Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. The Leader of the Opposition said that this money may have been used for the procurement of research on weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein. When it suited, we were lying about weapons of mass destruction; last night on Lateline we were funding research into weapons of mass destruction! But still we should have kept Saddam Hussein in power! While we were funding his research into weapons of mass destruction, he was killing people in Israel by funding suicide bombers! All these terrible things were happening, but we should have kept him in power!

With the greatest of respect to the House, Mr Speaker, I do not think the opposition has a scintilla of credibility on this issue. We very much look forward to Mr Justice Cole completing his report. He will produce his report and we can all sit down and have a look at it. Mr Justice Cole is not a political player. He is not trying to make some childlike party political point to boost his support in the caucus room of the Labor Party or, as in the case of the member for Griffith, trying to undermine the Leader of the Opposition and become the Leader of the Opposition himself, which is obviously what part of the game is here. No, Mr Justice Cole is not playing that game. He is cautiously and thoughtfully looking through the documents. He is going to interview people from my department. I am very happy for them to go forward and talk to him, to give the details in a dispassionate way.

This campaign by the opposition is out there. It is pretty much the most dishonest and disgraceful I have seen in 21 years in parliament. The opposition should hang its head in shame.

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