australia's funding of iraq DURING invasion!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_inquiry

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18807067-29277,00.html

"When you get to a stage where a government of Australia has as its single greatest defence on a grave question of national security its incompetence and its negligence, you've got to wonder how far down the drain we've gone," Mr Rudd (the political opposition) said

Originally posted by flexmore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_inquiry

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18807067-29277,00.html

"When you get to a stage where a government of Australia has as its single greatest defence on a grave question of national security its incompetence and its negligence, you've got to wonder how far down the drain we've gone," Mr Rudd (the political opposition) said

Living in Australia my self we've been bombarded with media coverage on the issue. From what I understand the government has NOT been implicated in any negligence or criminal collusion with the AWB (Australian Wheat Board which payed the kickbacks to Iraq in the food-for-oil scheme).

However, there certainly is alot of prevarication from senior ministers.

First our PM says, "I was never told [of the wheat scandal]; I never knew", then "I cannot remember being told" and then "I was lied to; betrayed; deceived by the AWB".

EDIT: Oh, and Mr. Rudd has greatly exaggerated the issue and I suspect even compromised our exports in his expediency. I would not quote him as credible.

Originally posted by Conrau K
From what I understand the government has NOT been implicated in any negligence or criminal collusion with the AWB (Australian Wheat Board which payed the kickbacks to Iraq in the food-for-oil scheme).

...However, there certainly is a lot of prevarication........

Originally posted by kmax87
if you google "total value of iraq australia wheat trade" you get some interesting australian bureau of statistics info that tell you amongst other things that the total value of trade is not known as they are subject to confidentiality agreements, but in 2001 we did 750mils worth of business in total with them.

In 2003-04 our total wheat exports realised ...[text shortened]... out it is as alice in wonderland a moment as bill clinton quibbling over the meaning of "is"

Originally posted by Conrau K
Still, the AWB amounts to 1%* of our exports. You can hardly notice 10% of that 1% disappearing (although they eventually did). The problem is not about their belated discovery of the kickbacks but their apathetic response (of which the negligence has not be determined- and I do not know if it is in the scope of the Cole- Commission to judge if it was).

*These figues disagree with yours. I dont know why.

Originally posted by kmax87
I'm not sure of your 1%. The ABS links that deal with wheat trade show Australia responsible for roughly 15% of world wheat export market.

(ABS YEAR Book Australia,2006. Link at bottom of post)

Note that there are two important 15% statistics on this page.

"The gross value of production of wheat in 2003-04 was $5.6 billion (b) which represented 15 ...[text shortened]... 26num%3D%26view%
3D+total+value+of+iraq+australia+wheat+trade&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=3

Originally posted by Conrau K
This all seems correct. I was relying on a newspaper article- so your probably right. (thanks for the effort with the site).

Anyway, it was noticed that there was a discrepancy in the wheat sales. The foriegn affairs department cabled a report on it expressing concern and no one responded. The Foreign affairs department then abandoned any detailed investigation. I'm not sure if this is criminal or not.

Originally posted by kmax87
It seems each succeeding year the bar gets raised a bit higher in terms of corruption of the highest order that the general public are meant to swallow as being just another inadvertant bureaucratic oversight..(move along, move along, nothing to see) to the extent that one wonders that either our leaders are nothing more than glorified PR people that get told ...[text shortened]... the chance of any wrongdoing or doer being caught is roughly 3/4's of 4/5's of 5/8's of SFA.

Originally posted by Conrau K
Dont jump the gun. Yeah for sure they've been corrupt in the past (i.e. Tampa crisis, refugees... did you hear about the girl locked up in a refugee camp or the man you killed himself) but I dont know if they were criminally responsible. Just wait and see.

Originally posted by kmax87
or that our prime minister is willing to be quetioned on the matter in front of a commission that he created and whose scope and terms of reference he proscibed. Let the freedom bell ring out over the hills and valleys........

Originally posted by howardgee
...headed by a chum he went to legal school with.

Originally posted by kmax87
...
I just dont buy the ignorance defence or this was a job for the advisors and for the staffers. What do the pollies do for their 8-10 hrs a day that his sort of corruption can go unnoticed for years. Its like Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling doing a charm act and saying, trust us, we knew nothing about warehousing debt as assets, honest, trust us, do these faces lie??

Originally posted by flexmore

lets go to war with iraq - and make some money helping their weapons supply at the same time!

Hey boys, I met quite a few "diggers" in Nam and have kept in contact with a few over the years. I feel you learn a lot about what happens in a country, not by what you read in newspapers - they are constrained politically and economically, they basically need to appease the populace so that they sell and their advertisers stick with them ...etc etc- but by talking to the people who come from that country.

Your country of Australia is full of liars and crooks. Thats not saying ours is any better.

But get real, most politicians/chief execs etc have had a lifetime of bullshit training. They'll squirm there way out of this one, the sooner the Iranian war starts the better for them, it'll deflect the iterest off them and with 330million (plus!) in kick backs, there are alot of people who will get kick-backs themselves for shutting up and a lot of lawyers who will be stopping justice being done in your courts.

Your country has a terrible history of coverups, look at the Aborigine hunts that your farmers used to have, to cler their land.

Look at your seriously crooked NSW police force.

What about the criminal hencemen that ruled Queensland from 70s to 80s.

Your country is a breeding ground for liars and cheats. The crooks are probably cleaner than your politicians and police force!