STOP MAI


MEDIA RELEASE
-for immediate release, 3 September. 1998

Authorised by the STOP-MAI Campaign Coalition (WA)
Website http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/fair.html

Affiliated with the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTInet)
and with the World Social Forum (WSF)

Next Public Meeting to be at Rockingham

The Western Australian Stop MAI Coalition will hold the third in its series of public protest meetings at the Ocean Clipper Inn, Rockingham at 7.30 pm on Tuesday, 8th September.

Stop MAI (WA) is a public advocacy coalition which is independent of any political party, and this meeting was scheduled before the federal election was called. No election candidates or other party spokespersons have been invited as guest speakers. However, it is to be expected, in the electorate of Brand, that there will be an active debate from the floor, and this is to be encouraged.

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), negotiated in secret since 1995 by the 29 OECD nations (including Australia), is virtually a Bill of Rights for multinational corporations. It aims to remove obstacles to profitable investment by outlawing corporate performance requirements, restrictions on capital flows and discriminatory treatment of foreign companies by host nations.

The MAI incorporates a powerful dispute-resolution system which would allow any investor to to sue the Australian Government for compensation if it believed any of our laws or regulations (including those of State or Local Government) to be discriminatory or detrimental to immediate or projected profits. This system is based on that already in operation for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), under which the Canadian Government was recently obliged to repeal environmental legislation and pay millions of dollars to a US chemical company.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

ends #8

PHONE CONTACTS: Brian Jenkins +61 8 9528 1864; Dion Giles 0411 745 538

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