Legal Challenge to TPPA Secrecy #TPPnoSecrecy

The TPPA seeks to allow overseas countries and their corporations to dictate what New Zealand governments are allowed to do. If it goes through, it will affect you personally. From the price of medicines and the right to control foreign investment, to Internet freedom and the regulation of the mining industry - even how we respond to financial crisis.

The scariest thing about this is the government says we can’t see exactly what's in the TPPA until it's too late to change. The twelve governments negotiating the Agreement, including the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, made a pact not to release any of the negotiating documents until the deal comes into force, and they will keep all except the final text secret for another four years beyond that.

That’s not democracy, and it’s not right.

A legal challenge has been launched to challenge the refusal of New Zealand’s Trade Minister Tim Groser to release a range of documents on the TPPA requested by Professor Jane Kelsey under the Official Information Act.

The High Court is being asked to declare that the Minister got the law wrong and should release some or all the information asked for, including draft texts.

Of course, such an application - even though it is in the public interest - does incur costs. These include legal fees, filing fees and potential appeal costs for which we need crowd funding.

Those bringing this urgent application for judicial review are Consumer NZ, Ngati Kahungunu, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, New Zealand Nurses Organisation, the Tertiary Education Union, and Professor Kelsey.

Now is your opportunity to play a vital role in defending our democratic right to decide our future. Contribute to the costs of this challenge here. Any funds leftover from the legal costs will go into the general campaign against the TPPA. To find out more about the TPPA go to itsourfuture.org.nz.