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. Deputy Prime Minister, given that the wheat price went up by more than $50 per metric tonne in the AWB’s contract with Saddam Hussein, why did your government continue to turn a blind eye to this fact, particularly as AWB employee, Mr Hogan, has stated that a $50 increase would have been detected because it would have rendered Australian wheat at an exceptionally high price when measured against the international market price? Deputy Prime Minister, if we cannot turn to the leader of the National Party to tell us what the international wheat price is, who can we turn to?

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

In answer to the last part of the question, certainly not the Australian Labor Party. The first point that needs to be cleared up here is that the contracts were not with Saddam Hussein; the contracts were with the United Nations oil for food program.

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Kelvin Thomson interjecting

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

Order! The member for Wills is warned!

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

They had the responsibility to scrutinise every aspect of those contracts. On this issue of prices, it was not DFAT’s responsibility to check the prices on the UN contracts; it was the UN’s responsibility. The United Nations engaged professional operators to assess and establish whether price and value were credible. They scrutinised every contract with professional advisers on price and value. That was done by the UN. That is the answer to the member’s question.