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. I refer the minister to his non-answer to my last question. I refer the minister to the statement of the then Chief Executive of the AWB, Mr Rogers, that the July 1999 changes in the contracts with Iraq were discussed ‘with DFAT in Canberra before we proceeded’. Given that this statement by Mr Rogers was made more than three weeks ago, the Volcker inquiry has been ongoing for about two years and that the contract changes that we are talking about were at the very beginning of what was to become a five-year long $300 million scandal, how on earth can you stand up in the parliament today and evade answering the question? Will you report back to parliament by the end of the day on the question I just asked? When did the meeting happen, who was there and what was discussed?

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

Order! The member for Griffith will rephrase the second part of that question.

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

Will the minister report back to parliament by the end of today on the answers to questions concerning: when did his officials first meet with the AWB in Canberra after the July contract changes with the Iraqis, who were those officials and who did they meet from the AWB and what was discussed? These are serious matters.

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

The first point is that we have established the Cole commission of inquiry to investigate all of these matters. As the Minister for Foreign Affairs has outlined, we are the only country out of about 66 countries—

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, on a point of order: there is nothing in Mr Cole’s terms of reference which goes to the question of the government’s competence in its management of the oil for food program.

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

The Deputy Prime Minister is in order.

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

I say again that all these matters are being canvassed within the Cole commission of inquiry.

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, on a point of order: the Deputy Prime Minister is seeking to use the cover of the Cole royal commission, which has no powers to investigate this matter—

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

The member for Griffith will resume his seat. The Deputy Prime Minister has barely begun to answer the question, and he is in order.

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

The Labor Party keeps interrupting when I am trying to answer the question. I will state again that the Cole commission of inquiry has been established to get to the facts of the matter of this whole issue. That is currently part heard. We should be allowing the Cole commission of inquiry to complete its work and deliver its conclusions. As to the issue in the last part of the member for Griffith’s question, I indicated before that it was quite a complex question on whom, where, when and what dates and what information. I said I would find out for him and I will find out for him and bring it back.