Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek the indulgence of the chair to add to an answer.

Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indulgence is granted.

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to add to an answer I gave earlier today to the member for Griffith concerning claims of a meeting between the AWB and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in mid-1999 on oil for food program contracts. I can advise the House that, upon checking, DFAT has no record of any DFAT-AWB meeting in that period in which the mid-1999 changes made to the contracts were discussed. I am also advised that, in response to Mr Rogers’s claim at the Cole inquiry in which he said Mr Eamons would have had discussions with DFAT on this issue, Mr Eamons later said in evidence that he did not discuss contract arrangements with DFAT. Therefore, the premise of the question by the member for Griffith is completely accurate.