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

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer to his meeting with Paul Volcker in September 2005 and to reports today in which a Volcker inquiry official who participated in that meeting was quoted as saying:

“Downer’s attitude was, ‘Well, what else were they supposed to do? They really had no option if they—

the AWB—

want to do business in Iraq”

I quote further:

“When it was suggested to Downer that the Australian government might have advised the UN of its knowledge of breaches in UN sanctions, the Foreign Minister had remained silent.”

The report also says that the foreign minister behaved like ‘a pompous ass’. What did the minister actually say in this meeting? Is it not a fact that the minister has simply tried to cover up the government’s gross negligence in allowing AWB to pay $300 million to Saddam Hussein’s regime to buy guns, bombs and bullets for use against Australian troops?

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