Federal ALP selling out, say WA Greens

By Lisa Macdonald

"There has been mounting evidence in the international arena of Australia siding with corporate interests against initiatives to promote ecological sustainability, social justice and world peace", according to WA Greens senators Dee Margetts and Christabel Chamarette. Exemplifying the federal ALP's pro-big business, antiªpeople approach is its arguments in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against any restrictions on world trade which is environmentally damaging or which involves extreme human exploitation, such as the use of child or prison labour.

The senators point to further examples in recent months, including the efforts to counter a strong Greenhouse Protocol in Berlin.

In addition, "Australia appears set to refuse to agree to an OECD decision to ban the export of toxic wastes to developing nations under the Basel Convention", while at the same time Australia's "aid" to Third World countries is "increasingly a thinly disguised vehicle for trade promotion", they said.

On nuclear non-proliferation, Chamarette and Margetts underline the fact that the Australian government "worked actively against those nations who demanded that nuclear weapons states develop disarmament plans and commitments to weapons reduction as a condition for the extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty" earlier this year.

Pointing out that "both major parties support this amoral approach" to all international issues, the WA Greens senators conclude: "It is time that the Australian community questioned the values that are implicit in this headlong push for economic development and free trade at any cost".

From GLW issue 200