Halle-fuckin’-lujah!

1. I was really starting to lose hope for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (who is also known as Mark Latham and the Australian Labor Party), when I heard they will support the Aus-US FTA. But now it seems the two reasons as to why I and many other Australians opposed the FTA are being addressed by Labor.

He [Latham] said Labor would back the FTA only if the government agreed to two amendments covering local content and the PBS.

“This is in Australia’s interests to do this,” Mr Latham told reporters.

“We’re going to fight like Kilkenney cats to be sure those amendments get through.”

(SMH, ALP, Govt headed for Senate showdown, August 3, 2004)

2. My biggest fear was the scrapping of regulations controlling local TV programming, and the influence of Hollywood on the Australian film industry. While the economic benefits might have been reasonable (I’m not qualified to talk on that, but from what I’ve read there are little to no benefits for Australians, apparently a government report stated the net worth of the agreement was only about $53 million), for the FTA to go unopposed would be akin to Jack selling his soul for a couple of magic beans that didn’t grow into a beanstalk. We would be selling our cultural identity for a measly $53 million. Not to mention opening ourselves up to more American political meddling, like the US telling us not to recognise China as a market economy, effectively derailing our current FTA plans with China, which is the most dynamic economy in our region. And certainly one where we stand to make a heap more money than the FTA with the US.

3. C’mon Mark, don’t let us down.

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