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National watchdog is needed : Comments
By Bruce Hawker, published 3/2/2006Bruce Hawker argues there is a need for government officials to face the Cole Inquiry over the AWB oil-for-food scandal.
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It is broadly accepted in business that money is paid under the table to secure deals when dealing with Asian and Middle Eastern countries.So it is alright for private enterprise to pay the ransom for doing business,but not the Aust Wheat Board,upon which the lively hood of hundreds of farmers rely,not to mention the millions in foreign tax dollars our Govt so desperately needs.
We are being a little too precious here,we either acknowledge and ban all forms of corruption or stop being so selective about who we target as the sole perpetrators.
My guess is that the instructions from the Aust Govt were to "Do whatever it takes to keep the contract" and they simply didn't want to know the details.Labor would probably have done the same.
Had the contract been lost they would have been berated for incompetence.The US is falsely taking the high moral ground since they want the contract also.
The US gets very underhanded in business dealings.Note how this free trade agreement is not benefiting us.Our exports to them have hardly changed,while the reverse is true from their perspective.