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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his statement of 20 March 2006 on the ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

We have to examine your deceptions on all fronts. That is our job, you see. That is what oppositions do, holding outfits like you accountable. You think you can slip your lies under the counter when something else is on.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! The level of interjection on my right is far too high. The Leader of the Opposition will begin his question again.

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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his statement of 20 March 2006 on the wheat for weapons scandal, when he said—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The Leader of the Opposition made an offensive remark about slipping lies in and I think he should be required to withdraw.

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

The Leader of the Opposition will withdraw.

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

I will withdraw, Mr Speaker, and start again. I refer the Prime Minister to his statement of 20 March 2006 on the wheat for weapons scandal.

Government Member:

So it’s not about our budget?

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

No, it is about Saddam’s budget. You know, the one you supported. I refer to the statement in which the Prime Minister said that it was not until February 2005 that ‘this issue really came onto the radar screen for me’. That was your quote. I also refer to this email, just released by the Cole inquiry, between the head of the Iraq task force in Canberra and Ambassador Thawley in Washington, from before the 2004 Australian election. This communication refers specifically to ‘guidance we have from the Prime Minister and our ministers on AWB and the Volcker inquiry’. Prime Minister, doesn’t this email prove that you were fully aware of the dimensions of this scandal prior to the last election?

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question and I ask him to listen carefully to the response. It does not prove anything of the kind, and the reason that it does not prove anything of the kind is that the emails which form the basis of the Leader of the Opposition’s question, and which form the basis of an erroneous report in the Australian newspaper this morning, were in fact exchanged in February 2005, not in September or October 2004. They were exchanged a week after I had received a memorandum from my department drawing my attention to the displeasure of the Volcker inquiry with the lack of cooperation from AWB and a week after I had given clear written instructions that there had to be total cooperation and disclosure. Everything I have said on this has been totally truthful and consistent, and once again the Leader of the Opposition has been caught out misrepresenting the truth.