Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to my question yesterday concerning his foreign policy adviser’s meeting with the AWB on how the AWB should respond to questions from the UN’s Volcker inquiry. The Prime Minister’s answer yesterday was:

We alone of Western governments have established a body to inquire into these matters.

Will the Prime Minister identify which element of these terms of reference that he provided to the Cole inquiry gives the commissioner any power to make any determination on whether or not ministers or ministerial staff acted appropriately in coaching the AWB on how truthful to be with the Volcker inquiry?

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

I refer the member for Griffith to the statement made by the commissioner not long after the inquiry commenced in which he said that if he saw fit, because of evidence that came before him, to seek an extension of the terms of reference, he would do so. He also, in that same statement, made it perfectly clear that he could make findings of fact that were damaging to Commonwealth officers, including ministers. Any logical reading of those two statements would lead you to the conclusion that, if Commissioner Cole thought it necessary to seek an extension of terms of reference so that he could fully adjudicate on the behaviour of ministers, he would do so. It is ludicrous of the member for Griffith to maintain otherwise.