agreement's implementing legislation being introduced into the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The motion was introduced by independent Senator Nick Xenophon on behalf of a cross-party group of Senators: Xenophon, Dio Wang, Palmer United Party Senator for Western Australia; Glenn Lazarus, Independent Senator for Queensland; Ricky Muir, Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator for Victoria; and Peter Whish-Wilson, Australian Greens Senator for Tasmania.