Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Loyalty lectures, Mr Speaker! My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. I refer to the minister’s meeting with Trevor Flugge in Iraq in 2003. Did the minister discuss with Mr Flugge kickbacks, his million dollar salary, guns or how he was spending the $4 million worth of Australian government money he had access to for ‘quick-impact activities in Iraq’, as attested to in the audited accounts the Prime Minister referred to?

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

I have a clear recollection—

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Macklin interjecting

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

Do you want to hear the answer or not? You are a squawking lot over there. I have a very clear recollection of the meetings I had in Iraq in 2003. In fact on my recent visit to Iraq over the weekend we reflected on some of those activities with both the members of the Australian Defence Force and the members of the Iraqi government, as it was my second visit to Iraq post 2003. While I am answering this question I will take the opportunity of acknowledging and thanking very much the Australian defence forces in Iraq for their efforts today and then. They looked after and accommodated our visit to Iraq to ensure that we look after the Australian national interest in Iraq today, as we did then. I did have a meeting with Trevor Flugge in Iraq. The insinuations being drawn by the Australian Labor Party are absolutely outrageous.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Sydney!

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

The comments of the Leader of the Labor Party while I was in Iraq are just as outrageous, and are an insult to the people of Australia. He will live to eat his words. But in answer to his question: yes, I do remember that meeting with Mr Flugge.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Sydney is warned!

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

I do remember meeting Mr Flugge at the Ministry of Agriculture in Baghdad at the time, along with the representative from the Interim Governing Council who was looking after agriculture. Because of the efforts of the Australian government, I think that was the first ministry that was up and functioning under the CPA after the war in Iraq. In fact it was noted by the CPA head, Paul Bremer, who said that the Ministry of Agriculture was ‘the first Iraqi ministry building to be functioning and the first to be handed over to the new Iraqi administration’. Australia and its agriculture team in Iraq were congratulated by CPA head, Paul Bremer, on the reconstruction and re-establishment of this critical ministry.

We are proud of what we did as a government and as a nation to help re-establish this country. I conveyed that again to Prime Minister Jaafari and Minister Chalabi in terms of the support we are continuing to give in this fledgling democracy to ensure that it survives.