Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister repeated this three-part argument today in parliament. He said that there were no adverse findings by Volcker and that, if he had found anything wrong with what the government had done, the Prime Minister would have commissioned a wider commission of inquiry. That is his logic. Of course, that is not the first time the Prime Minister has said that. He said that formerly in parliament and we asked him to confirm it today. On 31 October, he said:

... having received in the case of Australia full responses and cooperation and full documentation, if there were anything lacking in the behaviour of Australia in relation to her obligations, the Volcker inquiry would have so reported.

That is the government’s case as to why Mr Cole has narrow terms of reference. It rests entirely on the government’s Volcker defence—

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