Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am quoting one of the most accurate assessments of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, by the Australian this week. It went on to say:

The most innocent explanation of Mr Downer’s behaviour is that he has been at DFAT too long, and, like his senior public servants, did not want to rock AWB’s boat. A worse one is that Mr Downer did not want to know what was going on and hoped that nobody would notice how renegade Australians were trading with the enemy, right up until the shooting started in 2003. Neither explanation is acceptable. After 10 years of largely competent service—

and that is the only area in which the Australian and I depart—

Mr Downer has demonstrated he no longer has the judgment to serve as Australia’s foreign minister—or in any higher office. His department needs a shake-up and a new minister. And talk among friends of the Foreign Minister that he could be a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Liberal Party, or even The Lodge, is simply not credible in light of what we know.

We know that—we always knew that on this side. The Australian has now come to realise that the Minister for Foreign Affairs is incompetent and not able to front up to the royal commission and answer questions. The Australian public expect him to explain how $300 million was able to get into the hands of the Saddam Hussein regime—the same regime that our government decided to declare war upon at around the same time. That is, of course, an absolute disgrace. (Time expired)

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