Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Barker for his interest. By raising this question he is, as usual, assiduously representing the interests of the good people of the electorate of Barker, which is adjacent to the electorate of Mayo. The Prime Minister set up the Cole inquiry in response to the request by the Secretary-General of the United Nations that national authorities take action against companies in their jurisdictions which have been named in a negative way in the Volcker report.

To put that into some perspective: over 2,000 companies from 66 countries, including Australia, were named in the Volcker report. Leaving Australia aside, many of the 65 other countries have taken no action whatsoever. Of those that have, most have simply referred the Volcker allegations to investigative authorities. There are two exceptions: one is India, which has had—I think is still having—a closed door inquiry; and South Africa has just established an inquiry, which has not yet got under way. As the Prime Minister has just said, no country has set up a transparent inquiry with the powers of what we call a royal commission in the way that the Australian government has done.

During his meeting with the Australian Deputy Prime Minister the day before yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Dr Chalabi, praised the Australian government’s decision to establish the Cole inquiry. It was a clear appreciation by the Iraqi government of what Australia has been doing. By the way, Dr Chalabi made the point, as the Prime Minister of Iraq and others have made on occasions, that they are delighted with the contribution this government made to get rid of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and they appreciate the ongoing work of the Australian Defence Force.

Interestingly enough, the Wall Street Journal, which I would have thought is an extraordinarily credible newspaper and which is read all the way round the world, praised the Australian government recently for establishing the Cole inquiry. This is what the article said:

But the good news is that—

Australia—

has had the nerve to sort the wheat from the chaff—and do it publicly

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