Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to speak on the motion to take note of the report of the Cole inquiry into the UN oil for food scandal, which has occurred as a result of the current government’s negligence. I would first like to quote from the censure motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, which basically outlines Labor’s concerns about this issue:

That this House censure the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs for:

(1)

its negligence in failing to act on the 35 warnings it received over a five year period thereby allowing this $300 million wheat for weapons scandal to occur;

(2)

for its attempted cover-up of this scandal through its attempts to shut down a US Senate inquiry into AWB in 2004; its reluctance to cooperate with the Volcker Inquiry; and its failure to provide the Cole Inquiry with powers to determine whether or not Ministers did their job in enforcing UN sanctions against Iraq;

(3)

for the cost that has been borne by Australia’s hardworking wheat farmers because of this Government’s negligence—farmers who have now seen half a billion dollars of their Iraqi wheat market lost;

(4)

for allowing $300 million to be funnelled from AWB to Saddam Hussein’s regime which the Iraqi dictator used to buy guns, bombs and bullets for later use against Australian and coalition troops; and

(5)

for the damage inflicted on Australia’s international reputation because this Government’s negligence turned Australia into the world’s single biggest violator of UN sanctions against Iraq.

This is a scandal of enormous proportion and has led to the current government seriously damaging Australia’s reputation internationally. It is fair to say that much has been said and will be said about this shameful period of Australian history—a period which I fear will be looked back on in years and decades to come with shock and disbelief.

Due to the complexity of this issue I would like to briefly summarise the events. In 1990, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq. This meant that no funds were to be provided to the government of Iraq or to persons within Iraq. It also prevented nations from trading with Iraq, except for the provision of medical or humanitarian supplies. To prevent civilians from suffering hardship or starvation, the UN Security Council established the oil for food program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil under UN approved contracts. The proceeds from these sales were to go into a UN controlled account, and Iraq was permitted to buy humanitarian goods and foodstuffs. Through this program Iraq began to buy significant quantities of wheat from the Australian Wheat Board, the AWB, in 1996. By 1999 AWB was selling to Iraq about 10 per cent of Australia’s annual wheat exports.

The problem is that the AWB began paying kickbacks or additional moneys directly to a third party, which was providing funds to the Iraq government—that is, to the Saddam Hussein regime. This was illegal, and the AWB knew it. The AWB continued paying these fees and hiding these payments from about 1999. So under this government $300 million was funnelled from AWB to Saddam Hussein, who used those funds to buy those guns and those bombs and those bullets which were later used against Australian and coalition troops. This is also being done, I might add, through a period of time when there was the debate in this country as to whether or not we should enter what was the so-called coalition of the willing and go into combat in Iraq.

It disturbs me very deeply to think that while we were having that debate in this country, a very divided debate where there were very strong opinions against our entry into this war, and while the government was making its decision—I believe much earlier than it announced—to go to Iraq, this very action is occurring. As has been said in many debates in the parliament—and now, thankfully, many commentators in this country are also talking about this whole event in very open ways—while this was all happening warnings were being given around the world. At the UN, all over the place, people were talking about the potential problem we had on our hands with the AWB paying this money to a trucking company that owned no trucks. The whole thing is so ridiculous, just so out of reality, that if it was not so serious it could be the plot for a Monty Python movie. Yet it seems to me, to the commentators and to everybody who looks at this—even to Cole to some extent—that there were warnings abounding around the place. The deeply disturbing thing for me is that no-one in the government—the Prime Minister, the Minister for Trade, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, their departments, their officers—seemed to think that it was an important enough thing to do something about. This is extraordinary.

At the same time that this is all happening, at the same time that $300 million is flowing into that ghastly regime, I as a member of this parliament, sitting in the parliament as a very proud member of this parliament, copped abuse being hurled at me constantly from the other side of the parliament. Whenever we got up and said, ‘We disagree with our engagement in the war in Iraq,’ I and my colleagues on this side of parliament were all accused of being fans of Saddam Hussein. I remember those interjections very well. I remember every one of them. I took offence at them then and I take extraordinary offence at them now—now that we know what was going on while members of this government were hurling that sort of abuse across the chamber. Whenever we got up and said, ‘We disagree with the engagement in Iraq,’ at the same time $300 million was flowing through to that very regime—and I was being accused, because of my objection, of being a ‘fan’ of Saddam Hussein; that we did not want to see him removed. The immorality of this is gobsmacking—that is the only word I can apply to it. It disturbs me greatly. Now what we have got is a government holding up this five-volume defence—and I am not in any way accusing Commissioner Cole of anything here—that they made certain they would get by the terms of reference presented to Commissioner Cole, as their means of escaping their responsibility.

As far as Westminster systems go, as far as honesty in government goes, as far as the responsibility of individual ministers goes, I despair as to where we now sit in this country in terms of responsible government—a government with morals and a morality we should be proud of, that we used to be proud of. This country had an amazingly fantastic international reputation once; I am not sure about it now. It is all thanks to the people ruling this country at the moment who seem to think they can just do what they want.

The government is really quick to say that it knew nothing about the kickbacks. That is very hard to believe. In fact, I think it is impossible to believe. But if you do believe it then you can only conclude that the government is extremely incompetent. The government received 35 warnings about these kickbacks and it chose to ignore all of them—35 warnings. I cannot believe that people in this government knew nothing of this occurrence.

The Cole inquiry report is 2,065 pages long—as I said, it is five volumes. The government says it did not do anything wrong and the Cole inquiry supports that, according to the terms of reference it had. But clearly that means that the government did not in fact do anything right. It was warned 35 times that the AWB was paying kickbacks, but it did nothing. It did not look into the matter at all. I do not think it is possible for any government to be more arrogant, incompetent or lazy in relation to such an important matter.

Our Australian troops, for whom we hold extraordinary pride, are over there representing us as best they can with the training they have had. We wish them well, every single one of them. Simon Crean, the Leader of the Opposition at the time, had the strength to stand up and say, when he was farewelling those troops with our Prime Minister in that first dispatch of troops to Iraq: ‘We wish every single one of you well. We truly, though, don’t believe you should be going’—and we still believe that.

It has saddened me even more this week when I heard, following the tabling of the report in the parliament, that there were a few celebratory little parties emerging around the corridors of this parliament. I could give the benefit of the doubt and imagine that it may be because we are heading into the Christmas period, but it is a little hard for me to convince myself that there was not a little bit of relief partying going on as well—‘Thank goodness we have got out of the Cole question; we’ve got that behind us. That is a thing we can move off our agenda.’ I find that pretty sad.

I know that a number of constituents in my electorate find this whole thing really quite deplorable and they have told me that. The Australian people deserve nothing more than for the Prime Minister of this country to come clean on exactly what has really been going on here. I talk about people having the knowledge. We have heard previous speakers refer to the fact that maybe there was an attitude around. Some people have supposedly reported conversations they have overheard where a suggestion might have been given that the AWB could have been doing something incorrectly and the response was: ‘Oh no, hang on, the AWB are a pretty responsible mob, they are a pretty good bunch of blokes, they wouldn’t do that.’

The whole philosophy of this government begs many questions, and the question for me is: if it is good enough for this government to make a decision that the AWB are good blokes, that they would never do anything wrong, why, at the same time, do we have people on welfare or with disability who have to prove that they are innocent to this government when they attempt to receive assistance payments? There is definitely an imbalance here. If this government thinks you are a pretty good bloke, a decent sort of fellow, you can do anything. But if you happen to be a welfare recipient in this country then you have a whole different set of tests to go through—and that philosophy and morality of the government we have running this country at the moment worries me.

I feel incredibly strongly that I need to put on record my total and absolutely heartfelt objection to this whole dirty episode. It is not good enough to hold up five volumes of a book as a firewall between you, the government, and the people. What is good enough is honesty and morality. But I am afraid it may be some time—in fact, it will be until there is a change of government—before we see any of those decencies come back into the Australian democratic system.

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