Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

He did his job. During the Gulf War, we ensured that the interests of the growers were also protected, and I take issue with the member who has just interjected, because some contracts were under risk. As minister for primary industries at the time, I announced a $33 million ex gratia payment to grain growers. In office, Labor protected the integrity of the UN sanctions. But we also ensured grower interests were protected. That is what is called ‘taking responsibility’. That is what a minister should do. Not this crowd; not this clutch of ministers; not this group, who were warned time and time again. In fact, if you read the Cole commission report, the Cole commission established that they were warned 35 times yet chose to investigate nothing. They were not only not proactive—in the way that Labor was when it was in charge in ensuring that sanctions were not breached—but also incompetent and negligent. The ministers did not fulfil their duties.

The department of foreign affairs failed big time. The Cole commission report is damning about the activities of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I will quote this point, which came out of the Cole inquiry:

… DFAT did very little in relation to the allegations or other information it received …

The report goes on elsewhere to say:

DFAT did not have in place any systems or procedures in relation to how its staff should proceed in response to allegations relating to the breach of sanctions.

Damning indeed. But where does the buck stop? Should the government be able to get away with simply blaming its department? Should it be accepting any responsibility? Not this government. This government was asleep at the wheel and is now trying to crawl under a carpet and hide. So embarrassed is it that it will not take any responsibility. Now we have this half-baked measure, because it has to do something but it does not know what to do because the coalition parties are divided as to what the correct course of action should be. The buck stops with the ministers, and they cannot get away from the problems that they have caused.

It is clear that a succession of National Party ministers have let Australian wheat growers and the nation down badly. I ask this question: if the National Party—the old Country Party; the once proud Country Party—cannot stand up for wheat growers, who can they stand up for? They have let them down.

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