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

First of all, these alleged comments were in 2005. Secondly, I have made it perfectly clear on a number of occasions, including yesterday, that obviously I do not recall the exact words that were used in the conversation. I made that clear yesterday on a number of occasions and I make it clear again today. But I make the obvious point that AWB Ltd had made it clear to the government throughout, for example, 2005 in the context of the Volcker inquiry and right up until the end of last year that they had not in any way deliberately endeavoured to bribe Saddam Hussein’s regime through phoney payments to a trucking company and that any payments that might have been made were made inadvertently and unintentionally. That is what they said.

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