CANBERRA: Organising beers and snags for the barbecue, grabbing ice for the esky, and reserving some prime beachside shade chief among them. A few people might have a whinge that the Triple J Hottest 100 has been moved to tomorrow, but for most normal people (I dutifully exclude myself from this description), politics won’t be on the agenda. The Big Bash League no doubt will get a mention, as will the new stadium and maybe the upcoming AFL season, as West Australians settle in for the annual fireworks spectacular. There may be some of the usual grumbling about Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten or even the GST, but in general, Australians are going to be looking forward to a day off work, and relaxing with friends and family in the glorious WA sunshine. One thing that most certainly won’t rank in the hottest 100 items for discussion is the freshly inked Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which even used as an acronym is likely to prove a conversation killer.
But despite being something of a sleep-inducer, finalising the CPTPP this week with 10 other countries is a political and economic win for the Turnbull Government that puts Labor on the back foot after it declared the trade deal dead. Not that it will translate to any political dividend for the coalition. Not only does its nebulous nature make it a difficult one to engage voters on, it also provokes angry Australia-first rhetoric from across the political spectrum. The far Right and the far Left converge to oppose FTAs, making strange bedfellows of the Greens and One Nation who tap into xenophobic anxiety to argue the deals undermine Australian workers. Much of this anxiety comes from Australia’s experience with sectors like the car industry, which over the space of just a few decades has gone from a booming employer, to a protected recipient of industrial welfare, to a relic of Australia’s manufacturing past.While taxpayers don’t really notice the end of the billions of dollars in subsidies, they do notice the empty factories and the workers sent to retraining or the dole queue. Australians are buying new cars cheaper than ever before thanks to globalisation (and televisions and clothes and so on) but it doesn’t take away from the fact that on an individual level, there have been losers from free trade. As the new TPP-11 works its way through Parliament’s treaties committee, expect to hear more about labour market testing and skills standards, as Labor pushes for greater protection for local industry and workers, while also hoping to win favour among malcontents opposed to globalisation.
