Most people don’t not know this but when Australia signs and ratifies a treaty, whether it is for trade, investment, health or anything else it can become binding and could mean that we have to change our local laws and regulations to fit in line with the terms agreed in the treaty. This means that a treaty could have the same impact on the future of our country as our federal elections do, affecting our everyday lives in any number of ways.

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Here is a summary of the current treaty process:

The treaty text remains a secret until after the treaty has been taken to Cabinet by the relevant Minister and Cabinet has approved the text. The text of the agreement cannot be changed after this has happened.



The text is released to the public, is tabled in Parliament for 20 sitting days and goes to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) for review. It is worth noting that the government of the day has a majority on JSCOT, so it is highly unlikely that the committee will recommend rejection.



Parliament does not vote on the text of the treaty, only on legislation required to implement the treaty. One example of this would be changes to tariffs or taxes on imports. However it is important to understand that many sections of a treaty would not come to parliament as they do not require changes to legislation. See AFTINETs explanation for more details.



Final ratification of the treaty takes place after the implementing legislation has been passed.



The treaty does not come into force until all governments have signed and passed the implementing legislation, and completed the final ratification process.

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See an explanation of the treaty process by AFTINET (Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network) (link). Also, here is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) explanation of the process (link)

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It is strange that in country that is so proud of our democratic values that we have let this continue for so long unchanged. If we are going to continue to call ourselves a democratic society then it is only fitting to make changes to close this loophole in our democracy. So lets review this process and get the changes made to make our country the strongest, most democratic country that it can be.

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Special Thanks To:

AFTINET (Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, www.aftinet.org.au) for all the hard work they do in raising awareness in the community of trade and investment related issues and for all the work they put into lobbying.