From: "Vikki John" <VIKKI-AT-lexsun.law.uts.edu.au>
Date:          Thu, 5 Feb 1998 10:00:37 GMT-1000
Subject: M-NEWS: (Fwd) (Fwd) Stop MAI - meeting dates, petition and minutes


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Press Release

STOP MAI
PUBLIC MEETING

Stopping the MAI - the international campaign, the public and parliamentary
campaign in Australia

Thursday 5 February, 6.30 pm

Jane Kelsey

Pat Ranald

Chair: John Freeland


Room 1/406 (Street level)

Broadway Tower Building, University of Technology Sydney
Sponsored by the Evatt Foundation, Entry by Donation


Jane Kelsey ia a Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, New
Zealand. She is New Zealand's major academic critic of the Multilateral
Agreement on Investment (MAI). She is the author of Economic
Fundamentalism, a damning critique of New Zealand's experiment with
economic irrationalism. Pat Ranald is a researcher at the Public Sector
Research Centre, University of New South Wales, and writes on the issue of
labour standards and international agreements. John Freeland is Director of
the Evatt Foundation.

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) will give free rein to
global corporations. Stop MAI is an Australia-wide campaign demanding an
international treaty to reduce corporate power - not increase it. We want a
Treaty that imposes obligations on corporations, for instance to protect
the environment, respect indigenous rights and uphold labour standards. We
reject the MAI as it ignores these obligations, and simply gives
transnational corporations more power over our lives.

For further information contact James Goodman or Judy Henstock, UTS, Tel:
9514 2714 Fax: 9514 2332, Stop MAI (NSW) PO Box 937, Glebe, NSW 2037 STOP
MAI

The Australian government, and 28 other governments of the world's richest
industrialised countries, members of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) are currently negotiating binding
agreements on international investment.
It is known as the Multinational Agreement on Investment (MAI), and
negotiations have been underway since 1995.
The MAI recognises investors' rights - predominantly those of transnational
corporations - without corresponding obligations. It restricts a
government's ability to protect and promote the rights of individuals.
Features of the MAI which have created most concern include:
_	a restriction on government decisions which impose costs on
investors eg environmental regulation, indigenous peoples' land rights;
_	governments could not require multinational corporations to employ
or train local people, buy local products, or transfer technology; and
_	the creation of an international tribunal without access for
citizens, non-government organisations (NGOs), indigenous people or local
governments. It will force governments to repeal many regulations, and will
deter the adoption of new legislation. MAI justice will be corporate
justice.
The OECD already has guidelines on conduct for multinational companies,
environmental regulation and labour standards. These have not been included
as binding clauses in the MAI. They are being flouted in the drafting of
the MAI.
There been little consultation with NGOs, labour organisations and the
environmental movement by the OECD and the Australian government has only
consulted industry groups in Australia. Federal Treasury provides
Australia's negotiators.
The Australian government has not produced one substantial, public document
on the MAI despite the Prime Minister's promises to make Australia's
treaty-making process more transparent and participatory prior to the 1996
election.
The world's NGOs have exercised unprecedented unity and solidarity in their
attempts to have better protection for citizens, workers and the
environment included in this new piece of international regulation.
The world's NGOs welcome the OECD's recognition of the need for
international regulation of international investment. But we need a Treaty
that imposes obligations on corporations - not one that gives them more
freedoms .
We need to start again.

Stop MAI (NSW) PO Box 937, Glebe, NSW 2037

James Goodman
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
PO Box 123, Broadway, Sydney 2007
Australia

Tel: 9514 2714