CANBERRA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government spent almost 40 million Australian dollars (30 million U.S. dollars) in a legal battle with Philip Morris Asia, official documents revealed on Monday.
Costs to defend its world-first plain packaging laws were kept secret from Australian taxpayers, but the documents say the total figure was 38.9 million Australian dollars (28.8 million U.S. dollars).
In 2017, the court ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay Australia's legal costs to cover the six-year legal battle.
The total legal figure is the amount invoiced to the Department of Health on behalf of the commonwealth by "external service providers," related to the bilateral-investment treaty dispute between Australia and Philip Morris Asia for the financial year 2011-12 through to October 2016 - according to The Guardian newspaper.
The department said some of that figure may not relate solely to the Philip Morris Asia dispute, because some service providers have worked on that dispute and other tobacco plain packaging litigation matters, and invoices for their work have not been disaggregated.
However, that figure has been provided as the "grand total" amount after a two-year freedom of information battle by former senator Nick Xenophon and his former staffer, now Centre Alliance senator, Rex Patrick.
Patrick said he was blown away by the "mammoth cost" to taxpayers of the legal fight.
"This is exactly why Australia must stop signing up to free trade agreements with these insidious ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) provisions in them," he said.
"I accept the government had to defend the matter, but if we hadn't signed up to the Hong Kong agreement with ISDS provisions in it then there would not have been a tribunal hearing. Imagine what health outcomes could have been achieved with that 39 million Australian dollars."
Patrick said the ISDS provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP-11) could expose taxpayers to tens of millions of dollars in legal fees, and potentially billions in damages, in the event that the federal parliament makes changes to laws that don't suit foreign companies.
He said release of the information was a win for transparency, but the information should have been released immediately upon request in 2016.
