Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry, the honourable Leader of the Opposition says ‘without qualification’. He includes in the quote the qualification ‘of its own volition’—that is, it is perfectly clear that Commissioner Cole is not alleging at that point that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade knew that AWB were paying kickbacks. That is obvious.

Point No. 2: if the Leader of the Opposition would only read the report, he makes that clear in the conclusion he draws. The Leader of the Opposition claims he has read the report. It is yet another example of the Leader of the Opposition misleading this parliament. Of course the Leader of the Opposition has not read the report, because if he were to read the report he would find that two or so pages further on the commissioner draws his conclusions, and his conclusions are that the department did not know. The Leader of the Opposition can spend the whole of question time and the whole of the rest of his time as the Leader of the Opposition—which may not be very long—trying to establish that Commissioner Cole concluded that the department knew; but, frankly, the department did not know and the Leader of the Opposition’s attempts to slur the reputation of officials of my department are reprehensible.

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