The latest leaks of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership show the Australian Government making some attempt to avoid its big pitfalls.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being negotiated in secret meetings between 12 countries, and includes a number of provisions that would give international companies the right to tale legal action over government decisions.

But new documents published by WikiLeaks appear to show the Australian Government asking for a specific exemption for Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator from investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions.

ISDS provisions allow companies from countries covered by the trade deal to sue a federal, state and local government for policies they consider detrimental to their business interests.

It means they could take legal action of the Federal Government plain-packaging cigarette laws, for example.

The proposed exemptions are enclosed in square brackets in the documents, which mean that they have been raised but not agreed to by other parties.

Dr Patricia Ranald from fair trade group AFTINET has told ABC reporters that the leaked documents show Australia has no faith in the extremely broad ISDS provisions.

“Our Government has previously given assurances that general protections or exemptions for health, environment and public welfare would prevent such suits in the future,” she said.

“But the fact that they have name specific institutions, like the PBS and Medicare, as having to be exempted from ISDS reveals that the general protections are not adequate.”

But Australia’s backing of the ISDS chapter is allegedly “subject to certain conditions”, but there is no word on what these conditions are.

Dr Ranald says Australia might support the idea in exchange for export access trade-offs.

“We know, again from previous statements by the Trade Minister, that those conditions include market access for US agricultural markets,” she said.

“So what we learn from this text is that the Australian Government is using ISDS as a bargaining chip.”

A spokesperson for Trade Minister Andrew Robb has maintained that Australia will not sign an agreement that prevents it from acting in the public interest.

Consumer group Choice has welcomed Australia's apparent resistance to the far-reaching ISDS provisions.

“Although we have only been able to hear about this through unofficial leaks, it is encouraging that the Australian negotiators haven't yet conceded completely over investor state dispute settlement,” Choice chief executive Alan Kirkland said in a statement.

“Although Australia seems to be resisting this chapter as drafted, we need to know what the conditions are that would see us sign up to it.”