HANSARD EXTRACT
| Report of
the Inquiry into certain Australian companies in relation to
the UN Oil-for-Food Programme |
| 28 November 2006 |
Mr HAYES
(Werriwa) (7.59 p.m.)—Getting
to the bottom of the biggest Commonwealth scandal in Australia’s
history is no easy task. Getting to the bottom of a government so
accustomed to hiding itself from any form of public accountability I
have to say, again, is no easy task. Getting to the bottom of a $300
million payment to a corrupt dictatorial regime of
Saddam
Hussein is no easy task. But getting to the bottom of all these
things with terms of reference with little or no flexibility is
virtually impossible. However, that is precisely the task that this
government set
Commissioner
Terence Cole when they asked him to investigate the involvement of
the AWB and the UN oil for food program. It stands to reason that,
when your investigation is so restricted as it was, when the playing
field is so skewed as it was, when the finding of wrongdoing is all
but impossible to achieve, it is hardly surprising that Commissioner
Cole could only find the government to be incompetent rather than
criminal.
Yesterday we heard from the Attorney-General,
who said that no other country has undertaken such an open and
far-reaching inquiry. Today in a censure motion, the Prime Minister
claimed that it was an inquiry that was truly remarkable. It was an
inquiry remarkable in its transparency. The only thing that was
transparent about this inquiry was the government’s perspective—it
was lopsided; it was skewed. It was a one-sided set of terms of
reference. Sure, everyone knew that to be the case and that is
probably why the Prime Minister has indicated that it was
transparent—because we all knew.
If it was not an open and far-reaching inquiry,
why was it that
Commissioner
Cole
himself in correspondence to the opposition indicated there was no
capacity for him to find as to the stewardship of these ministers
for the responsibilities they had? That was at the outset of this
inquiry. Therefore, I think the Prime Minister is probably right to
say it was transparent. It was transparent; it was open. Even
Commissioner
Terence Cole himself acknowledged that he had no capacity to find as
to the stewardship of those ministers involved.
Why did the government allow this to go through
without any examination? I think that is pretty obvious. If there
were such certainty in the ranks of the members opposite,
particularly amongst those of the frontbench, that they were all
innocent, why would they have restricted these terms of reference in
the manner that they did? There is one thing that the Australian
public does understand when it comes to ministers who set the scope
of an inquiry so narrowly as to make it all but impossible to find
fault—that is, that there is fault to be found. That is why the
terms of reference were so skewed from the outset.
The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister
and the Minister for Foreign Affairs might think that they have
pulled the wool over the eyes of the Australian public on this one
by making sure that they could not be found to have been doing
anything wrong. But the Australian public can see through those
tricks. While members of the government are happy with the result
and are happy to be found incompetent rather than criminally
negligent, the Australian public realises there is more to this. We
know that the Australian public knows that the departments of the
Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Trade actually
approved all those contracts for sale. All the very contracts which
were being investigated by the
Cole
royal commission were approved by those ministers’ departments.
We and the Australian public know that this
government received warnings on no less than 35 occasions,
indicating wrongdoings, suspicions of bribes and the involvement of
these ministers. Quite frankly, it is appalling that these ministers
have not taken some responsibility for running their own
departments. The allegations were being made not only by other
countries but also by UN personnel and other organisations—yet
everyone has ducked for cover and said, ‘We didn’t know.’ That was
the defence from the three wise monkeys. We know, and the Australian
public know, that this was wrong. It is inexcusable that $300
million went to
Saddam Hussein to fund a conflict that would ultimately wind-up a
campaign against Australian troops.
The Prime Minister has tried to write down the
conclusion of the
Cole
report in language more satisfactory for his own purposes. He is
trying to push the line that Commissioner Cole has completely
exonerated the government. If you listen to the Prime Minister, it
would appear that there was no wrongdoing by him or his government.
Much like the Prime Minister’s claims that he has not broken
promises on or given commitments to such things as keeping interest
rates low, this characterisation of the Cole findings, quite
frankly, bends him so far out of shape that the truth becomes almost
impossible or at least unrecognisable. If we accept the Prime
Minister’s assertion that none of his ministers were responsible for
any wrongdoing then, as a matter of course, we must start to ask
some serious questions about their competence.
As the Leader of the Opposition said today,
this is a shameless government. Its members are here saying with
pride and boasting to us, ‘We are not criminally culpable; we are
merely incompetent and negligent.’ I think that is a fair summary of
what has come out of the Cole report—and also, quite frankly, for
the celebrations that took place last night by a number of members
on the opposite side. In public life and in public administration,
to be found to be incompetent and to be found to be responsible for
gross maladministration is nothing to be proud of. Just because you
avoid the hangman’s noose by being found to be incompetent should
not let you off scot-free.
The Prime Minister should be asking some pretty
serious questions about the competency of his ministers. I can only
hope that he is asking those questions of his ministers and that he
is dusting off that little used document that he once had outlining
ministerial responsibility—and that he recognises that those
ministers investigated by Cole have been found to be well and truly
out of their depth and should be dismissed. That is what ministerial
responsibility is all about. As if the finding of incompetence is
not enough, unlike in other circumstances this is a time when the
price for ministerial incompetence is known. The price on this
occasion for ministerial incompetence was $300 million—paid to
someone who turned out to be ultimately an enemy of this country.
That is right: $300 million was paid in bribes to a country, to a
dictator, we were about to go to war with.
I know that many members opposite go to great
lengths to emulate their great hero, that Liberal Party former
great,
Prime
Minister Menzies, but I doubt whether Pig Iron Bob, even in his
heyday, would have kept delivering pig iron to the Japanese for five
years, particularly after he knew that at some stage he was going to
invade them. He never really got around to that, but the point is
that not even Pig Iron Bob would have pulled the trick that has been
perpetrated on the Australian public in this case. This government
is not off the hook. Looking at the editorial headlines of a number
of newspapers today, when it comes to the AWB scandal it certainly
is not off the hook, and nor should it be. This government has sent
public accountability to new depths.
This government seems to be proud of the fact
that it can get away with simply being criticised as being
incompetent rather than being held criminally responsible for the
activities associated with these contracts with
Saddam
Hussein. But while the government gloats our reputation as an
ethical and responsible trading nation is being eroded. I cannot
help but think that those who are witnessing this government’s joy
in the findings of the Cole royal commission are questioning this
country’s ongoing commitment to fair international trade. We have
already seen—and we should not forget this—that the newly elected
Iraqi government actually postponed and cancelled contracts with
this country because of the activities of AWB. That was the newly
installed government of Iraq. AWB has tarnished Australia’s exports
and this government has overseen the process.
One of the many things that
Australia could pride itself on internationally was the fact that it
was always considered to be a responsible trading nation. It did not
involve itself in some of the less than savoury activities of other
nations simply to procure contracts. However, AWB has ruined that
notion for everybody and it has ruined our reputation. One bad
organisation has ruined our good reputation—one bad organisation
that this government was warned about on 35 occasions and did
nothing about.
It is difficult to see where the findings
contained in the five volumes—the more than 2,000 words—of the
Cole
inquiry are likely to take us. It is clear that the government has
accepted that the findings are findings of innocence and that there
should be no further action taken in this place. As a matter of
fact, Mr Deputy Speaker, you will recall that only yesterday you
heard the Prime Minister say:
I don’t expect it will happen, but
Mr
Downer and Mr Vaile are owed an apology by
Mr
Beazley
and Mr Rudd.
Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous? As the editorial in
the Sydney Morning Herald answered today:
On the contrary, Prime Minister, it is the Australian people who
are owed the apology. Your ministers, who have so signally failed to
manage their portfolios, should make it.
I think that is a pretty good summary of how the Australian
population sees where this government sits at the moment. Members
opposite should be hanging their heads. If they are out there
celebrating and drinking up about being excused by being exonerated
from criminal activity and simply being seen as incompetent, I say
that if that is all they have to celebrate, that is a pretty poor
form of a government for this country. At the very least, those
ministers should be held to account for their incompetence and they
should be dismissed.
The timing of the
Cole
royal commission report has resulted in a collective sigh of relief
from these ministers who have been under question. But to simply go
into renewed vigour—as the Prime Minister tried to do in the last
two days about his government being exonerated—will not wash with
the Australian public. The Australian public is already distrustful
of this government, no matter what the spin, and that is the way it
should be.
The Australian public are already distrustful
of governments generally. You have to understand why that would be
the case. If this is the reaction they see from an elected
government—if this is the form of responsibility they take, if this
is the form of ministerial accountability that is imposed by a Prime
Minister over his ministers—no wonder they become cynical of
governments. Quite frankly, there are one or two people in this
place who are clearly in the wrong place; they should not be here.
The Australian public believes that government
should be doing everything they can to ensure that there is proper
scrutiny and particularly in something that is as important as the
oil for food program, particularly as it has been raised with us by
a number of international organisations, particularly as it does
amount to bribery—something which we would say is foreign to the way
we would normally expect Australian companies to act
internationally—and particularly when these contracts were
supervised and approved by two ministers of this government. At the
best, this Prime Minister owes the Australian population the heads
of those two ministers for incompetence. If he does not deliver, he
taints his whole government.
It is a sad fact, when you hear the comments
that have been made and see the celebrations that are taking place,
that there is only one member on that side of the House who has
spoken out about this—just one. That just shows the level of
discredit that— (Time expired)
Return
to Speeches Menu.
