Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. When did the Prime Minister and his ministers first become aware of the plan to prevent former senior Saddam Hussein Baath Party official Yusef Abdul Rahman from being purged?

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

I do not know; I will have to check that. But let me tackle the very foundation of the question. I would have thought that, as a student of history, the Leader of the Opposition would see as absolutely absurd the proposition that, when a dictatorial regime is removed, no single official who was a member of the ruling party of the time should ever be left in a position of authority. It never happened in Germany. To my knowledge, it never happened in Japan. The Leader of the Opposition, equally as a student of history, will know that it was a condition of having a job in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that you were a member of the Baath Party. The whole basis of this question is absurd. Of course, I will find out precisely when some notice in relation to this matter was communicated to the government and who it was. I will endeavour to help the Leader of the Opposition. But can I say, with the very greatest of respect, to the Leader of the Opposition: the question is based on an absurd proposition.