June 10, 2015:The Federal Government is investigating how country of origin labels on food can prevent the type of health scare caused by the Hepatitis A outbreak earlier this year, which was blamed on frozen berries from China.But the Government is facing the risk of being sued by foreign companies if these new labelling laws aren't brought in before two major trade deals come into effect.

June 8, 2015: Ralph Nader writes in the The Huffington Post that the TPP is not a "progressive" deal as claimed by its supporters, but will result in extending Big Pharma's patent monopolies to raise consumers' medicine prices, floods of unsafe imported food, and undermining or freezing consumer and environmental rules.

June 4, 2015: Melissa Parke ALP MP for Fremantle is interviewed on ABC Radio National Breakfast show.

2 June 2015: Leonore Taylor writes in The Guardian Australian Edition that Australian politicians have been told they can view the current confidential negotiating text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, but only if they agree not to divulge anything they see for four years, despite expectations the deal could be finalised within months.

May 30, 2015: Chas E Freeman writes in the Boston Globe that US attempts to promote  the Trans-Pacific Partnership to counter rising Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region are nonsense. Persuading Asians to adopt the intellectual property practices favored by Hollywood, Big Pharma, and patent-trolling American lawyers will not reduce Chinese influence. 

May 27, 2015: One thousand union delegates at the ACTU Congress endorsed a resolution calling on the Australian government to  release the TPP text or withdraw from the TPP negotiations, criticising the impacts of the TPP on access to affordable medicines,environmental protections, food safety standards, workers’ rights, and the inclusion of investor rights to sue governments as an attack on democracy and sovereignty.   

May 25, 2015

100 people attended the successful launch of a TPP cross-party working group by Melissa Parke MP (ALP), Senator Peter Whish-Wilson  (Greens), and Senator Nick Xenophon (Independent). All three parliamentarians voiced concerns about the secrecy of the TPP negotiations and its potential impacts on many areas of public policy including medicine prices, copyright, Internet regulation and  environment and food regulation. They also criticised the inclusion in the TPP of special rights for foreign investors to sue governments over domestic legislation, known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, (ISDS), which could undermine democratic legislation and national sovereignty, and called for the release of the TPP text for public scrutiny before it is signed ,

Media Release                                                                                            

Sunday May 24, 2015

“Both Japan and Chile have said they will not finalise the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal until Fast Track legislation has passed both houses of the U.S. Congress,” Dr Patricia Ranald Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) said today.“This means the TPP Trade Ministers meeting due on May 26 will not be able to seal the deal, and has been cancelled, yet another missed deadline.”

“Meanwhile Australian parliamentarians will tomorrow launch across party group critical of the TPP at 12:30 PM in Committee Room 1R1 at Parliament House in Canberra. This is a response to growing community concern about the TPP in Australia,” said Dr Ranald.

May 19, 2015:Nobel prize-winning economist Jeffrey Sachs Argues that the TPP is a dangerous gift to corporate lobbies and  Michael Wessel, a US cleared advisor who has seen the TPP text condemns the secrecy and says critics are right to be concerned, while a Japanese Minister says there will be no deal at the TPP Ministers' meeting next week without fast track.

Media Release 13 May, 2015

“The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is now in doubt following the defeat in the US Senate of a proposal to advance the FastTrack Bill.The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead allow only a yes or no vote,” Dr Patricia Ranald Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) said today.