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Home / New Zealand

Wairarapa march against TPPA

By Hayley Gastmeier
Wairarapa Times-Age·
16 Aug, 2015 07:30 PM4 mins to read

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SHOUT IT OUT: Wairarapa protesters against the TPPA march down Featherston's main street.PHOTOS/ANDREW BONALLACK

SHOUT IT OUT: Wairarapa protesters against the TPPA march down Featherston's main street.PHOTOS/ANDREW BONALLACK

More than 50 Wairarapa protesters from throughout the region marched down the main street of Featherston on Saturday against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

The Wairarapa marchers joined more than 21,000 people across New Zealand who protested on Saturday against the closed door trade deal involving New Zealand, the USA, and 10 other Pacific Rim nations.

Protesters of all ages were armed with banners and signs in Featherston and had won support from some passing motorists during their late morning march from the Royal Hotel to the Featherston war memorial.

Negotiations surrounding the deal broke down in Hawaii earlier this month over dairy trade issues for New Zealand and Canada, and the auto industry in Japan and the United States.

Information had been leaked about the negotiations, details of which were freely available only to about 600 representatives of transnational corporations, and some Maori groups opposed the deal, which they say would breach their rights under the Treaty of Waitangi.

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Featherston rally organiser Claire Bleakley had gathered signatures from people opposing the TPPA for a petition she was to deliver to Wairarapa MP, Alastair Scott.

"This partnership, which removes all our democratic rights, will turn our rural communities into desert lands," said Mrs Bleakley.

Mike Robinson, from Masterton, said he didn't know where the Government "gets off" thinking they can sign the agreement without any public consultation.

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"Anything they sign should be based on morals, not on dollars," he said.

Issues for people

The rally-goers began their march along Fitzherbert St just after 11am, led by Featherston's David Coates, who is an organiser for the Public Service Association.

Mr Coates said it was important that everybody understood the deal was being made in the interests of the one per cent of the population that controlled 90 per cent of the world's wealth.

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"This is about my country and the country I want to give to my children.

"We have kereru in the backyard ... it's green, it's beautiful and I don't want that future sold down the river to international corporations who don't give a toss about it.

"We have to protect our rights, our country and our democracy."

The group chanted, "TPPA, no way. Who's got the power? We've got the power. What kind of power? People power."

Vehicles passing through the town honked their horns as they drove by the marching crowd, with passengers cheering the protesters on and giving them the thumbs-up.

Steve Hart, from Carterton and holding a large sign that read "TPP not in my name", said his biggest concern was the "corporate thing".

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"I don't like money driving everything and corporations being able to influence our laws, like what's happened in the movie industry."

Annelise Schroeder, from Featherston, said her main concern with the agreement was nuclear power.

"For example, if a Japanese company bought into our power grid and they wanted to build a nuclear power plant they could potentially sue our government under the TPPA because hopefully our government would say no.

"We don't know what's under threat. We're losing our sovereignty over this," she said.

Lucy Cooper, from Greytown, rallying alongside her daughters Isla, 6, and Flo, 3, said it was the secrecy of the agreement that concerned her most.

"It's an erosion of our ability to secure our own direction as a nation," she said.

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Aneta Bond, from Carterton, said New Zealanders needed to know the terms of the contract.

"And we want to be happy with them," she said.

Ursula Macfarlane, an organic farmer from Masterton, said New Zealand was GE free at the moment, but under TPPA, "we could get sued by big corporations, such as Monsanto, for not using their genetically-engineered products and for saving our own seeds".

Arriving at their final destination, the Featherston War Memorial, protesters were addressed by John Hart, from Rangitumau and the 2014 Green Party candidate for Wairarapa.

"[The TPPA] is fundamentally looking at changing the rules of how corporations relate to people and democracies and that's the part that's not being talked about in the official statements we get from the government. It's all about trade and opening up other markets for our dairy. Now, as we've seen, we're probably not going to get anything out of TPPA for our farmers.

"We are going to lose the ability to pass laws in the public interest if corporations don't like it or they see an impact on their profits . . ."

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