Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to comment also on the oil-for-food inquiry into the closure of the Australian Federal Police task force. It is my view that, if ever a case demonstrates the need for a national independent commission against corruption, it is this one. Justice has absolutely not been done here. I say that because the Australian Wheat Board declared throughout the royal commission that it did not know that the fee it paid the Alia trucking company went to Saddam Hussein. It declared that throughout the inquiry. However, when the shareholders took a class action, in the subsequent court case to settle that matter—it was a civil case—the AWB admitted that it knew all along, and that was part of its agreement to settle. The issue then becomes: the Wheat Board lied. It knew that the money it was paying to the Alia trucking company went to Saddam Hussein.

There was an investigation by the Federal Police into what corruption might have occurred. The Federal Police task force was shut down before it could finish that work. Why was it shut down? It was shut down on the basis of legal advice, supposedly, from Mr Hastings QC, but that legal advice has never been provided or made public. We still have no idea about that legal advice. My view is that it was shut down for political reasons and for this reason: we had a situation where ASIC had been to Iraq, had interviewed people from the trucking company and had interviewed others, all making it very clear that the evidence that ASIC had would have demonstrated that not only did the AWB know the money went to Saddam Hussein but DFAT knew. The allegation through the inquiry was that it went right up to a federal minister who knew. They all knew. If the AWB had been absolutely nailed by the Federal Police, then the next question is: what would the Wheat Board's defence have been? The Wheat Board's defence would have been: they had not committed a fraud; they had not done anything wrong because they knew that the money to the trucking company went to Saddam Hussein but so too did DFAT and so too did this federal member of parliament, and therefore they could not be found guilty of a crime because they had not deceived anyone and everybody knew.

It all came unstuck. ASIC had that information, but ASIC could not just straightforwardly provide that information to the Federal Police. So it went to court. The Wheat Board, of course, appealed the judgement that came down to say that, yes, the information should be provided. Of course the AWB objected to that—they did not want that information provided at all and they objected to it. However, it was heard again and the judge reserved his decision. Before it came down, the task force was shut down. There was a small window of opportunity. Before the ASIC information could be provided to the Federal Police, which would prove that the AWB knew and DFAT knew and it was known even as high as the minister, the task force was shut down. So that information never went from ASIC to the Federal Police because the Federal Police task force was shut down. It is clear to me, and it was clear from the evidence that was provided, that it was not legal advice that there was unlikely to be a successful prosecution but that a political judgement was made that the Federal Police task force had to be shut down so that it would never come out that the AWB not only knew but that DFAT and the government of the day knew.

Of course it is hugely serious because it goes to the whole issue of Saddam Hussein, what people knew and the breach of all the sanctions that were in place. It would have shown that the Australian federal government knew that they were breaching the sanctions, because that would have been the defence of the Wheat Board if this had come out. I believe that is why the task force was shut down, which begs the question: who in the Federal Police forced the task force to close down and who directed the then head of the Federal Police, Mick Keelty, to close down that task force?

Those questions were never answered. There has never been an investigation into that. We still do not know. That is why we need a national ICAC. I find it absolutely appalling to be standing here in the federal parliament and not have the documents that you need to prove it.

Then I asked ASIC why it did not take the AWB, because they had misled the stock exchange. They had breached their corporate responsibilities by lying about what they knew and what they did not know. ASIC would not say at the time why it did not take that action, just that there was no clear view why the name of a federal politician was taken out of the ASIC brief, who should be investigated or why ASIC did not take on AWB as a corporate entity for having lied to the stock exchange. They are very clear and serious allegations that should have been followed up. So I can only conclude that this whole thing was covered up because it went to the heart of government, that the Australian government knew at the time that the AWB was breaching the sanctions and it would have all come out.

The Federal Police task force being shut down was a political directive to avoid all of that coming out, and I want to thank the whistleblowers who came forward in this inquiry. As my colleague Senator Wright, the chair of the committee, has said it is very clear that because this covered two periods of government, two different sides of the political spectrum, the Liberal government and then a Labor government, there was no interest in having Australia exposed in this way in the international forum. The world would have been looking at this level of corruption. The OECD is already looking at the extent to which Australia takes international corruption seriously, and I think that it is an absolute disgrace. I want to put on the record my appreciation of the courage that Mr Fusca showed in coming forward and raising serious questions as to why he was essentially frustrated in his ability to do his job in that task force and the task force was closed down.

It is a very serious issue that the Australian parliament still to this day does not have the documents it needs to prove the case. That is why we will be moving for the legal advice on the basis of which that task force was shut down. We want that legal advice provided because I do not believe that it will prove the point that the government has always claimed it proved. If it is so clear then why not release it and let the community see it? The whole thing has been a cover up from start to finish.

Quite apart from the AWB case, as I indicated, we need a much more serious approach to foreign bribery and corruption. The Federal Police now has a much more significant unit to do that work. But, frankly, no unit will be able to do the work if ultimately they are leant on politically to shut down investigations. That is why we need a national ICAC. We will not have a break in the corruption that goes on in this country, and let us not pretend that corruption ends in New South Wales. ICAC has made it fairly clear in New South Wales what the story is. We now need to make sure that we get a national ICAC, that we expose this and that the people responsible for the cover ups are held to account.