Bruce Bisset: Labour and the CPTPP - ignoring the hand that elects you

Bruce Bisset

Disabusing the idea it was some sort of tactical ruse, Labour continues to do its best to spoil the victory moment with its barely-hesitant support for the neoliberal agenda in the form of a revised TPPA.

I am, frankly, bloody annoyed. Several degrees more than, in fact, but let's keep it polite.

For three reasons: because the investor state dispute settlement process remains a threat and an insult to our sovereignty; because proper risk analysis and public consultation after the deal is done is a farce; and because the world needs less of these so-called "free trade" deals, not more, if we are to avoid capture by a global corporatocracy.

Oh, sure, Labour say they've negotiated the best deal they could, and that may well be so, but let's not forget this clunker - renamed the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership) - was championed by Wall St financiers like John Key and his freewheeling mates.

In a way that tells you all you need to know, except why Labour MPs who last year marched against it are now backing PM Jacinda Ardern in embracing it.

And just because the Trump administration saw too many domestic pitfalls in an agreement that, by channelling even more jobs to Third World countries, would make it harder to "make America great again" doesn't mean the US won't re-enter the agreement and promptly re-animate some of its (currently "frozen") more draconian clauses.

For that matter, where are Labour's partners? Winston Peters - formerly a staunch critic of the "free trade" process - has been in the thick of the negotiations, so presumably has turned coat; whether his party will remains to be seen but, like the Greens, they campaigned firmly against it.

The Greens at least are staying true to their commitment to oppose the deal and have signalled they'll vote against it in Parliament, though they're playing down any rift as a "gentleman's disagreement" in this two-plus-one coalition.

So regardless of whether NZF also votes against or abstains we will see the previously-unthinkable: Labour and National acting together to push it through.

Sorry, but what planet are you on, Jacinda? Currently you're orbiting Planet Key. You won't find any more epiphanies there.

It's all very well for this flip-flop to be flippantly foisted off as an example of "the Maharey Rule" - "just the sort of thing you say in opposition", as former Social Development Minister Steve Maharey excused a change in tack under Helen Clark - when Labour called National's analysis of this agreement "flawed" and based on "wildly optimistic" scenarios which it promised - promised - it would fully and comprehensively reassess.

That hasn't happened, ostensibly because of time pressure. Yet there's no reason for unseemly haste; indeed if someone promotes a deal as too good to resist but says it's only available "for a limited time", surely that screams scam.

Most difficult to understand is how quickly and comprehensively Labour is moving to distance itself from its core supporters. For example the Council of Trade Unions says the TPP is still "structurally biased towards the commercial sector and downplays issues such as health, safety and human rights".

Whereas every even-vaguely right-wing commentator is falling over themselves to praise the Government for dealing with the devil.

Doesn't add up, does it? But apparently, this is what we voted for. Not.