Author Ranald and Cooke oppose the 20-year MAI-type ‘handcuffs’ on safety and environment
Patricia Ranald of Sydney visited Perth for a few days and was a forum's keynote speaker on Saturday June 26 1999, on the resurgence of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) through the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
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| NEWS RELEASE: Issued by Stop-MAI (WA) on June 28 1999:
Perth citizens demand fuller public participation and new The Federal Government's proposal to support a new round of global investment negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was intensively discussed at a daylong public meeting held at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, at the weekend (June 26). Debate was led by Patricia Ranald (Public Sector Research Centre, University of New South Wales) and the WA Trades and Labor Council secretary, Tony Cooke. The speakers reviewed the purpose of the failed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) which sought to dilute governmental power to regulate foreign investment and capital flows. The MAI was scrapped last year in a fury of worldwide public protest, but Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer has recently instructed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to pursue similar new negotiations through the WTO November ministerial meeting in Seattle. After six hours of consideration, the packed meeting called on the Australian Government to shun MAI-type negotiations but rather "to support the development of an alternative and binding agreement on investments which democratically regulates international investments and promotes ecologically and socially sustainable global development". Noting that DFAT had declined to participate in the public meeting, the resolution also called for full, open public participation in this process. Patricia Ranald informed the meeting that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) had already endorsed an alternative proposal with the object of enforcing prescribed responsibilities and placing the profit motive into a proper context of worldwide human needs. The publication of a range of new Australian books on the subject was announced, and the audience resolved to support an informative regular newsletter to be commenced in July. ends
Contacts: |
TONY COOKE Keynote speakers "Multinationals, Governments, and the MAI" PUBLIC FORUM 26 June 1999, 10am - 4.30pm 7th Floor, G Block Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Verdun St, Nedlands $20 (unwaged $15) -- includes luncheon and morning/afternoon teas |
SOME GOOD NEWS: Pelican, the student newspaper at the University of Western Australia, in the May 1999 issue has published an anti-MAI article by Tim Huggins on pages 24 and 25.
| PRE-MEETING REQUEST FOR PUBLICATION: Please consider publishing this:
More community discussions begin over treaty moves to benefit overseas multinationals Community groups are being urged to attend a forum on Saturday, June 26, to discuss Federal Government moves to open Australia to unfettered foreign investment and outlaw the protection of local business and industry. This month, Deputy PM and Trade Minister Tim Fischer announced that Australia would continue to seek a free-trade treaty similar to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) which was scrapped last year because of worldwide community objections. Critics have said the treaty would put 20-year "handcuffs" on Australia's powers to regulate workplace safety, environmental protection and extraction of due taxes from multinational corporations and other overseas investors. Sydney academic and author Patricia Ranald and WA Trades and Labour Council secretary Tony Cooke, will be among the speakers at the one-day forum, to be held at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands on Saturday, June 26. Spokespersons have been invited from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and from the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Tickets ($20 or $15 concession), including luncheon, are available from the organising StopMAI Campaign Coalition, phone 9335 5939 or 9246 3882. There will be no charge for attendance at the afternoon session (2 pm to 4.30 pm). ends
FORUM BOOKINGS: Gwyneth Dunlevy 08 9335 5939
Stop-MAI WA Coalition: |
AN EARLY REQUEST FOR PUBLICITY: AUTHOR AND COOKE TO OPPOSE THE 20-YEAR SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT 'HANDCUFFS' Plans to oppose the continuing attempts to put 20-year "handcuffs" treaties on Australia's powers over safety, the environment and taxation will be made at a June 26 forum in Nedlands. Sydney author Patricia Ranald, and WA Trades and Labour Council secretary Tony Cooke, will be among the speakers. Stop-MAI, the organisers of the June 26 forum, say that governments and big corporations were still planning "handcuffs" treaties to replace the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), talks for which broke down recently when France withdrew. The forum will be at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, 10am-4.30pm, $20 ($15 unwaged, or free after luncheon). Bookings by 18 June to Gwyneth Dunlevy (08) 9335 5939 or e-mail brian@nettrek.com.au (Speakers have been invited from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, WA) |
While in Perth to Tuesday 29 June she was planning to make a number of other public and media appearances.
Patricia Ranald is a Senior Research Fellow, Public Sector Research Centre, University of New South Wales, NSW, 2052, Australia Tel +61-2-93859242 fax +61-2-93859246, email P.Ranald@unsw.edu.au (Pat Ranald).
For an example of her style see "What is the MAI?"
Qualifications: B.A. (Hons),University of Adelaide, 1974; M.A. (Politics), University of Adelaide, 1981; Master of Public Policy, (Graduate School of Business) University of Sydney, 1992; Her thesis for PhD (Politics, UNSW) was due for submission June 1999.
Brief Employment History: 1996- present, Senior Research Fellow, Public Sector Research Centre, University of New South Wales
1986-1996: National Research Coordinator, Community and Public Sector Union
1980-85: Senior Research Officer, Public Service Association of South Australia
1976-1980: Lecturer in Social Policy, University of South Australia.
Board Membership: She is a member of the management board of the Centre for Applied Economic Research, (UNSW).
Media Experience: She has been a regular
commentator on public policy and international relations issues on the media,
including radio and television appearances. These have included:
(*Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not the American broadcaster with the same initials)
| FORTHCOMING MAI BOOK Corporate power versus public interests: Opposing the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) Patricia Ranald and James Goodman (eds), with Prof. Frank Stilwell Introduction
PART ONE: POLITICISING 'LIBERALISATION'
PART TWO: AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVES
CONTACT DETAILS: Patricia Ranald, Senior Research Fellow, Public
Sector Research Centre, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052 Australia.
phone: 61-2-9385 9242, fax 61-2-938 59246; email:
P.Ranald@unsw.edu.au FOR A MORE DETAILED BOOK SYNOPSIS, click Corporate power versus public interests |
Pat Ranald's publications include:
Refereed Journal Articles:
"Union responses to the Economic Crisis in South Korea and the
Philippines" forthcoming, Journal of Industrial Relations, June
1999.
"Solidarity versus neoliberalism: union regional and interregional organisation
in Europe and Asia" Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, vol 4, No
1, 1999, pp123-145.
"Howard's Way: the Public Sector" in Journal of Australian Political
Economy, No. 37, June 1996, pp 1-10
"National Competition Policy " Journal of Australian Political Economy,
No. 36, December, 1995, pp 1-25.
Monographs:
"Disciplining Governments? What the Multilateral Agreement on Investment
would mean for Australia," Public Sector Research Centre (PSRC) and Evatt
Foundation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 1998.
"The Contracting Commonwealth: Serving Citizens or Customers? Public
Accountability, Service quality and Equity Issues in Competitive Tendering
of Government Services," PSRC Paper No 47, University of New South Wales,
1997.
"Competitive Neutrality and Local Government Policies under National Competition
Policy in Australia," (with Richard Thorowgood) PSRC Paper No 46, University
of New South Wales, 1997.
"The Budget and the Commission of Audit Strategy: Government as a Small Referee?"
PSRC Paper No 41, University of New South Wales, 1996.
"Outsourcing Information Technology in the Australian Public Service: A One
Way Street?" PSRC Monograph No.3, Public Sector Research Centre, University
of NSW, 1993.
Chapters in Books:
"GATT, APEC and the Australian Labour Movement", in Free Trade?
Implications for Australian Labour, Centre for Labour Studies Research
Papers, No 7, published as a book, ISBN no 863964427, University of Adelaide,
1997, pp 33-74.
"Redefinition of the Public Sector: Serving Citizens or Customers?" (1996)
in Keeping it Together: the State and Civil Society in Australia,
Pluto Press/ ACOSS, pp 92-113.
"ACTU Submission to the Industry Commission Inquiry into Contracting and
Competitive Tendering in the Public Sector" in Paddon, M & Thanki, R
(eds) (1995) Australia's Contracting Public Services: Critical views of
Contracting out by the Public Sector, Public Sector Research Centre,
UNSW, pp 83-202.
"The Employee Perspective" in Weller, P, Forster, J and Davis, G, Reforming
the Public Service, Lessons from Recent Experience, Centre for Australian
Public Sector Management,(CAPSM) Macmillan, Melbourne, 1993, pp 208-221.
(With David Bunn.) "The Cold War and the Women's Movement" in A Curthoys
and J Merrit, (eds) The Cold War in Australia, Vol 11, Canberra, Society
for the Study of Labour History, 1987.
"Feminism and Class: The United Associations of Women and the Council of
Action for Equal Pay in the Depression" in M Bevege, M James and C Shute
(eds) Worth Her Salt: Women at Work in Australia, Sydney, Hale and
Iremonger, 1982.
Review Articles and Magazine articles:
"A Tale of Two Forums" in Arena No 39, February-March 1999,
pp12-13
The People Versus APEC "in Arena No 34, March-April 1998, pp9-10.
Review of Strife: Sex and Politics in Labour Unions edited by Barbara Pocock
in The Economic and Labour Relations Review, Vol 8, no 2, December
1997, pp 343-346.
Submissions to Parliamentary Inquiries:
She made submissions to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee on APEC in 1997 and to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Treaties Inquiry into the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1998. She was invited to give evidence in person to both Committees. Her monograph on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment was used as a reference document by the Joint Standing Committee Inquiry.
Recent Invited Conference Papers:
"Challenges to Trade Union Rights Posed by the Economic Crisis" for
the Trade Union and Human Rights Conference organised by the Asia Pacific
Regional Organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
and the Public Services International, December 6th-8, 1998, Kuala Lumpur.
"Privatisation in the Asia Pacific Region," paper presented to the Asia Pacific
Peoples' Assembly on APEC, Issue Forum on Privatisation and Deregulation,
November 11th-12th, 1998, Kuala Lumpur.
"Union Responses to the Asian Crisis" paper presented at a Conference on
'Assessing the Asian Crisis, Economics, Politics and Society', University
of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management, 7th April,
1998.
"Solidarity versus Neoliberalism: Union regional and inter-regional organisation
in Europe and Asia" Paper for the Asia-Europe Inter-Regionalism Panel of
the ASEASUK Conference, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
University, 2-4 April, 1998.
"Getting Governments Out of the Way of Business?: APEC and the Labour Movement"
Paper delivered to the Seminar on Globalisation, Convergence and Worker
Resistance, at Arden House, University of Warwick, on 17/5/97 organised by
the Centre for Comparative Labour Studies, University of Warwick, and the
International Centre for Comparative Labour Studies, University of
Manchester.
"Social Clauses in Trade Agreements: the Debate in the Asia Pacific Region"
Paper delivered to a plenary debate at the Labour Rights and Globalisation
Conference, Deakin University, 8/12/1996.
"States and Liberalisation in APEC" Paper delivered to the Labour Rights
and Globalisation Conference, Deakin University, 7/12/1996.
"Impacts of Trade Liberalisation on Women Workers" Paper delivered to the
Women's forum of the Manila Peoples' Forum on APEC, Manila, 16/11/1996.
"Redefining the Public Sector: Services for Citizens or Customers?" (1996)
delivered at the Australia Institute Conference, December 1995, published
as in Citizens in the Marketplace: The Implications of Competition Policy
for Citizenship, Australia Institute, Discussion Paper No 6, March,
Canberra.
The Economic Reform Australia web site is: http://dove.mtx.net.au/~hermann/erahome.htm Postal address: PO Box 505, Modbury, SA 5092, Australia. Newsletter Editors: Peter Lock and Frances Milne; Email Network Editor: John Hermann
The Geonomist has resumed publication, issues 3 and 4 are on the Internet at http://www.progress.org/geonom49.htm Editor: Jeffery J. Smith. There are references to the corruption of governments by the privileged groups.
M.A.I.
(Multilateral Agreement on Investment) and related
links on other Websites:
Stop MAI
Australia's public-awareness site
MAI-Not
(Canada) An international newsgroup archive
Swindle of
Multinationals Paying Little or No Tax
MAI-Day Alert
about Multilateral Agreement on Investment
How the Net killed the MAI at:
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/mai/3004.html
MAI, opening the doors to corporate plunder? at:
http://www.foe.co.uk/camps/susdev/mai.htm
WTO Agreement on Financial Services, came into force 1 March 1999, at:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/gats/gats-e1.html
Accord de l'OMC sur les services financiers, entré en vigueur le
1er mars 1999, at:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/gats/gats-f1.html
In French it is not WTO, it is OMC; and not MAI, it is
AMI, that is, Accord Multilatéral sur
l'Investissement
For MAI campaign details in Western Australia, click http://www.iinet.net.au/~jenks/WA1.html