Cover-Up Not On

When Australia’s Prime Minister, John Howard, launched the Cole inquiry into local fallout from the Volker Report he was determined that any government involvement in the alleged corruption would not be investigated.

Howard's attempted cover-up of the government’s role in the scandal threatened to deliver another corruption whitewash.

Now issues concerning the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Deputy PM and Trade Minister, Mark Vaile are so intertwined with the affairs of AWB and their Iraqi trade, details just keep dribbling out.

The Australian newspaper (Ex-official to face wheat probe) has now revealed that a former DFAT assistant secretary, Jane Drake-Brockman, will be giving evidence to the Cole Inquiry.
Drake-Brockman became a focus with a damning revelation that in 1999 and 2000 AWB wrote to seek DFAT's permission to pay "trucking fees" to the Jordanian trucking company Alia, which turned out to be a front for Saddam.
In a letter dated October 30, 2000, AWB said engaging the services of Alia would "eloquently solve our problems" in Iraq, but wanted to "ensure DFAT is comfortable with AWB proceeding".
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said DFAT officials are not implicated in the scandal.
The AWB official, Rex Lister, who handled the most sensitive discussions with the Federal Government over Iraqi wheat contracts has since died, leaving the inquiry into the UN oil-for-food scandal with access to his meticulous notes but unable to examine him on those dealings.