SBS World News Radio: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull remains hopeful Australia will ratify controversial TPP agreement.
The Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the Greens are urging the government to abandon the deal, saying they will block a vote on it in parliament.
Mr Turnbull is urging countries in the Pacific Rim to ratify the deal to keep pressure on incoming US President Donald Trump - who is also opposed to it.
US President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement - the world's biggest trade deal.
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Speaking in New York to the Times of London newspaper, the incoming President says the US is getting ripped off by its trading partners.
"The problem is the United States is always taken advantage of. We have hundreds of billions of dollars trade deficits with China. We have 805 billion dollars of trade deficits with the world. You almost say: 'Who's making these deals?' When you're losing that kind of money, right? Well, I do believe in free trade, I love free trade. But it's got to be smart trade, so I call it fair trade."
The TPP is a massive proposed free trade deal involving Australia, the US and ten other countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.
China and Korea are not involved.
It isn't yet ratified but if it is, the Australian Government says it will slash tariffs and boost regional trade.
Prime Minister Turnbull says the TPP can go ahead - even if it doesn't have the support of a Trump Administration.
"There has been active consideration among the other countries in the TPP as to how the agreement can proceed without the United States or proceed pending the United States making a decision."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says the TPP should go no further.
"That door has closed. It is now time for our Government and our foreign policy planners to be looking at other options. The trans-Pacific partnership is dead in the water and I do not know why the government is pursuing that agenda when we've got other good things we can do in the space of trade and Australian jobs."
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is focusing on the TPP.
He hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sydney last weekend,and both made it clear they were pushing for the deal to to go ahead.
The Japanese parliament ratified it last year.
The two leaders want nations involved in the TPP to ratify the deal in their countries, in order to pressure Donald Trump and the US Congress to make the deal a reality.
"Here the Government goes again, worrying about the things they can't affect, like the trans-Pacific partnership, they're talking about all the wrong issues. Donald Trump, now president, has made it clear he's not going to ratify the TPP. So, why on earth is Malcolm Turnbull taking us down a frolic on a treaty which the Americans are never going to sign?"
The head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, Niels Marquardt, says it's not too late for US politicians to convince Mr Trump of the TPP's benefits.
"It's very difficult to imagine how we're going to move forward with revitalising, reviving and stimulating the American economy without having a very serious trade component to the policy that he chooses. We have something sitting on the table here in the form of TPP that is too beautiful a gift to spurn."
But Bill Shorten says Labor will be focusing on domestic politics in 2017.
"We can worry about what Donald Trump does or doesn't do but in the meantime we need to focus on Australian jobs. This summer when I was on break, people wanted to know can their kids get apprenticeships? Older Australians who might have lost their job want to know what can we do to help them re-enter the job market."
The third largest party in Parliament - the Greens - says it will join with Labor and block a vote in parliament if the government tries to ratify the deal.
But, on a visit to regional Queensland, Prime Minister Turnbull accused Labor of being protectionists.
He says Australia needs to open up Asian markets to create more jobs at home.
He remains hopeful the TPP will become a reality.
"We certainly are committed to ratifying the TPP and we'll be talking to other parties in the Senate in order to achieve the passage of the legislation."
