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

by leave—During question time today, the Leader of the Opposition asked me a number of questions in relation to material provided by the government to the Volcker inquiry. One of those questions was based on an answer to a question on notice from Senator Faulkner. The question on notice asked by Senator Faulkner was whether ‘the Volcker investigators examined electronic files’, to which the answer was obviously no because the idea of allowing others to examine the electronic files of DFAT was not something that the department was going to embrace. I have, however, been informed that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did search its electronic files for relevant material, and it downloaded all the material relevant to the Volcker inquiry that it was technically possible to do. That material was made available to Volcker.

The point I would make is that the allegation—that, because Volcker did not have physical access to the electronic files, the government was hiding from Volcker the material on the electronic files—is baseless, because the relevant material, to the extent it was technically possible, was downloaded by DFAT and made available. So I reaffirm that I have in no way misled the House and I reject the Leader of the Opposition’s baseless allegation.

See this speech in context