Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset, I note that the Minister for Trade is in the House tonight. I am pleased that he is here to hear what I am about to say. I wish to once again draw to the attention of the House my concern about the complicity of the member for Wide Bay, the minister at the table, in the AWB ‘wheat for weapons’ scandal. In light of this complicity, his recent appointment to the trade portfolio is, you would have to say, more than ironic—it is quite a joke. What message is this sending to the international community and our trading partners?

The member for Wide Bay served as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry from July 1999 to July 2005, a period in which AWB rorted the UN oil for food program without restraint. It is important to note that the member for Wide Bay was not a distant observer of AWB’s activities. For one, he was responsible for the Wheat Export Authority, the body charged with overseeing AWB’s international wheat trading.

In 2004 this statutory body responded to the growing chorus of claims about corruption by AWB by launching its own investigation. In the clearest possible demonstration of incompetence, it failed to find any evidence of wrongdoing. When he received the secret monitoring report from the WEA, did the member for Wide Bay ask any questions about its findings? We know now that he did not. In fact, the member for Wide Bay did not ask a single question about the WEA’s findings—not one.

Did the member for Wide Bay insist that the WEA cooperate with the Volcker inquiry into the rorting of the UN oil for food program? No, he did not do that either. In fact, the WEA provided no assistance to the Volcker inquiry—which is no surprise, really, in the circumstances; after all, any competent examination of AWB’s relationship with the regime of Saddam Hussein would have embarrassed the minister. We now know that the member for Wide Bay ignored at least two diplomatic cables—in March and April 2001—warning him of sanctions busting. The minister ignored a direct warning from grain trader Ray Brooks in August 2002, and he ignored the evidence that prompted the incompetent WEA investigation.

The member for Wide Bay’s attitude to AWB reflects the company’s infestation with National Party mates, including mate No. 1 Mr Trevor Flugge. In fact, the member for Wide Bay was so enamoured of Mr Flugge that in 2003 he could not wait to issue a statement welcoming his appointment as a special agricultural advisor to the Iraqi government. The statement issued on 22 April 2003 was headlined ‘Truss welcomes Flugge Iraq appointment’ and positively gushed with praise. It expressed the minister’s delight with the appointment and claimed that Mr Flugge was ‘extremely well suited’ to the role. Mr Flugge cannot remember much these days but members should have no trouble recalling the truly remarkable photograph of him featuring his naked torso, a gun and a silly grin. No less remarkable was the member for Wide Bay’s claim that his mate was ‘extremely well suited’ to the task of helping Iraqis rebuild their lives.

During his undistinguished tenure as minister for agriculture, the member for Wide Bay appointed both Mr Flugge and AWB’s Murray Rogers to key advisory positions. He had an important and ongoing relationship with the company—this company that has disgraced Australia’s trading reputation. Documents released by the Cole commission include a letter drafted for Mr Flugge to Saddam’s minister for agriculture on 5 April 2000 in these terms:

You may recall that when we last met ... in Baghdad that I undertook to pass your comments regarding Iraq/Australia ... to our Government in Canberra and in particular to the Minister for Agriculture. This I have done and as such my comments met with a very positive response ...

               …            …            …

It is our intention to remain committed to the terms of trade agreed between IGB and AWB. The Australian government equally supports this commitment to our trade.

What this letter suggests is that the member for Wide Bay was party to secret communications with Baghdad via his good friends at AWB and that he used this channel of communication to commit the government to the agreement between AWB and Saddam’s cronies. In other words, he gave the green light to AWB’s rorting of the UN oil for food program. The wilful neglect of his responsibilities as minister for agriculture make the member for Wide Bay an entirely unsuitable choice as Minister for Trade. This would be the case even without the responsibility he now has to enforce trade sanctions against North Korea. If he had any integrity, the member for Wide Bay would resign. (Time expired)