John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the member for Fairfax that there has been a lot of reaction to evidence given before the Cole inquiry, but one reaction that came from a Western Australian politician whose Christian name is Kim did catch my eye. It did not come from the better-known Western Australian politician with the Christian name Kim; it came from none other than the Western Australian Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Kim Chance, in the Western Australian Labor government—bearing in mind that he is agriculture minister in the largest wheat-exporting state of Australia. I think what he had to say is a piece of very good advice to everybody on both sides of the House. I will read what he had to say:

If there has been corruption in the West Australian or in the Australian wheat industry and its marketing then I would be very disturbed—

nobody can argue with that proposition—

but let’s wait until we hear from the Cole inquiry about what the situation really is rather than commenting on bits and pieces of evidence as they fall out of the inquiry.

The reality is that the level of investigation and the measure of transparency displayed by the Australian government is greater than that of any government in the world. This government has subjected itself to an inquiry that no other government, according to my advice, has been willing to do. We have had these indignant comments from the Leader of the Opposition and from the member for Griffith that Cole cannot investigate these matters. That is wrong. It is wrong with a capital W.

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