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

My question is addressed to the Acting Prime Minister. I refer to the trade minister’s rescue mission to Baghdad in February to save the current wheat contract with Iraq, following Iraqi reaction to the $300 million wheat for weapons scandal. I also refer to the trade minister’s statement to this parliament on the success of that visit when he boasted that it was important that an Australian government minister should ‘stand face to face, eyeball to eyeball, and shake hands on an arrangement’. Given Wheat Australia’s statement yesterday that negotiations have now reached an impasse on this $100 million contract that is so important for Australia’s wheat farmers, will the trade minister now be required to travel from Paris to Iraq and take other necessary diplomatic measures to get these critical negotiations back on track?

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