Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I ask a supplementary question, Mr President. Is the minister saying he does not have a brief on the Wheat Export Authority and the AWB from Mr McGauran? Does the minister expect grain growers, who fund the Wheat Export Authority—it is they who fund it—and stand to suffer as a result of the kickback scandal, to believe that the Wheat Export Authority did not notice any irregularities? Has the authority been asked to explain why it failed to detect AWB was receiving an unusually high price for Australian wheat sold to Iraq and the use of the fictitious transport company Alia—and Mr McGauran, and Mr Truss before him, received a full annual report from the Wheat Export Authority—or is this actually just another case of a series of negligent ministers not doing their jobs properly?