A 3 News poll today showing only 34 percent of New Zealanders are in favour of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and 52 percent are opposed should be a wake-up call to the National Government not to sign the TPPA, the Green Party said.
“It’s very clear from this poll that the Government doesn’t have a mandate to sign the TPPA,” Green Party trade spokesperson Kennedy Graham said.
“Thousands of people have demonstrated against the TPPA and National dismissed them as ‘politically irrelevant’ and ‘breathless children’, but now we see that 52 percent of New Zealanders are against the TPPA and only 34 percent support it.
“The National Government can’t dismiss the crystal-clear results of this poll that show only a third of New Zealanders support the TPPA.
“New Zealanders have seen through the National Government’s spin on the TPPA and they know that it’s a bad deal for New Zealand – ordinary people will shoulder the costs while the benefits will go to a small number of private companies, many of whom are based overseas.
“The bottom line is that the National Government shouldn’t sign the TPPA and if they do, they’ll know that they’re going against the wishes of the majority of New Zealanders,” Dr Graham said.