Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. Lord Acton famously said, ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The Liberal and National parties have degenerated into parties who will say and do anything to hang on to political power. It is time for the cover-up to stop. Lord Acton also said: ‘Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.’ He was absolutely right. Let us have no more excuses. Let us have no more of this sleazy defence that corruption is a way of life in the Middle East—that everyone does it and it is just the way business is done.

First, it is illegal to bribe foreign officials. It is an express breach of Australian law. Secondly, the AWB kickbacks were an express breach of the UN sanctions. The whole idea of the oil for food program was to stop money from going into Saddam’s pocket. AWB did more than any other company in the world to circumvent that program. Thirdly, we expressly denied we were doing it. To anyone who asked—to the Canadians, to the UN, to US senators—we looked them in the eye and said, ‘We are not paying any kickbacks to Iraq.’ So let us show some standards.

I mentioned earlier today why I thought the position of the AWB’s CEO, Mr Lindberg, was untenable, but other heads must roll at the AWB as well. It is laughable that the directors have put their hands up for a substantial pay rise. At $4.64 a share on 6 February, AWB shares have lost 23 per cent of their value since the Cole commission commenced. Indeed, the AWB share price went up just before the Cole commission started. There were assurances given to the market by AWB management that AWB had done nothing wrong. This seems to me to be clearly a case of misleading the Stock Exchange. Is the ASX doing anything about this? Is ASIC doing anything about this?

Indeed, the problems of AWB may not finish there. Was the former Iraqi government, led by Saddam Hussein, a terrorist organisation? The Prime Minister, Minister Downer and others certainly wanted us to believe that it was. If so, did AWB breach the government’s antiterrorism legislation in paying kickbacks? Beyond this, Ministers Downer and Vaile and the Prime Minister himself have to explain how the biggest corruption scandal in Australia’s history could have been going on right under their noses without their being aware of it.

Is it incompetence of an unprecedented order, wilfully turning a blind eye, ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ or a massive cover-up? That is why we need the terms of reference of the Cole commission widened. We need real answers to our questions. It is time for the cover-ups to stop. It is time to extend the Cole commission’s terms of reference to cover the conduct of government ministers and officials and it is time for ministers who either do not understand ethics and integrity and trade and foreign policy or are too incompetent to see that honesty prevails throughout their areas of portfolio responsibility to make way for ministers who can.

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