How to kill a country: the Australia-US free trade agreement
A tale about the dismantling and destruction of some of the nation's most important institutional arrangements like:
* Our rigorous Quarantine procedures that safeguard Australian agriculture from devastating exotic pests and diseases and give us a competitive advantage in world markets;
* Our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) that protects the health system against soaring prescription costs and makes medicines affordable for all Australians;
* Our Intellectual Property (IP) laws that encourage local innovators in IT and biotech, for example, without extravagant protection of incumbent firms;
* Our system of Government Purchasing programs that support Australian industry and return tax dollars to Australian residents.
[Linda Weiss is Professor of government at the University of Sydney, Elizabeth Thurbon is Postgraduate Research Co-ordinator in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of New south Wales, and John Mathews is Professor of strategic management at the Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University. This is the text of their presentation to the Evatt Foundation on 2 April 2005.]
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