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 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Isn’t it a fact that Mr Trevor Flugge of the AWB wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister personally about his concerns regarding the wheat trade with Iraq just 10 days before the AWB again wrote to your department with their proposal to engage Jordanian trucking companies to assist their trade with Iraq? Deputy Prime Minister, how could DFAT have written back to the AWB just three days later formally advising them that this would not contravene sanctions against Iraq, without getting a written legal opinion, without to this day being able to track down the legal officer in the department who is responsible for consulting with them on this matter and without even bothering to consult the UN, despite your statement today that it was the UN and not the government that had the power to approve contract arrangements with Iraq?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With regard to the correspondence that the member refers to, obviously as the Chairman of the Wheat Board Mr Flugge corresponded with me from time to time on a whole range of issues. On the specific issue that the member raises with regard to the AWB-DFAT exchange of letters, it was in reference to a general inquiry on the possible use of Jordanian transport companies, and the exchange contained no mention of the specific company. As Volcker and Cole have highlighted, AWB had already been using Alia for around a year prior to the AWB letter.

I just make the point here that the Volcker inquiry has forensically investigated the oil for food program. It requested that governments that had companies involved in the oil for food program conduct an inquiry into whether domestic laws had been broken in those countries. That is what we are doing. The Cole commission of inquiry is under way now and is part heard. Commissioner Cole made very clear his intentions in his statement last Friday. I think the best thing to do is to allow him to conduct his work, complete the inquiry and come back with his conclusions.