Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware of an incident reported in the Volcker inquiry in which Saddam’s son Qusay withdrew $1 billion in cash from the Central Bank of Iraq just after the invasion had started, with some of these funds potentially being those obtained through the AWB kickback scandal? Isn’t it likely that this money was used to fund the ongoing insurgency in Iraq? Doesn’t this mean that the AWB’s approach of looking after the right people has increased the risks faced by Australian troops in Iraq?