Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The defence that has been mounted by Senator Eggleston reminds me of Bart Simpson. He is surveying the wreckage around him and his response is: ‘I wasn’t there. I didn’t do it. Nobody told me. I didn’t see it. It wasn’t my fault.’ But this issue is far more serious than that.

Senator Eggleston has just attacked the Labor Party again. Let us remember that it is this Liberal-National coalition that is in government and has been in government for 10 years. It is this Liberal-National Party coalition government that determined to send our troops into Iraq. You can talk all you like about the other 65 countries, and you can say as much as you like about the fact that you set up an inquiry, but the fact of the matter is that this government, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in particular, and the minister responsible, Minister Downer, were asleep at the wheel all through this scandal.

They were happy to make decisions to send troops into Iraq and they were happy to assert that there was evidence of weapons of mass destruction, but now they are saying: ‘We did not know. No-one told us. We were kept in the dark about the greatest corruption scandal in the history of governance in this country.’ Yesterday in question time, Mr Howard said, in answer to a question:

I have found over the years that the best friends the wheat growers of Australia have are members of the Liberal Party and members of the National Party.

What a statement!