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

To assist the House, the motion is in 12 points and this is the seventh of them. I continue to move:

(7)

in fact the Member for Gwydir had a discussion with senior colleagues about AWB, Volcker and the Oil for Food Program in early 2005, followed by a one on one meeting with the Prime Minister to talk about AWB, and a meeting with AWB in June 2005;

(8)

the Member for Gwydir told the Insiders Program that while he was a Cabinet Minister he held no shares in any company, and neither did his wife;

(9)

in fact the member for Gwydir’s wife held shares in 8 companies between 1996 and 1998, shares in 7 companies between 1998 and 1999, shares in Coles Myer and Wattyl between 1999 and 2004, and still held shares in Coles Myer after December 2004;

(10)

the Minister for Foreign Affairs met with Mr Volcker on 27 September 2005 and was briefed that the Report would contain bad news for AWB;

(11)

on 4 October the Foreign Affairs Minister met with senior AWB officials in Canberra and told them that the Volcker report would implicate them in the corruption of the Oil for Food Program; and

(12)

the next day, 5 October, the Member for Gwydir lodged a sale note offloading shares held by him and his wife.

There is little doubt that the ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal is one of the worst political scandals this country has witnessed.

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