Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Stott Despoja for the question. It is not entirely clear from Senator Stott Despoja’s question what kind of regulatory regime she has in mind, or indeed how one would seriously go about introducing a corporate code of conduct in relation to such matters. But insofar as her question, by inference, relates to AWB, let me make it perfectly clear—and this has been said, I think, over the past couple of days—that, in relation to the particular contracts that are sought to be impugned by the opposition, these contracts were certainly not with the government. In fact, they were administered by the United Nations, and AWB was not a party to any contract with the government that might otherwise be the subject of the kind of regulation that Senator Stott Despoja seems to imply should apply.

The important issue in relation to AWB is that there is an inquiry, the Cole inquiry, and the real issue here is that the Cole inquiry can get to the bottom of these allegations. Certainly, on the available evidence to date, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that any minister of the government knew or was involved. Given the fact that the contracts were not with DFAT, with Mr Downer’s department, it is very difficult to see that they had any active knowledge of any of these matters. The code of conduct that Senator Stott Despoja refers to would probably not avoid, would not prevent—if indeed it is the case, and I am not suggesting this for one minute—any concerted action for deception.

Once again, while it is not entirely clear what Senator Stott Despoja has in mind, I do not believe that the matters surrounding AWB would have been either prevented, or indeed improved, by such a code of conduct—if in fact there was any fraudulent conduct involved. We have had this debate in this place for many months in relation to corporate conduct: that you can do what you like about codes but in the end it comes down to the actions that individuals undertake. There is an inquiry under way and it is appropriate for the Cole inquiry to run its course, particularly as it has access to all documents—and certainly the department did not.