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 again to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer to the minister’s statement last week regarding the many warnings the government received on the $300 million ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal. He said:

I—

that is, Mr Downer—

have demonstrated, if I may say so, characteristic diligence in ensuring that the department followed up the issue.

When the minister’s office received the 23 June 2003 cable warning him that all contracts—not some contracts but all contracts—had included a kickback of between 10 per cent and 19 per cent, why did the minister fail to act and allow the AWB to continue to fund this extraordinary corruption scandal through corrupt contracts with Iraq for a further 16 months? Isn’t it a fact that, through this scandal, the minister’s ‘characteristic diligence’ has instead been dedicated to a sustained effort at a cover-up?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, let me say in relation to the last part of the question that throughout all the hearings of the Cole inquiry—I do not mean the media reporting of it but the hearings of the Cole inquiry—there has been no evidence that the government has been involved in a cover-up.

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

Mr Beazley interjecting

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition interjects. The Leader of the Opposition two months ago was not saying that it was a cover-up. The Leader of the Opposition was saying that the government was corrupt—that the Deputy Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, other ministers and I were involved in corruption. ‘The government is corrupt’ has been abandoned and the new position is now that ‘the government is involved in a cover-up’. The simple fact of the matter is that officials from my department have been before the Cole commission and there has been no evidence from those officials that the government has been involved in a cover-up at all. No amount of assertion from the opposition will change the truth.

Here it talks about a cable that came in, and an officer of my department absolutely and quite diligently did follow up that cable—and I call on people who have but a passing interest in this issue to look at the transcript of the evidence of the Cole inquiry. Ms Zena Armstrong is a very able and very decent officer of my department—and I stand up for Zena Armstrong. She is a good woman and she is a decent woman.

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

Mr Rudd interjecting

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

Order! The member for Griffith has asked his question.

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

Mr Beazley interjecting

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition interjects. It shows how little you know about government officials any more. You have drifted away into the wilderness of opposition for a decade. You do not know these people and you do not know their modus operandi. You do not know the sort of people we are dealing with.

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

Order! The minister is well aware that he should address his remarks through the chair.

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, the point I make is that Zena Armstrong did follow this up, and I think she followed it up in an appropriate way. The point here is that if the Cole commission were to find that AWB Ltd knowingly paid kickbacks—and we will await the results of the Cole commission—they have done so in defiance of the government, in defiance of the United Nations and by all accounts—though this is yet to be fully tested in the Cole commission—in a way that was designed to obscure their actions from their very own board.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Ripoll interjecting

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

Order! The member for Oxley will come to order.

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is as simple as that. These spurious and empty allegations of the opposition deserve to be rejected.