Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

With your indulgence, Mr Speaker: can I state on behalf of the opposition that we are very glad that women are going to get access to this vaccine—the result of the splendid work done by a great Australian scientist. It is a very good outcome. My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Minister, given your confirmation of this finding by the Cole commission, which states:

By June 2004 DFAT was aware that AWB’s wheat prices had included costs associated with transportation of wheat within Iraq, that AWB claimed to have retained and paid money to a Jordanian trucking company in relation to transportation within Iraq, and that AWB had conceded that the Jordanian company might of its own volition have provided kickbacks to the regime ...

which I might say is an unqualified statement, on what basis did the minister direct his department three months later, on the eve of the Australian federal election, to tell the US Senate that, in relation to the allegations against AWB—and recollect what that finding was—the Australian government rejected the allegations entirely and that—I again quote from the instructions—it unequivocally ‘dismissed the allegations’?

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