Some of Australia’s strongest advocates of a free and open internet have slammed the Government for moves to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which they call a “looming disaster for Australian citizens.”

Internet freedom fighters Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) and Greens Senator Scott Ludlum have warned the astounding level of user-restriction and potential for corporate gain will come at the cost of privacy and intellectual freedom.

A draft of the Intellectual Property chapter of the TPP has been leaked by WikiLeaks and has confirmed the fears of many who have monitored the almost total lack of information from secretive negotiations over the last few years.

“We have one piece of the TPPA puzzle, and it is chilling. The Greens will move for the rest of the document to be made public to the Parliament and the Australian people, before the Government signs up to something we will regret,” Senator Ludlum says.

“The TPP text still forces internet providers to police Australian internet users and enables the US to place us under surveillance, justified as a US-led crackdown on internet piracy.

“The current TPPA text also entrenches the disadvantages Australians experience in being ripped off with unfair IT pricing.”

Electronic Frontiers Australia has raised concern over the term ‘fair use’ of intellectual property, which appears just once in the text and seemingly is only applicable in very specific circumstances.

An EFA statement said: “Only Vietnam has had the mettle to stand up to every other negotiating country and propose fair use as a positive right.”

“On this issue alone, EFA challenges Prime Minister Tony Abbott to provide evidence for his claim about the TPP that ‘in the end everyone is better off’, of course this is not a Coalition-only issue. Most of the negotiations were conducted during the term of the previous Labor government.”

Consumer group CHOICE has spoken out as well, with CEO Alan Kirkland saying; “while CHOICE condemns copyright infringement, we certainly don’t agree that an individual downloading Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones for personal use should be open to criminal prosecution.”

The leaked text came from the 19th round of discussions; the TPP agreement is undergoing its 22nd round of talks in Salt Lake City this week.