Well hopefully it happens, and the Australian prime minister is to follow with the Australia Wheat Board scandal that is going down here at the moment.
ABC Online
AM - Inquiry hears evidence on what Wheat Board knew of illegal payments
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1548401.htm]
AM - Monday, 16 January , 2006 08:04:00
Reporter: Michael Vincent
KAREN PERCY: In the four years leading up to the Iraq war AWB, the former Australian Wheat Board, paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars into the pockets of Saddam Hussein under the UN's oil-for-food program.
An inquiry with the powers of a Royal Commission begins hearing evidence today, in an attempt to determine whether AWB and two other Australian companies, knew they were making illicit payments, and in doing so that they broke Australian law.
But even if that knowledge and intent can be shown, a senior international lawyer believes it's unlikely anyone appearing at the inquiry will ever be charged under criminal or corporate law.
Michael Vincent reports.
MICHAEL VINCENT: This inquiry is not looking into a grubby backhander to a few Iraqi customs officials.
From 1999 to 2003, cash from Australian wheat farmers was steadily lining the pockets of Saddam Hussein and his cronies; the final amount a staggering $290 million.
It was the biggest single kickback from any company in the world to the former Iraqi ruler under the UN's oil for food program.
Farmers like Margaret Edmonds from the central wheat belt of Western Australia feel their reputation has been tarnished.
MARGARET EDMONDS: Upset, disappointed. I just can't understand that something like that was allowed to happen.
MICHAEL VINCENT: The Australian Wheat Board, which became AWB, has always maintained it never did anything wrong. It had said it was always operating under the guidance of the UN and the Howard Government.
But Labor says this inquiry won't be looking at any links to Canberra.
Foreign Affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd.
KEVIN RUDD: Well, Commissioner Cole begins this inquiry with his hands tied behind his back. John Howard, ever the politician, has made sure that the Commissioner can only investigate the Australian companies - mainly the wheat board - and their involvement with Saddam Hussein's regime, and forgets the fact, or tries to avoid the fact in the terms of reference he's given to Commissioner Cole that the Australian Government approved the Wheat Board's operations in Iraq in the first place.
MICHAEL VINCENT: DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) officials have already attempted to clear the AWB.
Government answers to a series of questions on notice by Mr Rudd, have shown that around six years ago Robert Bowker, then Director of the Middle East Section in the Department of Foreign Affairs, apparently told the United Nations that there was no evidence AWB was paying kickbacks to Saddam's regime.
Mr Bowker, who's now Australia's Ambassador to Egypt, declined
AM's request for an interview about his role in examining Australia's wheat sales to Iraq.
It's unclear whether Mr Bowker will give evidence to this inquiry, which was only called after pressure from the United Nations which released its own investigation into the Wheat Board's deals last October.
Australia has been selling wheat to Iraq since 1948, and then in 1999 a curious arrangement was entered into at the behest of Saddam's regime. The Australia Wheat Board was told to pay a Jordanian company, nominated by Baghdad, to truck its wheat.
Within four years the trucking costs rose a phenomenal 500 per cent. AWB apparently never complained because it could recoup the cost as part of the deal.
But the Jordanian company called Alia was a front, the United Nations found Alia had no trucks at all.
The UN also uncovered faxes from the Iraqi Grains Board directly to the Australian Wheat Board demanding payments.
This is what the UN wrote in its final report.
UN REPORT EXTRACT: Numerous aspects of the AWB-Alia relationship suggest that some employees of AWB were placed on notice of facts, strongly suggesting that AWB's payments were in whole or in part for the benefit of the Government of Iraq.
MICHAEL VINCENT: Some of the most influential men in Australia's agricultural sector will be appearing at this inquiry to answer questions.
While the inquiry is not publishing its witness list, the first person expected to be called today is Murray Rogers, the Managing Director of the Wheat Board when the 1999 deal was struck.
He'll be followed by Trevor Flugge, the former Chair of AWB and AWB International, a man appointed by the Howard Government to assist Iraq's agricultural redevelopment in 2003.
Even if it can be shown that employees of AWB or their managers knew that they were paying kickbacks, a senior international lawyer says it's unlikely anyone will ever face prosecution, let alone jail.
Challis Professor of International Law at Sydney University, Don Rothwell, says under Australian law it was not made illegal to breach the relevant UN resolutions. But he still believes there are good reasons for this inquiry to go ahead.
DON ROTHWELL: Well, yes, I think there is, because I think that most Australians would be concerned to understand why the AWB was engaging in these activities, why the AWB was potentially acting contrary to UN Security Council resolutions, and no doubt to also gain a further understanding as to what exactly was the Government's role in this whole process.
The Australian Government has a responsibility to implement international law, a responsibility to ensure that Australians are following international law when those Australians are operating within Australia.
MICHAEL VINCENT: The Oil for Food inquiry is expected to sit for four weeks and is due to report on March the 31st.
(this is still currently sitting)
KAREN PERCY: Michael Vincent with that report.
With top level politicians being called to give evidence in this Royal Commision the current federal government is set to fall here at the next election. How ever the problem being that this goverment is the longest serving in the nations history and has been blindly following the Bush presidency into everything...
Do we see some political mirroring here..........