Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

In my first answer, I indicated the comments by my colleague, Mr Smith, where he said:

You always learn lessons from a former or a previous conflict.

The issue of the assessment of the Australian intelligence community of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction has been considered by two inquiries. The former parliamentary joint committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD considered the matter, as did the so-called Flood inquiry into Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The Flood inquiry found that there was an intelligence failure by Australia's agencies on Iraq, and that intelligence was thin, ambiguous and incomplete.

On the critical issue of independence, the Flood inquiry found no evidence to suggest policy or political influence on assessments on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Noting the inquiries that have already been conducted into this matter, as I said, there has been much to be learned from those. (Time expired)

Senator Cormann interjecting—