Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer again to his statement to the parliament on 25 March 2003 when he said:

... the oil for food program has been immorally and shamefully rorted by Saddam Hussein, who has used the proceeds of it to acquire his weapons capacity ...

Prime Minister, on what intelligence assessment did you base this statement, and when did you receive it?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That statement was based on quite widely circulated material—and I refer in particular to an address by the British foreign secretary, Mr Jack Straw; for the benefit of the member, I will get him the precise reference—and also plenty of open source reports at the time which suggested that a number of things were happening: that Saddam was selling oil on a bilateral basis to bypass the UN sanction and was also adopting the practice of leaving unspent amounts in the United Nations escrow account and then pointing to the inevitable suffering of his own people to support his argument that the suffering was due to the behaviour of the allies. That is the basis of the claim, and it is totally accurate.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Has the Prime Minister finished his answer?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was whether he based it on any intelligence assessment.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member does not have the call.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So you have no—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith does not have the call.