Free trade agreement redux - I don't like to say "I told you so" but

Nigh on two years ago I wrote, at the time of Australia's entering into a so called free so called trade, so called agreement with the US

I believe the recent US/Australian "free trade agreement" (which is not about free trade, and is no more an agreement than the schoolyard bully and the wimpy nerdy guy "agreeing" that the wimpy guy give all his pocket money to the bully) undermines Australia's ability to adapt to the profoundly changing legal, technical and business landscape created by the current revolutions in intellectual property (IP) thrown up by the increasing digitization of the processes of creation, distribution and use of IP, from software to music to cinema and beyond.

Well, it has come to pass. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that

"The Australia United States Free Trade Agreement requires Australia to prohibit the use of devices and services to circumvent TPMs. Currently Australia does not prohibit the use of devices and services to circumvent TPMs but does prohibit activities in relation to circumvention devices (such as manufacture or sale)," Minter Ellison said in a recent statement.

These would include digital rights management (DRM) systems used by the film, gaming and music industries as well as any applied to the recent generation of gaming consoles.

So there you have it. Entirely, and tediously as predicted, Australia now is required to incorporate US law as our own without debate, in this case the highly controversial Digital Copyright Millenium Act (DCMA) (and any other amendments the U.S congress may seem fir to incorporate in the interests of their corporate paymasters). Why the f#&k do we even have a parliament anymore? Could this possibly be constitutional? We may, as our Prime Minister said "decide who comes to our shores and under what conditions" but apparently we don't decide which laws affect Australians. We've signed a treaty which undermines that. Why is there no outrage? We get worked up about "migrants" and "Australian values". But this represents Australian values I guess.

I sound angry? I'll repeat this bit from Minter Ellison's legal advice "The Australia United States Free Trade Agreement requires Australia" to pass U.S. laws as Australian law without debate.
Why doesn't the free trade agreement oblige the U.S. to repeal the DCMA? Why is that not "harmonisation" of the IP laws of the two countries? That's why I refer to it as a so called free so called trade so called agreement. It was entered into at an executive level without parliamentary vote, it is not about trade, it's about U.S. laws and interests, and and it is not even remotely an agreemment, It's a Fiat from the U.S. to Australia.

If you are not angry you are an idiot.
Where on earth is our opposition in all this? Oh, pandering to nonsensical political non issues like making new Australian citizens take language tests.

BTW, some people argue it's worth this cost, as it helps trade, which helps the country. Trade between Australia and the U.S. fell 3% in the year after we signed this agreement.

Shame on our country. What's next? We'll be forced to adopt U.S. sentencing laws, including the death penalty?

It is a mighty slippery slope when you hand over your sovereignty to another country - and this is precisely what we have done here.