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

The Leader of the Opposition interjects. The Leader of the Opposition two months ago was not saying that it was a cover-up. The Leader of the Opposition was saying that the government was corrupt—that the Deputy Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, other ministers and I were involved in corruption. ‘The government is corrupt’ has been abandoned and the new position is now that ‘the government is involved in a cover-up’. The simple fact of the matter is that officials from my department have been before the Cole commission and there has been no evidence from those officials that the government has been involved in a cover-up at all. No amount of assertion from the opposition will change the truth.

Here it talks about a cable that came in, and an officer of my department absolutely and quite diligently did follow up that cable—and I call on people who have but a passing interest in this issue to look at the transcript of the evidence of the Cole inquiry. Ms Zena Armstrong is a very able and very decent officer of my department—and I stand up for Zena Armstrong. She is a good woman and she is a decent woman.

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