Senator SINODINOS (New South Wales—Cabinet Secretary) (14:36): I thank Senator Back for his question. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, as my colleague and friend the Minister for Finance mentioned, is the biggest trade deal for Australia for 20 years. It will benefit industries and sectors right across the Australian economy. This process has been going now for some time. It ends a process which began late in 2008. Over this time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has held more than 1,000 stakeholder briefings and consultation sessions across the country, including with state and territory governments as well as peak industry bodies, companies, academics, unions, consumer groups and special interest groups, among others. With these sorts of trade agreements you do have to have a consultation process. You cannot negotiate the text in the open, particularly when you are dealing with 12 other countries. An opposition senator interjecting— Senator SINODINOS: I am coming to that. Each of the 12 nations that have joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership must now follow their own processes for entering into treaties. For us here in Australia this will mean in the first instance that a national interest analysis must be performed. This analysis will examine the TPP in detail on how the agreement will affect Australia. From here both the text of the TPP and the accompanying national interest analysis will be tabled in parliament for 20 joint sitting day and the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties will conduct an inquiry into the TPP which will report back to the parliament in due course. Full transparency: the TPP will not be signed prior to the text being released publicly. The TPP is a big deal for Australia. It will cover 40 per cent of global economic output. It is a deal which eliminates more than 98 per cent of tariffs among 12 member nations and removes tariffs on more than $9 billion of our exports.