The TPPA
What was the government thinking?
By all accounts, Paris was balmy and fine on the 14th July 1789 when revolting peasants stormed the Bastille, armed with nothing more than authentic french accents and pointy baguettes. In fact, the weather had been so hot that crops had failed, so, tired of nothing to plough, Pierre and his buddies thought ‘bugger this, lets head into town and cause some havoc’. Needless to say, all those with funny hats had their heads cut off (we can only presume that someone then collected the hats), and now the closest thing the French have to royalty is Eric Cantona and Brigitte Bardot.
Meanwhile back in England, the royals continued to collect taxes and use the poor as foot stools. Presumedly the impoverished were just as sick of living in pig swill as their french cousins, yet no revolution. Over subsequent centuries many an academic has pondered why the poms never stormed Buck House and cut George the third into thirds, most academics seeming to suggest that the English kings were simply not as bad as those iron fisted Euroroyals.
Of course the truth is probably much simpler. The poms never took to the streets because it was always raining. Every time ‘One Eyed Sid’ from Doncaster tried to organise a stick wielding group of king haters, it would piss down with rain. ‘Bugger this Sid, lets heads off to the Dog and Bollocks where the beer is warm and the barmaids warmer’.
Which brings me back to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Why would the government organise the signing of the TPPA in sun drenched February? And to make matters worse, in Auckland where everybody lives. Did they want protesters? They might have well sent them personal invites printed on fair trade paper, they made it so easy.
If the government had any brains at all they would have organised the signing for a wet and windy August – in Taihape. They could have had a lovely signing ceremony in Trev the sheep shagger’s shearing shed beneath a snowy clad gently erupting Ruapehu. The photo ops would have been outstanding – far more interesting than the inside of a Sky City slot machine. The overseas guests would have been quite happy at the Coachman Motel (free Wi-fi and free pick up and drop off to any location in Taihape) and the chances of protest would have been zero. For a start, it would have been wetter than a tadpole’s toothbrush – which would have made for an excellent group photo – Driza-Bones en masse. And the only chance of a road stoppage would have been Mavis Buttlechap setting up a wee stall to sell her sage and sheep’s belly scones.
But no, instead of putting the TPPA signing in a provincial centre where the local economy would have been pleased with a bit of pomp and extra cash, the government hosts it in Auckland on the sunniest day of the year. Talk about setting yourself up for failure.
But what of the TPPA itself?
I note with an ironic raised eyebrow that at the same time the TPPA participants were signing the virtues of free trade, the same participants are closing their borders to migrants. A case of ‘we want your stuff, but not you’. I would have thought that free trade would include the free flow of people. Interestingly, you won’t find an economist who is anti free trade – free flowing iPhones and oil being the lubricants of wealth, and these same brainiacs are also very keen on the mobility of labour, the eurozone being an obvious example. Free trade includes human capital.
So at the same time that we are signing a ‘we’ll buy your prozac, if you buy our 1 kg big block of cheddar’, countries are talking about walls to keep out the riff raff, and anyone spotted in a dinghy is sent to Christmas Island, which I’m told is nothing like Christmas.
Clearly this is your classic dollar each way politics. In my view, this is the worst thing about the TPPA – it doesn’t go far enough. Sovereignty is a red herring and represents narrow minded nationalism. We need to think as a global family, not one of self-interested individual nations. Europe was right to create a free flowing eurozone where a Pom can work in Poland or a Belgian in Barcelona. The US works because it’s big and borderless. New Zealand needs to be part of a larger network, a member of a bigger team. Isolationism didn’t work for the Japanese in the 18th century and it won’t work for us now.
Having said that, any government that organises a TPPA signing on a hot February day in our biggest city and is then annoyed by protesters, is clearly lacking in forethought and judgement. It really does make you wonder.
Richard Alexander Bain
self confessed free marketeer