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

You don’t think so? Well, I do. I think the Cole inquiry is doing a very good job. It is obtaining a wide amount of information. The Prime Minister and I have provided the Cole inquiry with all of our relevant documentation, and Commissioner Cole will draw his own conclusions. When he draws his conclusions, we will be able to talk about those conclusions. Did AWB Ltd deliberately and knowingly—or unknowingly—end up paying kickbacks through this trucking company into Iraq? That is something that the Cole commission is establishing. We certainly believed that AWB Ltd was adhering to Australian law. When I say ‘we’, I include myself, the Minister for Trade, the Prime Minister and other ministers, such as the minister for agriculture. I include members of the Australian Public Service, including desk officers in my department who are working day by day on these issues. We always did believe it.

The one shock I got in all of this was when Mr Agius presented his initial findings in January this year, which suggested that AWB Ltd may have knowingly been paying kickbacks. That came as a great surprise to all of us. It simply illustrates the fact that we have done the right thing by setting up this inquiry. Material is coming out in the inquiry which is helpful to all of us. This is the message I would have for Mr Blair. Off the top of my head, a couple of hundred companies from other countries were—according to Volcker—involved in kickbacks to Iraq.

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