.Given the rising gap bettween the rich and poor in Aus and the stagnation of wages over the past 20 years, we have to seriously ask are our Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)fit for purpose or are the unfairly penalising the working class , including farmers , that they were spruiked to benefit. https://www.*.com.au/chart-australian-wages-house-prices-2018-3
The chart above clearly shows the growing gap between wages and house prices which in Aus was traditionally a measure of "the fair go" or as Rudd said "a fair shake of the sauce bottle"
As well as workers, these FTA were supposed to benefit farmers , yet there are virtually no farmers who started our as farmers on Australia's rich. Instead we have Rheinhart who owns nearly 2% of Aussie arable (the Kidman properties) land topping the Aussie rich land and a beneficiary of our FTAs. We also have Twiggy & Harvey , both up there on the rich list and who also made their fortunes elsewhere as benificieries of our FTAs.
We have a FTA with Singapore which was meant to keep the multinational oil companies honest by putting the petrol pricing benchmark in Singapore; outside the aegis of our ACCC. While some say that that has partially worked, our FTA has given the opportunity for multinationals like BHP & RIO to skim off profit via their Singaporean marketing hubs as evidenced recently by our ATO action against them for Transfer pricing.
Even Mr Gates' Microsoft admitted before our Senate Finance Committee three years ago that it invoiced Aussies via its Singapore marketing hub thereby "minimising " Australian corporate tax and GST.
Over the past year China has been hacking away at our Aus/China FTA via apparent loopholes which has enabled its Government to effectively ban the import of our barley, beef, wine & with LNG & Coal likely to follow.
IMO, rather than delivering a better standard of living for all Aussies, these FTAs have benefited the uber rich & multinationals and cruelled Aussie wages by exposing workets to overseas compition from jurisdictios with much lower wages such as China, Thailand, etc and for that reason and those stated above , we should, IMO, seriously ask are they now fit for purpose?
PS: We are currently negotiating a FTA with Indonesia where Indonesian wages 15 times lower than the Aussie wage.. Whats next: Bangladesh?
Indonesia's Monthly Earnings stood at 183 USD in Dec 2019, compared with the previous figure of 185 USD in Dec 2018. Indonesia Monthly Earnings data is updated yearly, available from Dec 1991 to Dec 2019, with an average number of 95 USD (ceicdata.com)
