Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. It follows my previous question, in particular the character of the answer he gave. I refer to the Prime Minister’s statement to parliament this week:

We established this inquiry because Volcker had made an adverse finding about AWB Ltd and other companies; he did not make an adverse finding about the Australian government. If he had, then the terms of reference—

for the Cole inquiry—

would have gone further than they have.

How can this claim have any credibility, now that we know that the Volcker inquiry did not receive full documentation from the Australian government, as your last answer amply demonstrated? Isn’t the Prime Minister’s entire Volcker defence constructed on the basis of a lie?

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