Democracy is a great thing

Dr William Rolleston.

The signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) earlier this month was the next significant step in a long process to liberalise international trade.

Significant also was the fact that the signing took place here.

New Zealand has been an advocate and leader for free trade within an internationally agreed set of rules, and rightly so.

We are a small country and international trade where countries can make their own rules on a whim is a game we are never going to win. Even with trade rules we have only just managed to gain access to the Australian market for our apples despite clear science that they pose a minimal risk to Australian growers.

Ironically it appears our own fruit and vegetable growers have used similar tactics to disadvantage Australian producers.

They insist fruit irradiated for biosecurity must be labelled when there is no credible evidence that irradiation poses a health risk to consumers.

Equally notable were the protests against the TPP - some say it wouldn't have qualified as an international signing without a decent protest!

According to the protesters about 15,000 people took to the streets.

Media coverage would not have pleased the organisers.

Both television channels focused on asking individual protesters what they actually knew about the TPP.

A number were not able to name any other signatory country other than the US and some thought China was included.

For people motivated enough to march this showed a very low level of knowledge.

Were they marching against the deal or simply against the USA, the government or something else?

It is not the first time I have been on the opposite side of large protest rallies.

The rally against genetic modification in 2002 had similar numbers.

Our media weren't so sceptical in those days but US comedian Jimmy Kimmel recently went to a farmers market and asked those who avoided GMO food what GMO stood for.

A surprising number didn't know.

It is great we have a democracy in New Zealand and the right to speak but we need to make decisions based on the evidence.