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 again is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer also to evidence presented in the Cole inquiry yesterday that the government told the AWB’s CEO, Andrew Lindberg, that, in its dealings with the Volcker inquiry, the AWB should ‘keep narrow; be a small target’. Doesn’t the minister’s advice to the AWB last year demonstrate that, in fact, the minister had become the AWB’s man in the government—arguing the AWB’s case to the Volcker inquiry, providing tactical advice to the AWB for its dealings with the Volcker inquiry and acting with reckless disregard for his own obligations under Australian law?

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

No.