House debates

Wednesday, 15 February 2006

Questions without Notice

Oil for Food Program

2:13 pm

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

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. I refer to his statement today that the government had moved quickly to address the current crisis confronting Australia’s hardworking wheat farmers and the Prime Minister’s statement just now that he had discharged all his responsibilities to protect the interests of those wheat farmers. Does the Deputy Prime Minister believe, to use his own words, that the government moved quickly to try and address any of the 15 warnings delivered to the government over the five-year period that this $300 million ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal ran—warnings in January 2000, March 2000, November 2000, March 2001, May 2002 and June 2003, right through to September 2004? Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that, if he had actually moved quickly in response to any of these warnings, Australian farmers would not be facing the crisis they are currently facing?

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