Fed: PM denies seeing AWB warning cables

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2006
Fed: PM denies seeing AWB warning cables

By Belinda Tasker

SYDNEY, April 13 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard has denied he saw diplomatic cables
warning up to six years ago that the wheat exporter AWB could be paying kickbacks to Saddam
Hussein's regime.

Amid tight security, Mr Howard gave evidence for about an hour today to the Cole inquiry
investigating $300 million in kickbacks paid by AWB.

It was the first time since Bob Hawke in 1983 that an Australian prime minister has
fronted a judicial commission.

Mr Howard was questioned by counsel assisting the inquiry, John Agius SC, about cables
sent to the government as far back as 2000 warning that Saddam's regime was rorting the
United Nations oil-for-food program.

Some of the cables also warned that AWB might have been paying kickbacks to the Iraqis
in breach of UN sanctions.

"I believe that I did not receive or read any of the relevant cables at any time during
the relevant period," Mr Howard said in a statement to the inquiry.

"I believe that the contents of the relevant cables were not brought to my attention
at any time during the relevant period."

Both Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile also told
the inquiry this week they did not recall seeing the diplomatic cables.

Commissioner Terence Cole today refused to allow lawyers acting for AWB executives
to cross-examine the prime minister.

Mr Howard told the inquiry he had no recollection of seeing one of the earliest cable
warnings the government received about claims AWB could have been paying kickbacks.

The cable was sent by Bronte Moules at Australia's mission to the UN in New York to
various government departments and the prime minister's office in January 2000.

It said a third country, now known to be Canada, had complained to the UN about possible
kickbacks being paid by AWB.

But Mr Howard said he would not have expected his advisers to have shown him the cable
and he could not recall being aware of the issue being raised with him.

"The culpability of AWB did not really enter my mind until 2005," Mr Howard said.

"There was absolutely no belief anywhere in the government at that time that AWB was
anything other than a company of great reputation.

"There was nothing by way of hard evidence in the allegation and it would appear on
the face of it the matter was going to be dealt with."

Mr Howard also said he did not see another cable, sent in June 2003, warning the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Iraq believed all contracts between Saddam's government and companies
involved in the UN's oil-for-food program contained kickbacks of between 10 and 19 per
cent.

Mr Howard agreed with Mr Agius that the warning in the cable was "a very bald statement"

but he would not have expected his advisers to have showed it to him.

The cable was sent just three months after allied forces invaded Iraq, sparking the
fall of Saddam's regime.

"The issue of whether the former regime had been corrupt and corrupted programs was
not contentious to me," Mr Howard said.

"It was accepted that it had."

The inquiry heard Mr Howard gave a speech to the National Press Club in March 2003,
the month the allied forces invaded Iraq.

In the speech he condemned Saddam's government for rorting the UN's oil-for-food program,
in which AWB was the biggest provider of humanitarian food aid.

Mr Agius asked Mr Howard when he first believed the Iraqi dictator's government had
been rorting the program.

"It would be well before that," Mr Howard replied.

"Probably a year or more that I would have had that belief."

Mr Agius: "In that connection did you ever have any suspicion that any Australian company
including AWB, one of the largest exporters to Iraq, might have been involved in that
rorting?"

Mr Howard: "No I didn't.

"I'd never been presented with any hard evidence.

"I guess I was conscious only of AWB because of the predominant role of AWB in the
wheat trade and I had always believed the best of that company, as had most people in
the government."

Mr Howard left the inquiry as he arrived, through the front door of the city building,
waving and smiling to media and onlookers.

Extra security guards were placed in the foyer of the building and police sniffer dogs
sent in before he gave evidence.

Mr Howard was later due give a press conference.

AAP bt/sp

KEYWORD: AWB HOWARD INQUIRY LEAD

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