I know, I know, my rants on politics aren't as good as my personal life entries, but seriously, I have to vent about this whole AWB Iraq bribery inquiry. We have had the Trade Minister, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Foreign Minister up in front of the Cole Commission already this week, with the Prime Minister likely to come in front of the commission on Thursday.
And had a good Four Corners on ABC last night, kind of an 'AWB Iraq bribery case for dummies'. I will try to give a brief run down - Iraq was allowed to sell some oil for food and emergency supplies from 1995, and the Australian Wheat Board got a contract for supplying, well, wheat. In 1999, the Iraqis requested a transport fee be added on top of the wheat sales.
The transport fees were paid into a Jordanian trucking company's account, which was further transferred on to the Iraqi regime - at this time under Saddam Hussein, which is bad - and AWB executives completely understood that the payments were going to the Iraqi government from the start. But they only added these fees in as a side paragraph in one contract, and after that first contract went through, set up the payments directly through the real shipping or trucking companies, so that the bribes would not show up in any further contracts.
By the time the 2003 war had broken out, well, the invasion portion of that continuing war, AWB had paid $US220 million to the Iraqis. In late 2003, top AWB executives were then seconded to the Coalition Provisional Authority to sort out Iraq's grain needs - and were photographed playing cowboys with guns in their hands. Not sure whether this is actual evidence or not, but the impression I get was that they were sent over there to clean up any potential mess.
But, during the mayhem that was Baghdad in April and May 2003, a whole lot of Iraqi Grain Board paperwork did make it to public attention. There were many other illegal payments that came out of the Volcker Report last year, Paul Volcker - a former US Federal Reserve Chairman - having been asked to investigate the oil for food programme, but the AWB one was far and away the biggest.
Still with me? We are getting somewhere with this story, I promise...
So, the Australian government decided to set up a commission to investigate AWB's role in this kickbacks thing. If the commissioner felt he needed to expand the terms of reference, he would be given those powers, John Howard said. A couple of weeks ago, the Opposition got a legal opinion from the commissioner's lawyer basically saying that Cole would not feel comfortable extending the terms of reference, unless a politician had been caught red handed, and therefore would not likely ask for any extension. Howard still said if the commissioner wanted to expand the terms, all he had to do was ask, getting into a circular discussion with the Lateline host along the lines of he won't ask, well if he does ask he will get them. Totally stupid.
Anyways, this week it has gotten to the point of actual ministers getting up in front of the commission. Despite evidence that about twenty ministerial cables had been sent about the issue, which had been copied to all the relevant parties, some of which had been marked, 'Urgent: Attention to Minister', a sorrier case of incompetents you would probably never see.
Mark Vaile, Deputy PM, Minister for Trade was up first yesterday. He hadn't gotten around to reading the cables because he wasn't sure which department had responsibility for it, that he was snowed under with work at a new portfolio, and he had spoken with AWB and they said they didn't do it. He could not recall seeing relevant papers or having relevant conversations about forty times. Vaile also gave you the impression that the responsible department was Foreign Affairs.
But at least Vaile fronted the media and protesters out the front of the inquiry building. Today was the turn of Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister, to front the Cole Commission, and he made an inauspicious start by sneaking in a side door. He was slightly more sure of himself than Vaile, only being unaware or uncertain of answers a mere 26 times.
Downer said it wasn't Australia's responsibility to sort the oil for food corruption thing out, that was more the United Nations - they had actual people in Iraq, on the ground. Umm, Alexander, the actual bribery took place in Jordan, and how does having boots on the ground make any difference in reading a balance sheet, which was probably submitted in both Sydney and New York.
Downer also relied on AWB's spotless reputation and also the obligatory denial from the company itself rather than do any sort of follow up questioning, let alone an investigation. And, most gallingly for the former public servant side of me, Downer stated that he never usually read the cable summaries that the Australian diplomatic corps painstakingly put together for him - 'if I'm on a plane and there's nothing else to read, then I might read the cable summaries'.
And even when AWB's former chief has given in evidence that he had a conversation regards the kickbacks with the Foreign Minister, Downer couldn't recall that either. And that even when Downer became aware that something may be up, he didn't even think of investigating things then either. Oh, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had no legal ability to investigate AWB even if two and two had been put together.
Downer has always come across to me as a toff, and the evidence he presented today has just confirmed every last stereotype I had of the guy - he apparently dismissed information fed through by the US military after the invasion because the person who had advised him or his officials of it 'was only a captain'. I think the lieutenants and majors and generals actually had a war to organise?
No doubt we will have a similar stonewalling spectacle on Thursday, when the Prime Minister takes his time in the seat. Remember, the terms of reference haven't been altered to find cases against remarkable incompetence, it's only if a Federal official is actually thought to have done something criminal that findings can be made against them. So we will get more 'I can't recall' or 'it was another department's responsibility' I am sure.
The funniest thing though, in a totally non funny and how stupid is this government way, the funniest thing is that either the Australian government is completely incompetent, and takes the word of an accused company at face value, without even a couple of independent questions, I think it is known as common sense, or that the government has been breaking UN Security Council Resolution 661 all this time.
661 is one of the more famous UN resolutions, stemming from the ceasefire with Iraq after the 1991 war. One of the provisions says it is the member states' responsibility to make sure their nationals (ie, citizens) don't break the UN sanctions - or, following on from the actual sanctions, do the oil for food thing correctly. So this buck passing to the UN is just a front. As some Oxford international affairs guy on Lateline said tonight, both the UN and Australian government are at fault, and to even do a cursory investigation would be common sense.
OK, that's the AWB thing out of the way for the moment. How's about let's discuss the WorkChoice legislation, the latest fuck up on that being construction workers being fined half a day's pay for stopping for 25 minutes to do a whip around for one of their former colleagues widow. The guy had died on the job. The employer had to fine them, otherwise they would have been in breach of the legislation, which states that any workplace stoppage needs to be asked for by the union to the employer.
The employees actually seem fine with the employer, and are more angry at the government. Kevin Andrews, the Industrial Relations minister, must be sick of saying the legislation has just been introduced, will be bedded down, there is an investigating team if needs be. Who actually does employ MPs, anyways, isn't it the Australian taxpayer? Let's slash their conditions :)
And the other buck passing thing - the Prez of the US of A. Oh, can't wiretap on American phone lines? Oh, let's ignore that and let's do the war powers allow me to do this excuse. Get snapped for leaking confidential information trying to justify the Iraq war? Oh, I declassified it just before we told the media about them. Does anyone else see a problem with just these two examples, or is it just me?
Sorry this is a long and probably boring one, but I needed to get it out of my system...
Pauly
And had a good Four Corners on ABC last night, kind of an 'AWB Iraq bribery case for dummies'. I will try to give a brief run down - Iraq was allowed to sell some oil for food and emergency supplies from 1995, and the Australian Wheat Board got a contract for supplying, well, wheat. In 1999, the Iraqis requested a transport fee be added on top of the wheat sales.
The transport fees were paid into a Jordanian trucking company's account, which was further transferred on to the Iraqi regime - at this time under Saddam Hussein, which is bad - and AWB executives completely understood that the payments were going to the Iraqi government from the start. But they only added these fees in as a side paragraph in one contract, and after that first contract went through, set up the payments directly through the real shipping or trucking companies, so that the bribes would not show up in any further contracts.
By the time the 2003 war had broken out, well, the invasion portion of that continuing war, AWB had paid $US220 million to the Iraqis. In late 2003, top AWB executives were then seconded to the Coalition Provisional Authority to sort out Iraq's grain needs - and were photographed playing cowboys with guns in their hands. Not sure whether this is actual evidence or not, but the impression I get was that they were sent over there to clean up any potential mess.
But, during the mayhem that was Baghdad in April and May 2003, a whole lot of Iraqi Grain Board paperwork did make it to public attention. There were many other illegal payments that came out of the Volcker Report last year, Paul Volcker - a former US Federal Reserve Chairman - having been asked to investigate the oil for food programme, but the AWB one was far and away the biggest.
Still with me? We are getting somewhere with this story, I promise...
So, the Australian government decided to set up a commission to investigate AWB's role in this kickbacks thing. If the commissioner felt he needed to expand the terms of reference, he would be given those powers, John Howard said. A couple of weeks ago, the Opposition got a legal opinion from the commissioner's lawyer basically saying that Cole would not feel comfortable extending the terms of reference, unless a politician had been caught red handed, and therefore would not likely ask for any extension. Howard still said if the commissioner wanted to expand the terms, all he had to do was ask, getting into a circular discussion with the Lateline host along the lines of he won't ask, well if he does ask he will get them. Totally stupid.
Anyways, this week it has gotten to the point of actual ministers getting up in front of the commission. Despite evidence that about twenty ministerial cables had been sent about the issue, which had been copied to all the relevant parties, some of which had been marked, 'Urgent: Attention to Minister', a sorrier case of incompetents you would probably never see.
Mark Vaile, Deputy PM, Minister for Trade was up first yesterday. He hadn't gotten around to reading the cables because he wasn't sure which department had responsibility for it, that he was snowed under with work at a new portfolio, and he had spoken with AWB and they said they didn't do it. He could not recall seeing relevant papers or having relevant conversations about forty times. Vaile also gave you the impression that the responsible department was Foreign Affairs.
But at least Vaile fronted the media and protesters out the front of the inquiry building. Today was the turn of Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister, to front the Cole Commission, and he made an inauspicious start by sneaking in a side door. He was slightly more sure of himself than Vaile, only being unaware or uncertain of answers a mere 26 times.
Downer said it wasn't Australia's responsibility to sort the oil for food corruption thing out, that was more the United Nations - they had actual people in Iraq, on the ground. Umm, Alexander, the actual bribery took place in Jordan, and how does having boots on the ground make any difference in reading a balance sheet, which was probably submitted in both Sydney and New York.
Downer also relied on AWB's spotless reputation and also the obligatory denial from the company itself rather than do any sort of follow up questioning, let alone an investigation. And, most gallingly for the former public servant side of me, Downer stated that he never usually read the cable summaries that the Australian diplomatic corps painstakingly put together for him - 'if I'm on a plane and there's nothing else to read, then I might read the cable summaries'.
And even when AWB's former chief has given in evidence that he had a conversation regards the kickbacks with the Foreign Minister, Downer couldn't recall that either. And that even when Downer became aware that something may be up, he didn't even think of investigating things then either. Oh, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had no legal ability to investigate AWB even if two and two had been put together.
Downer has always come across to me as a toff, and the evidence he presented today has just confirmed every last stereotype I had of the guy - he apparently dismissed information fed through by the US military after the invasion because the person who had advised him or his officials of it 'was only a captain'. I think the lieutenants and majors and generals actually had a war to organise?
No doubt we will have a similar stonewalling spectacle on Thursday, when the Prime Minister takes his time in the seat. Remember, the terms of reference haven't been altered to find cases against remarkable incompetence, it's only if a Federal official is actually thought to have done something criminal that findings can be made against them. So we will get more 'I can't recall' or 'it was another department's responsibility' I am sure.
The funniest thing though, in a totally non funny and how stupid is this government way, the funniest thing is that either the Australian government is completely incompetent, and takes the word of an accused company at face value, without even a couple of independent questions, I think it is known as common sense, or that the government has been breaking UN Security Council Resolution 661 all this time.
661 is one of the more famous UN resolutions, stemming from the ceasefire with Iraq after the 1991 war. One of the provisions says it is the member states' responsibility to make sure their nationals (ie, citizens) don't break the UN sanctions - or, following on from the actual sanctions, do the oil for food thing correctly. So this buck passing to the UN is just a front. As some Oxford international affairs guy on Lateline said tonight, both the UN and Australian government are at fault, and to even do a cursory investigation would be common sense.
OK, that's the AWB thing out of the way for the moment. How's about let's discuss the WorkChoice legislation, the latest fuck up on that being construction workers being fined half a day's pay for stopping for 25 minutes to do a whip around for one of their former colleagues widow. The guy had died on the job. The employer had to fine them, otherwise they would have been in breach of the legislation, which states that any workplace stoppage needs to be asked for by the union to the employer.
The employees actually seem fine with the employer, and are more angry at the government. Kevin Andrews, the Industrial Relations minister, must be sick of saying the legislation has just been introduced, will be bedded down, there is an investigating team if needs be. Who actually does employ MPs, anyways, isn't it the Australian taxpayer? Let's slash their conditions :)
And the other buck passing thing - the Prez of the US of A. Oh, can't wiretap on American phone lines? Oh, let's ignore that and let's do the war powers allow me to do this excuse. Get snapped for leaking confidential information trying to justify the Iraq war? Oh, I declassified it just before we told the media about them. Does anyone else see a problem with just these two examples, or is it just me?
Sorry this is a long and probably boring one, but I needed to get it out of my system...
Pauly
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