PoliticalClaims.au

While the Greens' criticism of trade agreement transparency has merit as a policy position, the specific claim that the Coalition "voted to keep the text of the China Free Trade deal secret from the public" is misleading in several ways: **What the claim gets right:** - Trade negotiations were conducted confidentially, with draft texts not publicly released during negotiations - The Greens and others raised legitimate concerns about the lack of transparency in the negotiation process - There were parliamentary votes related to confidential briefing procedures **What the claim omits or mischaracterizes:** - The final ChAFTA text was publicly released when signed on 17 June 2015 [1] - Confidential negotiations are standard practice used by all Australian governments, including Labor - Parliament had full access to review the agreement text through the JSCOT process before implementation - The claim conflates confidential negotiations (temporary) with hiding the final text (which never happened) **Comparative context:** This is not unique to the Coalition.

The Australian treaty-making process has remained consistent across governments of different parties.

Labor governments have negotiated trade agreements using identical confidential processes, and Labor ultimately supported ChAFTA's passage through Parliament [10].

The Greens' broader argument - that Australia's treaty-making process should be more transparent - is a legitimate policy position that they have advocated consistently across governments [7].

However, the specific claim as framed singles out the Coalition for standard governmental practice that has been followed by all parties.