John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In answer to the first part of the question, the answer is no, I will not confirm that, because the assertions made by the Leader of the Opposition are wrong; therefore the conclusion that the Leader of the Opposition has reached is fatally flawed, as is the whole of the argument that he has advanced on this matter.

If the Leader of the Opposition bothers to listen, I will patiently and quietly take him through the sequence of how this works. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to know, again, how this works, let me tell him. Be he reminded that we had a request from the United Nations and, alone of sovereign governments around the world, the government have established a fully transparent inquiry to get to the bottom of the matter. Not only has the inquiry been invited to find out whether AWB committed any crime; by its own declaration the inquiry has also been empowered to make findings of fact on the conduct of ministers and government officials.

From reading Mr Cole’s statement of 3 February, it is quite plain that, if the Minister for Foreign Affairs has not done his job in relation to this matter, Mr Cole will so find that. It is quite obvious that he will so find it in relation to the Minister for Trade. It is obvious he will find it in relation to me because, if you read the statement he made on 3 February, he said that he would be able to make findings of fact about the knowledge of ministers in respect of the behaviour of AWB and whether those ministers or their departments came into possession of matters that were relevant to the payment of kickbacks or bribes by AWB.

The statement I made last night was, I think, quite deliberately misquoted by the Leader of the Opposition. What I said last night—and I repeat it here today—was that, if I had been told by AWB that it was paying bribes to Saddam Hussein and I did nothing about it, it would be game over. Of course it would. But, interestingly enough, there is no evidence that that happened. Of course I was not told by AWB. Of course the minister was not. None of the ministers were. The reality is that the opposition are flailing around on this issue.

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