Howard to front kickback inquiry

John Howard

CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard will today appear before the inquiry into kickbacks paid by Australia's wheat trader to Saddam Hussein's regime.

His appearance follows those of Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and honours a commitment that the highest political office in the land would not be exempt from the investigation led by commissioner Terence Cole, QC.

"The Cole commission of inquiry has requested that I appear at its hearings," Howard said. "As I have said previously, I am happy to do so. The inquiry has indicated that it would suit its convenience for me to do that at 10am tomorrow."

Howard will be the first PM to appear before a commission since former Labor leader Bob Hawke in 1984.

But given the paucity of real information provided by Vaile and Downer - whose appearances have been heavily criticised by opponents, media and legal experts - Howard's appearance seems unlikely to cast any new light on the handling of a scandal that is gaining political momentum at home and attention abroad.

While oral and documentary evidence given to the Cole commission has confirmed illicit payments first identified by a United Nations inquiry into corruption of the UN's discredited oil-for-food programme, the inquiry has so far failed to uncover direct links to the Government or its ministers.

AWB funnelled money to the Iraqi regime through a Jordanian front company to secure wheat contracts allowed as exceptions to the UN blockade of Iraq after the Gulf War.

The evidence given by Vaile and Downer comprised mainly of claimed ignorance of cables and other warnings of AWB kickbacks; admissions that no efforts were made to ensure AWB contracts - and later allegations of illicit payments - were investigated; and suggestions that officials acted correctly in accepting AWB assurances of probity. Their performance has outraged commentators.

Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the ministers' failure to read cables relating to the kickbacks, to ensure that AWB contracts complied with UN rules and to ensure that Australia met its international obligations meant they were unfit to hold office.

Monash University governance research unit co-director Dr Ken Coghill said they should resign. "Both ministers have shown they are incapable of acting responsibly or even competently in their roles."

The Australian said Downer's testimony added weight to the unavoidable conclusion that the implementation of Australia's foreign policy was a farce and that he and Vaile had little to offer but further denials, pleas of ignorance and buck-passing.

The Sydney Morning Herald said that Downer had been exposed as sloppy and negligent, and had been shown to be "driving his portfolio like [cartoon character] Mr Magoo, jauntily and haphazardly, giggling blithely as he traversed impossible risks".