Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Fremantle says, we do not have just one Sergeant Schultz in this place; we have a clutch of them—the four Sergeant Schultzes of Australian politics in charge not only of the prime ministership but also of trade, foreign affairs and agriculture—damned for their incompetence. That is what this report has found. But here they are, they pursue a war and they condemn Saddam Hussein but they pay him money to arm his troops.

I want to go on the record here to contrast how our government operated in relation to these UN sanctions when we were in charge from 1991 through to 1996 after the first Gulf War, through which the sanctions were imposed. I was a member of that government and I had responsibility as minister for primary industries in relation to the very industries that are suffering at the moment—the growers of this country, particularly in relation to wheat. We allowed no such rorting. I say that categorically. Gareth Evans, the then foreign minister, insisted on his department satisfying itself that the sanctions were not breached by Australian companies. In other words, we insisted as responsible ministers and a responsible cabinet that there would be no bribes paid. But not only that: we knew there was going to be a hit to the wheat growers. We saw that it was our responsibility not just to ensure that the sanctions were imposed but that the interests of the wheat growers were protected as well. As minister for primary industries, I announced ex gratia payments to grain growers so that they would not suffer.

So we protected the integrity of the UN sanctions but we also ensured that grower interests were protected as well. That is what is called taking responsibility. That is what a minister should do. But not this crowd. This clutch of ministers was warned many times—Cole has established 35 times they were told that they should investigate this matter. So not only were they not proactive in ensuring the sanctions regime was not breached; they failed to act when they were warned.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

It is true that the government has been found to have done nothing criminal. But the commission was not allowed to test whether they have been negligent. Any more open an inquiry would have found on the evidence that the charges of negligence and maladministration were found. The terms of reference were restricted to criminal activity. Our shadow minister wrote to the Cole commission of inquiry in March asking it to ‘determine whether Australia has breached its international obligations or whether a minister has breached obligations imposed upon him by Australian regulation’. Commissioner Cole replied that these matters were ‘significantly different’ to its terms of reference; he essentially could only seek an extension to the substantive issues which had been referred to him, not to those which were significantly different, as the issues raised by us were.

The government’s shield is paper thin. I do not believe the government did not know about the kickbacks. When I was Leader of the Opposition in August 2002—before the war but when the government was in full macho mode about invasion—I said that the reckless talk that the government engaged in would jeopardise our wheat sales. In fact, they were suspended. I was accused by Minister Downer of being an appeaser of Saddam Hussein. The AWB met with me and the government on 22 August. They said that the government should tone down its language. They then made an urgent visit to Iraq. They came back with a deal to resume the sales. We now know how. The question is: did the government know? I believe it is going to be very interesting to observe these prosecutions against the people charged. Already some of them have indicated that they will name names when they are pursued for their criminal activity. I look forward with great interest to seeing how those events unfold. In the meantime, let there be no mistake: this government has not been cleared. It stands condemned of gross negligence and gross maladministration. The country has paid for it in terms of its standing. It has paid for it economically. The wheat growers of this country have paid for it. It is a scandal of mammoth proportions and the government should be condemned for overseeing it.

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