Queensland citizens draw the attention of the House to increasing community concern about the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Australia is currently involved in a new round of negotiations on the GATS through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We are concerned that this negotiation process is not open nor is there sufficient accountability to the Australian community for the decisions made in this process. We are concerned that further trade liberalisation under GATS will have a significant effect on the provision of public services in Australia, on the ability of Governments (local, state and federal) to regulate in the public interest and thus will undermine our democratic processes. We therefore ask the House to request the Minister for Trade to make no further commitments under the GATS until (1) the Senate inquiry into the GATS has made its report; (2) the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has publicly released full details of all the requests made of Australia and by Australia in the current round of GATS negotiations; (3) the WTO’s Council for Trade in Services has carried out an ‘assessment of trade in services in overall terms and on a sectoral basis with reference to the objectives of the GATS’ as mandated in the GATS negotiating guidelines; (4) the Commonwealth Government has commissioned multi-disciplinary research into the socio-economic impact of trade liberalisation in Australia since 1994, as recommended by the 2001 Joint Standing Committee on Trade’s inquiry into Australia’s relationship with the WTO.