Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have listened to the censure motion today and I have listened to the huff and puff that has been outlined by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Griffith. Despite all their best efforts, despite all their best rhetoric, they still have not provided the silver bullet that they so lust after for what they require in this House. What we have is an inquiry regarding corruption within a government organisation. It will not be the first time. I suspect it will not be the last. What they are trying to do in today’s confected rage and the outline of their speeches is provide the connection between the ministers—the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the foreign affairs minister—and these deals. The fact is that they have not been able to find it, despite the time allocated today at length for them to put everything they know on the table to provide that linkage, to provide the smoking gun and the silver bullet. They failed to do so.

What has been and is today progressing is an inquiry. It has been hearing from witnesses. The government has been providing it with extensive support and documents and making officials available to it. Yet what those opposite are after, of course, is the provision of a linkage. They say that we all knew about this and we allowed it to go on. However, in their process, they tend to go over the top. They move that bridge too far and start talking about linkages with suicide bombings.

In terms of the linkages they are trying to find, I will quote from the editorial of the Weekend Australian of 4 February. It states:

Certainly there is no evidence yet that any minister knew the Australian Wheat Board was paying off people in Iraq. To date, all the admissions by the AWB officers before Commissioner Cole’s inquiry indicate that this was something they kept from politicians and their most senior staff.

This is the editorial from the Weekend Australian. Those at the Weekend Australian have heard the rhetoric from the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Griffith and are saying that the evidence is not there—‘The smoking gun is not there; you haven’t found it.’ Although those opposite may wish it were there, the reality is quite different.

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