US-Australia FTA – Not Everyone is Happy
The passage of the legislation, which will enable the Free Trade Agreement with the US to go ahead, has been met with both applause and acrimony in Australia. While the government is claiming the deal is a victory for the economy, worth an additional six billion dollars, the Labor Opposition is claiming its amendments are a victory for the people. But as Erica Vowles reports, not everyone is cracking open the champagne. Lower House Greens MP, Michael Organ, who along with the Democrats and a number of Independents, voted against the deal. National President of the AMWU, Julius Roe, believes that Australia’s manufacturing sector will falter under the deal, while convener of the Australia Fair Trade and Investment network, Dr Patricia Ranald, believes the deal still hands a great deal of power to US drug companies and that Labor’s concessions on minimum levels of Australian media content are also limited.