John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is directed to Senator Minchin, representing the Prime Minister. Is the minister aware that, between 1998 and 2004, there were a number of reports of unassessed intelligence highlighting that Iraq was circumventing United Nations sanctions through the use of inflated contracts under the oil for food program? Did these intelligence reports identify the use of Jordanian trucking companies as one means of bypassing the UN sanctions regime? Minister, in the light of the Cole report, will the government now seek an explanation from ONA as to why it disregarded these intelligence reports and why they were not deemed important enough to alert the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to potential consequences?