Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith knows full well the difference in this issue. It is about allegations of kickbacks and it is about allegations of the use of Alia. This is about questions with regard to the contracts. The substantive issue here is that these questions were answered to the satisfaction of the United Nations, which was running the oil for food program. The opposition know that, and they are just trying to create a political scandal out of this. This government has been totally transparent in offering up all the information to the Cole inquiry, as was clearly indicated to me by ministers in the Iraqi government. How complimentary they were of the fact that the Australian government has established this inquiry to get to the bottom of this matter.

See this speech in context