Letters to the Editor, Courier Mail, Friday March 27th 1998
I could not let the one-sided letters on the so-called Multilateral Agreement on Investments (sic) go through to the keeper.
The Federal Government has not signed anything yet; there is no secret government deal done with shadowy United Nations figures in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris; the matter has been referred to the joint standing committee on treaties (which I chair) by the Minister for Foreign Affairs for review; and public views were invited in all capital city newspapers on March 14.
Written submissions will be accepted until April 30, after which it is likely that public hearings by the JSCT will be held around the country.
There is no question of foreign investor interests being given primacy over national sovereignty as a result of the MAI proposal.
My committee will explore the facts, not the fiction.
Further information can be obtained from the JSCT secretariat on (02) 6277 4002.
Bill Taylor, Federal Member for Groom, Toowoomba.
The Editor
The Courier Mail
Dear Sir,
I would question the ability of the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, Bill Taylor, to fairly assess the MAI issue.
In his letter to the Courier Mail on Friday 27th March he claims that quote "there is no secret government deal done". This is a blatant case of twisting the truth or an attempt to re-write history. Originally the MAI was projected to be signed in April 1997, but unfinished business by some countries caused a delay. As Australia was a party on the MAI discussions from May 1995 one can correctly assume that it was only as a result of the furore that followed Pauline Hanson’s January press conference on the MAI that our ill-informed politicians jumped into damage control.
Australians have every right to be concerned and fear the hundreds of international treaties which are secretly negotiated on our behalf by senior bureaucrats in treasury and other departments. Bureaucrats who are unaffected by changes in the government. It is, perhaps, somewhat ironic that our politically correct Governor-General Sir William Dean who traditionally ratifies these agreements without any parliamentary or public debate.
Scott Balson
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Internet Researcher