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

however much it may have been—there was somehow something inappropriate about that. Let me explain. Is there something inappropriate about using cash in a country straight after a war when there is no banking system? Indeed, he used cash. There was no other way of financing the rehabilitation of agriculture in Iraq because there was no banking system. I know the Labor Party is thick, but on this side of the House we believed in helping the Iraqi people, we believed in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, we believed in helping restore Iraqi agriculture, and we are not so thick that we did not know you had to pay for it; we knew that. If there is no banking system, how were we meant to pay for it? If Mr Flugge used $1 million, he would have used a substantial—

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