Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be inappropriate for me to allow the comments made by the honourable member for Capricornia to go without a response. This is the second time she has come into this chamber, late in the evening, with a vile and personal attack on me, without substance. She has stormed out of the chamber—

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order: it is entirely appropriate for the minister to respond, but he cannot reflect on the motives of the honourable member he is responding to.

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

I thank the Chief Opposition Whip. I am listening closely to the minister.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Frankly, the advice of the Chief Opposition Whip could well be tendered to the honourable member for Capricornia whose personal insults very definitely reflected upon my motives and my integrity. Frankly, I take offence at her comments. The reality is that she read largely from a document, prepared by the member for Griffith, which has been utterly discredited on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, the member for Capricornia is not interested in the facts. She instead repeats these vile—

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I accept that the minister has a right to respond, and I welcome that, but he cannot imply that anyone other than the honourable member wrote that speech.

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

The minister is in order. I have been listening closely.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By reference, she clearly referred to allegations in a publication put out by the member for Griffith and those allegations are without substance. Could I refer to each of those matters in detail. It would be clearly inappropriate for me to discuss these matters in great detail because the Cole commission is charged with investigating these sorts of issues, and I am more than happy to await its judgements.

In relation to the Wheat Export Authority, it is true that as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry it was part of my department. It was required to report every year on the way in which the Australian Wheat Board and its subsidiary, AWBI, administered the single desk. It provided a confidential report to the minister and then a public report to all wheat growers around Australia. They took it upon themselves to investigate some allegations that had been made by Americans, Canadians and others about the AWB’s activities in Iraq. Whilst the report is confidential, I offered a copy of it to the opposition. They did not choose to take up that offer at the time, but it has been publicly reported, by no less a figure than the chairman of that authority himself, that their investigations uncovered nothing untoward. The advice that they gave to the minister essentially gave the AWB’s activities a clean bill of health.

The honourable member for Capricornia says I should have questioned that expert body’s assessment of the situation. Their findings were broadly the same as those of the UN and other investigatory agents, which at that time could find nothing which required further investigation. She also claimed that the WEA did not cooperate with the Volcker inquiry. That is completely false and is contrary to the evidence. Indeed, the Wheat Export Authority held very few documents of their own and quite rightly advised the Volcker inquiry that they should obtain those documents directly from the source, namely the AWB.

The honourable member for Capricornia was then critical of my welcoming of the appointment of Mr Flugge to a key role in the new administration arrangements in Iraq. Perhaps she might like to look at the press releases put out by the honourable member for Griffith and the honourable member for Corio at that time and at other times in which they proclaim what an excellent choice Mr Flugge was for this work and laud his attributes. So if the honourable member for Capricornia wants to be honest, she will look at the statements of her own colleagues in relation to these matters.

A range of serious allegations have been made during the context of the Cole commission. This government set it up freely and openly, and with wide terms of reference. That commission is currently doing its work. It will report in due course and I am sure that all members will be interested in its findings. I would be much happier to await the expert judgement of the Cole commission than heed the vile and personal abuse of the member for Capricornia.