The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has said he won’t bend to political pressure from the trade minister to ratify the China free trade agreement without negotiations.
Andrew Robb described the trade union and Labor campaign against the deal as “economic sabotage”, saying he would not negotiate with the opposition to amend it because that could make the pact “disappear”.
“Andrew Robb doesn’t want to admit that he got it wrong in terms of some of the detail,” Shorten told reporters in Perth. “There’ll be plenty of negotiations.
“I put that down to political pressure on Labor. The doomsday sort of threats of Mr Robb don’t help anything.”
He said critics of the agreement “have got a point” about maintaining and protecting labour standards.
“What we want is a better discussion. This free trade agreement is not one which Labor can simply sign up to with a blank cheque because we do have some concerns. We’re up for negotiations.”
Labor’s leadership faces significant pressure from its industrial base – with several unions running advertising campaigns and organising protests against the foreign-worker provisions – and from caucus members who are uneasy about the contents of the deal.
The government is working on its own campaign, having earmarked nearly $25m in the May budget to promote the free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
