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 addressed again to the foreign minister. I refer to the minister’s answer just now that he was telling the truth when he told the parliament that of course he would have read the cabled warning of January 2000. I also refer to the minister’s subsequent statement to the Cole inquiry concerning his knowledge of this very same cable, where he stated in sworn evidence, ‘I do not have a specific recollection of having received or read this cable or if it otherwise was brought to my attention.’ Minister, doesn’t your statement to the parliament just now mean that your statement to the Cole inquiry was untrue?

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

No, it clearly does not. Of course I did not specifically remember a cable, but that is not to say that I would not have read it. That is a completely different proposition.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

When it comes to recollection, I would not have thought the opposition would want to make too many political points. We have the Leader of the Opposition who cannot even recall the names of Labor Party senators from South Australia. He cannot even remember the first names of the ones whose surnames he can remember. Those opposite should be a bit careful about going down this track. Of course I do not remember specifically the cables, but I have made the point, as I did to the Cole commission, that I would have read the cables. I said that in the Cole commission on 11 April. All of these statements are entirely consistent.