Blood Money

JOHN Howard's refusal to allow a proper investigation of his Government's role in Saddam Hussein's $300 million Aussie slush fund is becoming a scandal in its own right. The commission of inquiry that has been established will only investigate the Australian Wheat Board's actions. It does not have the power to investigate the role of the government that approved the Wheat Board's actions. Kevin Rudd Australian Federal Member for Griffith and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and International Security.

The Howard Government, in Australia, has an appalling record when it comes to probity and transparency. Elected partly on a platform or ‘cleaning up’ government, a flurry or early scandals and ministerial resignations modified it to a platform of self preservation.
Handling of the AWB scandal is consistent with John Howard’s contempt for transparency. The Judicial enquiry terms of reference specifically rule out investigation the role of members of the government or the public service. Rudd argued the case against the government in The Australian; Pig-Iron John has a lot to hide over Saddam kickbacks

Running down Rudd’s list:

• UN Security Council Resolution 661 imposed an obligation on the Australian Government to prevent its nationals or its companies breaching the UN sanctions against Iraq. . Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed the Government's role telling the parliament that his department examined each contract to ensure that they did not "infringe the sanctions regime".


• In January 2000 the Government was explicitly warned by the UN of concerns about exactly what the AWB was up to in Iraq. The Australian Government's response was to simply dismiss these concerns out of hand


• I in October 2000 the AWB wrote to the Government asking for explicit, written endorsement of its proposal to engage Jordanian trucking companies to provide internal transport of Australian wheat within Iraq. Despite the warnings by the UN nine months earlier, the Howard Government assured the AWB that the proposed arrangement "would not be in violation of UN sanctions against Iraq".


• The Government's own statutory authority -- the Wheat Export Authority -- not only examined the Iraq contracts but has confirmed that it also separated out the freight and non-freight components of each contract.


• The Government ignored public warnings about Saddam's abuse of the oil-for-food program in the lead-up to the war in Iraq? In April 2002, while Australian cash was still flowing into the regime's coffers, Howard was preparing Australia for war against the very same regime.


• Finally Rudd charges that the hard currency sent to Saddam by Australia gave the dictator the capacity to buy guns, bombs and bullets for use against foreign forces, both during the war of March-May 2003 and now still during the insurgency

Notwithstanding the obvious partisan rhetoric in Rudd’s article, the claims are on record and present a compelling argument for the government’s role to be examined.
This is a government which is currently trying to introduce draconian ‘sedition’ laws into the country.
At the same time, it appears, they are willing to condone funding and arming a regime, Australian military personnel will be facing.
That the Howard government specifically rules out an investigation of these allegations is more than just double standards; it is more than just a scandal.
It talks of the contempt this government has for the Australian people. The very same people it piously claims to be protecting.
Protecting from what? Certainly not from th ‘war profiteers’ they call their mates.