The following media release relaunching the TPP petition to the Governor General was circulated Tuesday 9th February 2016 as the TPP National Impact Analysis was tabled in the NZ Parliament.
The period since the February relaunch has been filled with activity focused on maximising concerned New Zealanders to get the views and concerns into the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (FADT) Select Committee. There's still an ability for people to place evidence of a substantive nature before the FADT committee.
Here's a link to the pdf of the petition, Again please print both pages double sided on the one A4 sheet:
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TPP
Free Wellington – Press Conference – Parliament Grounds
Relaunch1
of Governor General Petition 1:00pm Tuesday 9th
February
No Mandate – Binding Referendum Required - Let the People
Decide!
The
mood of the public was demonstrably opposed to the Trans Pacific
Partnership Agreement (TPPA)2
treaty signing at the Auckland Skytower Thursday 4th
February.3
TPP
Free Wellington4
are relaunching the petition to the Governor General with revised
wording given the fact of the TPP signing ceremony at the Skytower
Casino5
in Auckland.
We
may never know what the Governor General has conveyed to the New
Zealand Government in respect to the petition. Nevertheless the TPPA
has been formally signed.
Our
petition launched 11th December 2015 stated:
We, the UNDERSIGNED citizens and residents of Aotearoa New Zealand, PETITION Your Excellency:
We, the UNDERSIGNED citizens and residents of Aotearoa New Zealand, PETITION Your Excellency:
1.
to COMMAND the Government to put the question of proceeding with, or
withdrawal from TPPA to a BINDING REFERENDUM; and
2.
to PROHIBIT the Government from signing any final agreement, or
taking any binding treaty action UNLESS the People vote in favour;
and
3.
to REFUSE Assent to any enabling legislation UNLESS the People vote
in favour.
The
organisers today reaffirm their commitment to proceed with the
petition, anticipating it may become the last defence against TPP if
the Government manages to push Bills for enabling legislation through
the House.
Our
revised petition amends the 2nd point to read, “2. to
PROHIBIT
the Government from taking any binding treaty action UNLESS
the People vote in favour;”
This
acknowledges the Government has formally competed the Signing as per
clause of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.6
We find that the signing breaches the provisions of the Vienna
Convention.
The
relaunch of the petition to His Excellency compliments TPP Free
Wellington's recent events - Rally for Democracy and Sovereignty at
the Wellington Cenotaph on the day of signing - and the Saturday 30th
January handover7
of the Petition to the Governor General requesting His Excellency to
command the Government to put the question of the TPP to a binding
referendum.8
We
have investigated the nature of our Aotearoa Constitution and assert
that it is based on democracy and respect for human rights. We will
pursue our assertion – that TPP is unconstitutional and against the
National Interest through all avenues.
The
petition to His Excellency is but one of a number of tactics to
regain control of the New Zealand democracy by the people who
comprise it. The representatives in the New Zealand Parliament have a
licence to govern, however that licence does not provide them with
rights to breach the fundamental basis of New Zealand and
International Law. If there is a globalist imperative that TPP is
necessary for world order, it ought be spelled out for the people to
comprehend and determine the validity of a corporate rights charter
to be supreme over National and International Law.
Greg
Rzesniowiecki, from TPP Free Wellington, “TPP is an imposition on
our parliamentary sovereignty9
to make laws that protect the public interest.10
Opposition
to Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is universally
rejected.11”
Greg
reports, “That in May 2012 New Zealand lawyers delivered an open
letter to the TPP negotiators urging the rejection of Investor State
Dispute Settlement (ISDS).12
Those lawyers included the current leader of the New Zealand Labour
Party, Andrew Little who's party now opposes the TPP.”
Rzesniowiecki concludes, “There is no mandate
for TPPA. TPP was kept a secret at the last election. Our petition to
the Governor General makes this clear and requests His Excellency
support the people not transnational corporations,13
as he promised in his oath and swearing in speech14.
Informed consent requires a binding referendum of the people.”
Sir Robin Cooke was the president of our Court of
Appeal and a member of our highest Court then, the Privy Council, and
he later became a life peer of the House of Lords, and he is widely
regarded as the greatest judge New Zealand ever had.
Sir Robin Cooke says, “..the modern common law
should be seen to have a free and democratic society as its basic
tenet..”15
Sir Edmund Thomas had to say about this limit on
the power of the Parliament and the NZ Executive. Sir Edmund was a
judge of the Court of Appeal and an acting judge of the Supreme
Court, is currently a distinguished fellow at Auckland University Law
School, and is regarded as New Zealand’s greatest jurist.
Sir Edmund Thomas states, “In a full and free
democracy, sovereignty rests with the people…”16
It doesn’t matter that he’s talking about
judges. The important point is he’s talking about the inherent
limits on Parliament’s power.
The NZ Government today tables the National
Interest Analysis in the Parliament. The Government ignores the
people and the law in proceeding to Ratify TPP without the informed
consent of the people of Aotearoa New Zealand. A binding referendum
would satisfy this deficiency.
If the TPP is such a good deal, then let the
people decide.
TPP Free Wellington provide this detailed
statement at a Media Conference 1pm Tuesday 9 February at Parliament.
Ends.
Contact TPP Free Wellington:
Greg Rzesniowiecki
02102431632
1 Relaunched
petition is fundamentally the same petition launched 11 December
2015 with 4300 signatures handed to the His Excellency's Official
Secretary on the 30th January 2016. The revised petition
recognises the 4th February signing at the Casino in
Auckland. All petitions will be forwarded to the Governor General at
the appropriate time. We encourage the public to sign and forward to
the mailing address on page 2 of the petition form.
2 TPP
and TPPA both refer to the Trans Pacific Partnership (Agreement).
3 20th
November 2015 3News Reid poll placed support for TPP at only 34% and
opposition at more than 50%!
4 TPP
Free Wellington on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/658556344213166/
5 That
the signing took place in a Casino speaks volumes for the way which
NZ public and National Interest is being considered.
6 Vienna
Convention on the Law of Treaties:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_the_Law_of_Treaties
and from the UN:
http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/un.law.of.treaties.convention.1969/
7 A
number of media covered the petition handover at Government House.
This video taken by Mick McCrohon records the key elements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3t1TIIgrIA
8 No
Mandate Do Not Sign TPPA blog – download petition pdf for print,
distribution, signing with explanation:
http://nomandatedonotsigntppaggpetition.blogspot.co.nz/
9 Tim
Groser in 2012 acknowledged that the TPP treaty involves the loss of
sovereignty:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10817978
10 TPP
will limit government ability to regulate in the public and national
interest as already demonstrated in respect to Tobacco control.
Similarly on Climate Change Dr. Joshua Freeman and Dr. Hayley
Bennett make the case that TPP will be bad for climate change
mitigation:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11567925
And further reinforced herein:
http://www.ibtimes.com/top-us-trade-official-defends-exclusion-climate-change-trans-pacific-partnership-2276835
11 German
Judges cite proposed European Investment Court as unconstitutional:
http://newint.org/blog/2016/02/04/german-judges-issue-damming-indictment-of-ttip/
and the full legal opinion:
https://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/eu-us_trade_deal/2016/english_version_deutsche_richterbund_opinion_ics_feb2016.pdf
12 Jurists
open letter here: https://tpplegal.wordpress.com/open-letter/
which says in part: “As lawyers from the academy, bench and bar,
legislature, public service, business and other legal communities in
Asia and the Pacific Rim, we are writing to raise concerns about the
Investment and Investor-State dispute arbitration provisions being
considered in the on-going negotiations for a Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) agreement. We have diverse views about the TPP
generally. However, we are united in our view that the foreign
investor protections included in some recent Free Trade Agreements
(FTA) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT) and their enforcement
through Investor-State arbitration should not be replicated in the
TPP. We base this conclusion on concerns about how the expansion of
this regime threatens to undermine the justice systems in our
various countries and fundamentally shift the balance of power
between investors, states and other affected parties in a manner
that undermines fair resolution of legal disputes.”
13 It
is either corporation dictatorship or treason by our NZ Government.
Report of the United Nations Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas
urged the UN system and Governments across the world to radically
reform the international investment regime by putting an end to free
trade and investment agreements that conflict with human rights
treaty obligations. In his full-length report* to the Human Rights
Council, he also called on States “to conduct human rights, health
and environmental impact assessments before and after entering into
bilateral and multilateral investment agreements.” “Over the
past decades free trade and investment agreements have had adverse
impacts on the enjoyment of human rights by interfering with the
State’s fundamental functions to legislate in the public interest
and regulate fiscal, budgetary, labour, health and environmental
policies,” said Mr. de Zayas, the first UN Independent Expert on
the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order”
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16439&LangID=E
Full report available from this link:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Pages/ListReports.aspx
go to this reference in the list: A/HRC/30/44 Report of the
Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable
international order, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas:
www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Documents/A_HRC_30_44_ENG.docx
The ISDS provisions of the TPP will provide opportunities for
transnational corporations to chill government legislation (both NZ
and globally) to limit greenhouse gas emissions to reduce
anthropogenic climate change, and to promote renewable energy
alternatives with positive programs. There are many references which
provide evidence to support this claim, including the lack of
support within TPP for climate change reduction measures. This
article from the Australian academic blog 'The Conversation'
explores the Canadian experience of ISDS as a partner to the NAFTA
agreement:
https://theconversation.com/canada-has-an-isds-clause-with-the-us-it-has-faced-35-challenges-is-this-australias-future-48757
14 The
Governor General (GG) Sir Jerry Mateparae stated in his inauguration
speech in 2011 that his Oaths of Allegiance to the Queen and to the
People of New Zealand “reflect my commitment to our country and
the People… that I will serve faithfully and impartially. The
values and undertakings in these oaths are very important to me.”
Sir Jerry further stated at that time, “My view reflects the
sentiment of the proverb “He aha te mea nui o te ao—What is the
most important thing in the world? The answer is: he tangata, he
tangata, he tangata––it is people, it is people, it is people!”
https://gg.govt.nz/content/swearing-speech
Oath of office:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Allegiance_%28New_Zealand%29
15 Sir
Robin Cooke, “Fundamentals”, New Zealand Law Journal, May 1988.
Sir Robin's full quote we reference: “..the modern common law
should be seen to have a free and democratic society as its basic
tenet and, for that reason, to be built on two complementary and
lawfully unalterable principles: the operation of a democratic
legislature and the operation of independent courts.. ..if a change,
by legislation or otherwise, were seen to undermine either of them
to a significant extent, it would be the responsibility of Judges to
say so and, if their judgements to that effect were disregarded, to
resign or to acknowledge frankly that they are prepared to depart
from their judicial oath and to serve a state not entitled to be
called a free democracy.”
16 Sir
Edmund Thomas, “Centennial Lecture – The Relationship of
Parliament and the Courts: A Tentative Thought or Two for the New
Millennium”, Victoria University of Wellington law Review, 2000.
Sir Edmund Thomas full quote states, “In a full and free
democracy, sovereignty rests with the people.. ..it is absurd to
suggest that the plenary power delegated to Parliament by the people
embraces the power to destroy representative government.. If
Parliament.. proceeded to enact legislation undermining the
democratic basis on which it exercises the sovereign power of the
people, there is nothing in the notion of Parliament’s omnipotence
which would preclude judicial resistance..”
.
