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 Prime Minister. Given the Prime Minister’s continued refusal to confirm the massive gaps that exist in Commissioner Cole’s current powers—powers explicitly designed by the Prime Minister to try to get his ministers off the hook—

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

Order! The member will come to his question!

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

I refer to this letter from the Cole inquiry to me that states in black and white that it would not be appropriate for the commissioner to:

... seek amendments to the terms of reference to enable him to determine whether Australia has breached its international obligations or a minister has breached obligations imposed upon him by Australian regulation.

And, further, it said that that was ‘a matter for the executive government itself’. Will the Prime Minister now act to close off these massive holes in Commissioner Cole’s terms of reference—terms of reference which the Prime Minister has rorted?

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

Order! In calling the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister will ignore the last part of the question. It was out of order.

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

Mr Speaker, I thank you for that ruling, but I am quite happy to address the issue of rorting. Might I say that I totally reject it. We have sought to establish whether there has been any illegal conduct—whether there has been a breach of a law of the Commonwealth, a state or a territory—because that is what Kofi Annan asked us to do, and that is what we are doing.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Denison SC knows quite well that the terms of reference enjoin the commissioner to make a finding in relation to three nominated companies. Yet again I will take the member for Griffith through what the commissioner has said. The member for Griffith wants the terms of reference extended to suit the political purposes of the Labor Party. It is already the case that if there has been any illegal behaviour by the companies the commissioner can make the findings. The commissioner has already said—and let me read it to the member for Griffith and everybody else again:

... if, during the course of my inquiry, it appears to me that there might have been a breach of any Commonwealth, State or Territory law by the Commonwealth or any officer of the Commonwealth related to the subject matter of the terms of reference, I will approach the Attorney-General seeking a widening of the terms of reference to permit me to make such a finding.

When he talks of an officer of the Commonwealth, he is talking of a minister, a secretary of a department or an employee of a department. What the commissioner himself has so plainly said is that if during his inquiries he finds material suggesting that people other than AWB and the other companies and their officers might have broken the law he will ask for an extension of the terms of reference. He made that statement on 3 February. It is now 29 March and after days and days of evidence and acres and acres of news coverage he still has not come across any such evidence. It is instructive that during the hearing earlier this week counsel assisting the Cole commission, Mr Agius SC, said—and I quote it directly:

We have not been able to identify amongst the many thousands of documents we have from AWB, so we may have missed it, but I think it is unlikely, any document at all—

any document at all—

which indicates or records even that AWB or anybody on behalf of AWB mentioned Alia to any representative of the Commonwealth of Australia at any level at any time before the announcement of the Volcker inquiry.

That is not the counsel for the Commonwealth, that is not the counsel for the Minister for Foreign Affairs; that is Mr Agius SC assisting the commission and making that statement after weeks of inquiry. I prefer the word of Mr Agius to the parlous and political words of the member for Griffith. We are the only government in the world to have established a public inquiry with the powers of a royal commission. We have embraced a level of transparency that has not been embraced by any other government around the world. We have done the right thing. We have not turned a blind eye to the Volcker inquiry. We have taken seriously the request of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. We have appointed an eminent lawyer to do the job, a person respected, I gather—after his comment this morning—by the member for Griffith. We have been cooperative with the Cole inquiry. We will continue to be—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The powers of the royal commission are adequate to investigate the illegality. If Cole thinks that—

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Danby interjecting

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

Order! The member for Melbourne Ports is warned.

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

any of my ministers or I have broken the law he will ask for an extension of the terms of reference and he will get that extension. I have no intention of going down the path set out by the member for Griffith.