Senate debates

Thursday, 9 February 2006

Questions without Notice

Oil for Food Program

2:19 pm

Photo of Chris EvansChris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I note the minister hid behind the Cole commission again as her defence for failing to answer as is her responsibility in the Senate. Despite the Volcker inquiry, the international furore and the Wheat Export Authority’s suspicions regarding the AWB’s activities, are we to seriously believe that no-one in government, in the ministry or in the Public Service sought any advice other than that of the accused—the AWB? Is it the case that you did not find anything or that you did not bother looking? Has the Howard government adopted the Nixon administration’s doctrine of plausible deniability?

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