The NZ Not For Sale Campaign has organised a public teach-in on the secret TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) for Sunday February 20, in Christchurch. The timing coincides with the beginning of the meeting of the NZ-US Partnership Council in Christchurch. This is a public-excluded meeting of business and political elites from both countries. The TPPA will be one of their top items for discussion, and some of those present will have had access to the full text of the treaty.

''We want the public of New Zealand to have access to the full text of the TPPA as well'', says Christine Dann, Secretary of the NZ Not For Sale Campaign and an organiser of Sunday's TPPA teach-in. ''We also want it to go through a full democratic decision-making process, and not be signed-off in secret by Cabinet.''

''We are gravely concerned about the impacts the TPPA, if signed, would have on NZ's economy, public services, natural environment, and democracy. So although we don't have official access to the full text, enough of it has been leaked for us to hold a teach-in on what is in it, and what the likely consequences of signing it would be.''

Speakers at the teach-in will be law professor and trade treaty expert Jane Kelsey, Bill Rosenberg, the Economist and Policy Director of the Council of Trade Unions, and Murray Horton, the Convenor of the New Zealand Not For Sale Campaign. There will also be facilitated workshops on the impacts of the TPPA on public services, the environment, New Zealand democracy, and cultural life.

ENDS

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