John Menadue

The election campaign's other big lie: the Coalition hasn't delivered 'export agreements'.

 

Pearls and Irritations has carried many articles about the exaggerated claims for free trade agreements.  That exaggeration continued during the election campaign. One of the five pillars of Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘plan for jobs and growth’ was the alleged benefits of recently negotiated FTAs.

An increasing feature of the most recently negotiated FTAs is that Australia’s hard-won labour standards are being negotiated away through 457 visas in return for access to overseas markets and particularly China.

Peter Martin in the SMH of July 7 highlights how little has been delivered through FTAs. See link below.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-election-campaigns-other-big-lie-the-coalition-hasnt-delivered-export-agreements-20160706-gpzcx3.html

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

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