Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I was speaking on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2006-2007 prior to the adjournment of this debate and speaking in support of the amendment moved by the member for Lilley to the second reading motion. In particular, I was speaking about the fact that on 17 February this year the Australian newspaper published a story about government members holding AWB Ltd shares. One of those named was the member for Gwydir, Mr Anderson. The story quoted the member for Gwydir saying that he sold his shares on the advice of his family accountant who suggested that he diversify his interests beyond rural investments.

According to the Australian, the member for Gwydir sold his shares and those belonging to his wife on 10 and 11 October 2005, but he did not declare the sale to the parliament at the time and did not lodge the required declaration until the day before the story ran. On 26 February this year, Mr Glenn Milne wrote a story about the share trading of the member for Gwydir. He referred to the fact that the sale took place just prior to the release of the Volcker report, which was highly critical of AWB. In this story the member for Gwydir denied any advance knowledge of the contents of the Volcker report. He said he had ‘always intended to sell his shares when the price hit $5’. This claim appears to contradict his earlier statement that, on the basis of advice from his accountant, he sold his shares in order to diversify his rural investments.

Furthermore, his claim that he intended to sell the AWB shares as soon as they reached $5 raises more questions than it answers. Indeed, if $5 was the trigger price for the sale of his shares, the member for Gwydir would have sold them on 10 March 2004. The share price hit that point on another 30 occasions between 10 March 2004 and 5 October 2005. But the member for Gwydir did not sell; he held on to the stock. The member for Gwydir also told Mr Milne that he had not spoken to anyone about AWB Ltd and Volcker. He said:

Alexander Downer didn’t talk to me and neither did anyone else.

He then went on the ABC Insiders program and said:

I want to make it absolutely plain that the three senior colleagues of mine who are in the firing line at the moment over this, none of them in any way spoke to me ...

Neither of these statements has stood the test of time. On 27 February this year we discovered that the member for Gwydir had a discussion with senior colleagues about AWB, Volcker and the oil for food program early last year. We also discovered that the member for Gwydir then had a one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister to talk about AWB executives, including the now disgraced Andrew Lindberg. This appears to contradict the member for Gwydir’s earlier claim that he had no discussions with his colleagues about AWB and Volcker. The member for Gwydir also met with AWB last June. It seems not unreasonable to conclude that AWB was on the member for Gwydir’s radar screen for some considerable time.

The member for Gwydir also told the Insiders program that when he was a cabinet minister he held no shares in any company and neither did his wife, because it was too difficult. He said shares were held only in managed funds. This is not in fact correct. Between 1996 and 1998, the member for Gwydir’s wife held shares in eight companies, and none of these shares was in managed funds. Between 1998 and 1999, she directly owned shares in seven companies. Between 1999 and 2004, she held shares in Coles Myer and Wattle. Mr Anderson’s wife still held shares in Coles Myer after December 2004.

The member for Gwydir needs to clarify his dealings in this share affair matter and his declaration of those dealings to the parliament. We know that the member for Gwydir had a number of meetings throughout 2005 about AWB, Volcker and the ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal. We know that the Minister for Foreign Affairs met with Volcker on 27 September last year, before the release of the report, and was briefed on the findings that were clearly bad news for AWB. We know that on the evening of 4 October the minister met with senior AWB officials in Canberra and told them that Volcker would link them with the corruption of the oil for food program. Finally, we know that the very next day, 5 October, the member for Gwydir lodged a sale note, off-loading shares held by him and his wife. The final settlement of this sale occurred on 10 October.

The member for Gwydir has not been able to get his story straight. He has contradicted himself on the facts, and the whole country wants to know just how the member for Gwydir did know when to sell those shares. How did he know when to sell if it was not for information provided by someone close to him? Was it Darryl Hockey, the AWB public relations manager, who used to work for him as a staffer? Was it Andrew Lindberg, brought in by The Nationals to head up AWB after running WorkCover in Victoria for National Party minister Roger Hallam? Or was it the foreign affairs minister or the Prime Minister who let him know that AWB was in trouble? It is time we got the truth, not excuses and stories that do not check out.

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