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

My question is again to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer to the minister’s advice to AWB last year that AWB ‘can’t be responsible for what happened to the money after it was paid to Alia’. I note that, after three questions on this, the minister has not denied the content of that advice. I also refer to the minister’s confirmation that the government knew AWB had made payments to Alia and that the government also knew Alia was a front for Saddam Hussein’s regime. Given that the minister had formal legal obligations under Australian domestic law through the Customs Regulations 1958 to enforce sanctions against Iraq, why did the minister tell AWB that they could not be held responsible for what happened to the money they paid to Alia when in fact they could be held responsible and under law they should be held responsible?

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