Biosecurity, Investor-State Dispute Settlement and Corporatogenic Climate Change: A Challenge for Australian Public Health Regulation and Human Rights

Abstract

It is a politically controversial but by no means scientifically contentious hypothesis that many of the root causes of contemporary climate change emerge from the profit-seeking activities of multinational corporations – for instance in the oil, coal, deforestation and livestock industries. Contemporary corporatogenic warming of the climate is recognised scientifically as not only having tragic environmental consequences, but also creating significant biosecurity risks. Using the 2008 Dengue Fever outbreak in Northern Queensland as a critical focal point, this article explores the implications of corporatogenic climate change to Australian biosecurity in the context both of Australia’s new federal biosecurity legislation (Biosecurity Act 2015 (Cth)) and the investor-State dispute settlement provisions of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) particularly as they may impact the health and international human rights of Australia’s northerly indigenous populations.