To the Honourable the President and the members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

The Petition of the undersigned shows our concern that:

(a) all “requests” under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) must be lodged by 30 June 2002;

(b) formal offers must be concluded by March 2003;

(c) the Australian Government has so far not revealed what it proposes to put on the table at GATS;

(d) our democracy and the future of our public services are under threat from other countries which are pressuring Australia to open up telecommunications, postal services, water supply, health and education services, banking and the professions to foreign corporations, and to accelerate privatisation.

Your petitioners respectfully ask that the Senate urgently request the Australian Government to publicly release all demands and concessions it proposes to make to other countries for opening up trade in services as part of negotiations on a new General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).