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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his statement last night:

... if Cole finds that Downer or Howard were told by AWB that it was paying kickbacks and we did nothing about it, it would be game over.

Prime Minister, isn’t it the case that a June 2003 cable from the government’s own representatives in Baghdad stated that all contracts under the UN oil for food program included kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime of between 10 and 19 per cent? Given that the cable was sent to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Trade, isn’t this, by your own definition, game over?

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

No.