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

I thank the honourable member for Pearce for her question—and for a serious question about this issue. Let me make it clear that the relationship between Australia and the United States, which has been in the past ridiculed by the opposition, is a very strong and a very successful relationship. The Australian Ambassador to the United States, Dennis Richardson, met overnight with Senator Norm Coleman. The ambassador told Senator Coleman that Michael Thawley—Ambassador Richardson’s predecessor—had made representations last year to Senator Coleman in good faith, and that he and Michael Thawley, the Australian government and indeed many others had at that time considered AWB Ltd to be an organisation of repute and integrity. There was no evidence to suggest wrongdoing at that time, as even the United States Wheat Associates had conceded in June 2003, and AWB Ltd had privately and publicly strenuously denied any allegations of wrongdoing. Indeed, Mr Richardson had received a similar message himself, as he told Senator Coleman, from AWB Ltd when he met them before taking up his post in June 2005.

Senator Coleman subsequently issued a statement following the meeting. He said that Mr Richardson had addressed his concerns and reassured him on several counts, including that the Cole inquiry will be completely unfettered in its efforts to determine the truth behind the allegations that AWB Ltd paid illegal kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime, that the Australian government would cooperate fully with the Cole inquiry and that after the Cole inquiry was completed its evidence would be turned over to relevant law enforcement entities as appropriate. Senator Coleman finished up by saying that he was hopeful that this would strengthen the already strong US-Australian relationship.

Some people, and I think we all know who they are here, think that Australia’s reputation has been trashed in the United States and that our strong response is inadequate. As a matter of fact, some 66 countries were mentioned in the Volcker inquiry. Over 2,000 companies were found by Volcker to have been involved in paying kickbacks from 66 different countries. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only country of the 66 countries to have set up an inquiry of this kind. So I would have thought that the opposition, which has made some of the most preposterous allegations I have heard in 21 years, including the Leader of the Opposition claiming the Australian government is responsible for the killing of American soldiers—

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