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

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and it follows the minister for health’s concerns about misconduct being swept under the carpet. I refer him to an internal email from his department—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

yes, but not unto yourselves—

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

Order! The member will come to his question.

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

from November 1999, which has just been released by the Cole inquiry. Isn’t it a fact that this email refers to discussions with the AWB on your department’s concerns about the AWB breaching UN sanctions against Iraq back then, in 1999, but that your department concluded: ‘AWB may have been doing this for some time, but there is no benefit in launching a witch-hunt at this stage’? Why didn’t the government investigate the AWB’s activities at this time when the $300 million ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal was in its infancy? Or was this part of the government’s pattern of ongoing collusion with the AWB over the five years that this scandal then ran?

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

Let me explain that, very obviously, there was no collusion over several years by the government in relation to the AWB, nor has there been an attempt by the government to cover up. I would have thought—and I might be wrong—that something like 60 days worth of public hearings by the Cole commission, including substantial interviews, cross-examinations and examinations of officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade—which, if the Leader of the Opposition chose, he may wish to read—would have revealed precisely what the department knew, what it did not know, what it did do and what it did not do. The Minister for Trade appeared before the commission, and I myself spent around four hours before the Cole commission answering questions. The Prime Minister did likewise.

The opposition asked questions on this topic on every single day—I think almost without exception—for the first three months of this year. We have been exhaustive in providing information. When the Cole commission endeavoured to get still further information from AWB Ltd, we have gone so far as to not only set up the Cole commission so that an independent commission can get to the heart of this matter but even amend legislation to facilitate his access to documentation.

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

The member for Griffith is warned!

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

The suggestion from the Leader of the Opposition, who obviously did not follow the hearings of the Cole commission—

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

No, you did not. You are too lazy to follow something like that. You are a lazy, idle man who has not followed it, and you do not know your job. You would not have asked a silly question like that if you had been following the Cole commission.

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

Order! I remind the Minister for Foreign Affairs that he will refer to members by their seat or title.