Hopefully one or two of the "charged" persons would be able to spill the bean on the "incompetence or the knowledge of the government in this AWB affair... Whatever our rodent can squeal about... HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN if he did not know... He should have been told especially when ASIO and the cleaning lady knew about it. And it seems documents prove that the government was alerted to the problem and buried it...

The Cole inquiry went as far as an enquiry... The frame of reference were so straight-jackety that probing the government and its staff was out of the question, except in a manner that solicited the flamboyant "I can't recall" syndrome... A republican commission (stuff the royal bizo) is needed.

My apologies for not having trusted our liar in chief on the AWB matters. After the "never ever" promise and many other non-core flip-flop before, I had to be cautious and place my trust in another god, like the god of contortionism, especially of the bottom lip, that slithers with brilliance. Lovely escapism that Houdini would be jealous of. And apologies to the master of the things that batter and of the 8,000 "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" ad infinitum populum and apologies to the wheat merchant of free trades who could not remember much either... Fan-bloody-tastic. Apologies to all and sundry for not believing a word you said, are saying and will say. But then I do not remember much either...

PM says Ministers deserve apology over AWB
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has demanded an apology from the Opposition for its treatment of his ministers over the AWB scandal after the Federal Government was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Cole report...

Gus: Hey, I have apologised... see comment above! I can't grovel more than the price of the government incompetence or porkies.

KERRY O’BRIEN: Kevin Rudd, no wrongdoing by ministers or their department. Rather takes the winds out of the sails for you, doesn't it?

KEVIN RUDD: It's a question, Kerry, of looking back at what sort of terms of reference Commissioner Cole was given in the first place. Let's be blunt about it. Mr Howard set this up from day one as a Royal Commission with powers only to determine whether AWB officials were engaged in acts in violation of the criminal law. He did not set up a Royal Commission with powers to establish whether or not ministers actually did their job to enforce UN sanctions against Iraq. On the first test, of course, the ministers get a tick because they're not complicit in the breach of the criminal law. On the second question, which is, did they enforce UN sanctions, did they properly administer Australia's Customs regulations, that question was never asked by Commissioner Cole, because he had no powers to ask it.

KERRY O’BRIEN: But Mr Howard continues to make the point that Mr Cole himself indicated on the third of February that his terms of reference were wide enough to allow him to address and make findings regarding DFAT's role in the AWB saga, its knowledge of AWB contracts, what AWB told the Commonwealth - presumably Government ministers was meant by that as well as their departments - about kickbacks. He said if any evidence of illegality emerged he'd ask for an extension of the terms of reference. So why do you keep saying the terms of reference were too narrow?

KEVIN RUDD: Because that engage occurs in February this year, 2006. Later in February 2006 I write to Commissioner Cole and I say to him in black and white, "Will you extend your powers so that you can make determinations on whether ministers have done their job under Australian administrative law?" That is, enforce properly the sanctions regime against Iraq as laid out in the Customs regulations. He writes back to me, I think in early March 2006, and says, one, I have no such powers, Mr Rudd; secondly, what he says is that for me to get those powers would be such a huge extension of the powers I've currently got, which only deal with criminal matters, that I can't initiate that sort of request to the Government. That is something the Government would have to do of its own accord. Mr Howard is a clever politician. He set it up this way in the first place, Kerry, to get his ministers Downer and Vaile off the hook because they were responsible for ticking these contracts on the way through.

KERRY O’BRIEN: You focus on incompetence now, but you alleged time and time again during the course of the Cole Inquiry that Mr Downer and his department had turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the AWB allegations. Not only does Justice Cole pour cold water on the blind eye proposition, he says it's difficult to see "what possible motive DFAT would have for turning a blind eye". What motive would they have?

KEVIN RUDD: The question here is just one of acute negligence, Kerry. We've documented through all the evidence which has come through the Cole Commission of inquiry 35 sets of warnings over a five year period which enabled this $300 million to go into Saddam Hussein's back pocket. And in response to two or three of those warnings going through to the keeper, any reasonable person would say, "OK, big Government, big department, busy minister, that's OK. " 10, 15, 20, 35 that is gross negligence and in our language that is turning a blind eye because it is such an accumulation of warning bells and they've failed to act on all of these and despite the limitations on Commissioner Cole's terms of reference, he himself, as you've just said in your interview with Mr Downer, said DFAT did next to nothing to follow up any of these allegations and warnings and furthermore had not a single system in place to properly evaluate them.

Last night at the Walkleys (30/11/06), Michelle Grattan —journalist extraordinaire — in accepting her award for Journalism Leadership, explained how she meticulously create her accurate political pictures, thus avoiding cynicism in her critique... Good on her. But if this technique worked well in the days when spin-doctors where in nappies and the horse's mouth would tell the truth, these days the floor of the political Howard's stables is clean-swept constantly to make sure there is not an once of evidence that the horses never ever farted. Yes Michelle, the Howard political machine is full of porkies, but they are so well crafted, that the place is super-clean like a drug cartel laboratory or an operating room at the new wing of the RPA. Every ounce of lies is carefully measured and fitted into the greater illusion, the surface of which is gleaming like a Crystal palace, but full of dark tricks and mirrors inside... I will stick to my satire and my ugly cartoons. Hey, I'm not a journalist — just an opinionated seeker of truth and proper processes for the future of this planet in which a dose of projected uncertainty is needed to predict the pathway, for better or for worse.

Yes the horse manure, so diligently collected from Howard's stables by his well-oiled machine, is used to fertilise our minds into believing we are field mushrooms in a cardboard box to be sold to the highest bidder at a free market stall. Keep smiling.

"Surprise surprise..." I will have to start cartoons of Mr Rudd...

from the ABCDEFG

Beazley calls leadership ballot Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has called a leadership ballot for next week. Mr Beazley made the announcement after arriving at the party's national executive meeting in Canberra this morning. He says Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has told him he intends to stand for the leader's position in the ballot. Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard will make an announcement about the leadership ballot this afternoon.