[ALP ON GATS]
After six months of closed-door
discussions the Government has finally revealed it has received requests from
22 countries to open up Australian service industries to foreign competition.
The full text of the media release from Craig Emerson - Shadow Minister for
Innovation, Industry and Trade follows:
ISSUED: 15 January 2003
Today’s release of a Government
discussion paper on the GATS is an insult to the Australian public.
After six months of closed-door
discussions the Government has finally revealed it has received requests from
22 countries to open up Australian service industries to foreign competition.
Yet these requests were received by the Government more than six months ago and
have been hidden from the public. They include requests in areas vital to the
job security of Australian families such as education, health, postal, telecommunications,
energy, transport and film and television services.
The requests also appear to threaten the
public provision of affordable education, health, telephone, postal and
transport services. Belatedly the Government, facing a Labor-initiated Senate
Inquiry into its secretive handling of the GATS negotiations, is giving the
public only a few weeks to comment before it lodges its offer in response to
these requests. Labor
is calling on the Government not to make any firm offers under the GATS until the Senate Inquiry has been completed and the public has been properly consulted.
Comments on the discussion paper are
invited by Friday, 24 February 2003, to The Director, Service Trade
Negotiations,
Office of Trade Negotiations, Department of
Foreign Affairs & Trade, Barton, ACT 0221 or by e-mail to: services.negotiations@dfat.gov.au