The National Competition Council, Griffith U's Key Centre for Law, Justice and Governance, ensures we uphold Democratic Institutions on Law Reform etc.All this is underpinned, mind you by AFP, Ministry of Justice/customs, Universities,and appropriate Regulators. Et tu ??

The prevalence of corruption in many leading Nations does not mean Aust can join the Party and drop standards. There NEVER was a level playing field should come as no surprise. It should no longer be seen as Business as usual. It's illegal, and what's more a strong stance against corruption, bribery, money laundering, illegal gambling, off shore tax haven's, corporate malfeasance, etc is conducive to a Healthy Family oriented enviornment.

The collateral fall out from the Inquiry will have repercussions that will resonate for years. The damage to Our reputation as a responsible, honest and reliable Trading Nation is in tatters. The HK Standard, Phuket Gazette, Singapore Strait's Times, Kuala Lumpur's Business Times etc have been scathing in their criticism of events. Our character and very fabric has been jeopardised and put on the line. Foreign Investments could significantly diminish. The corrosive effect is likely to impinge on Tourism, Trade and Business (development) Enterprise. It may distort Economic decision making, fuel inflation and source short term timely intervention by the Reserve Bank. Clearly the Government has broken faith with the electorate. We deserve better. This serves as a 'wake up' call.

Cheers

Fantastic news that Iraq has agreed to continue to take Aussie wheat.... Yabby I wonder if there are any kickbacks to do this deal? lol

The only impediment now in the process is "if the AWB owns the wheat" as the PM stated. I hope the AWB will transfer the wheat to the new selling entity asap.

Who owns the wheat handling equipment and infrastructure and how are we going to work that out without increasing costs to farmers?

To allay any fears for farmers, (they have been through enough), it would be nice if the AWB would make a statement giving full co-operation and guaranteeing the change of the ownership of the wheat to be sold to Iraq.

Like in all things whilst the biggest hurdle has been overcome it's the little hurdles that need to be addressed quickly to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Also I congratulate the new Iraqi Government for taking the correct decision.

Yabster ... I have wheat farmers in my family so your honest opinion OOps is wrong. Also I have stated that the Howard Govt should resign and go to the people so you are not psychic either. I have also stated that it is the role of the opposition to question the Govt and that the Libs in opposition would be right to do the same thing.... so I have been up front there also.

Do you really expect this problem just go back in the little box you seem to want it to? I have tried to point out obstacles the farmers may face so they can be in the best position to protect themselves.

You say you are not politically aligned... Are you really unaligned or a Lib/National voter? lol Why didn’t you answer bushbred's question to you about Ex Deputy PM Anderson's shares in AWB? Apparently he has said words to the effect "that he was going to sell when they got to $5 anyway… ask his wife."

Will the Cole Enquiry follow his instruction and actually "ask his wife"? lol

Opinionated, I find it quite amusing that you are doing lots of worrying about the wheat industry, when you don't understand the issues :)

Any tender for Iraqi wheat is now months away, so all the things that you seem to be losing sleep over, are simply not issues.

Your wheat growing relations are out of touch too. A poll published in Farm Weekly last week, involving 1000 wheatgrowers, showed that 83% think that kickbacks are normal in international trade. 70% think that AWB have been unduly victimised compared with other international companies.

I also find it rather amusing that its Chalabi, who IIRC was the person who gave the US the dud info about WMD, who is commenting as deputy Iraqi PM about Aussie wheat morality :)

Rest assured, farmers will survive, even if all this costs them huge money. If worse comes to the worst, we in WA will simply back CBH and do our own thing here, we own it and then the ES can go and do their thing over there. If it was up to me, we would have seceded from the East long ago...

Yabby, I am glad that you are amused ... I understand the issues ... and guess what the people against kickbacks have been proven right! Rather than giggling read your AWB contract so you know when the title of your wheat passes from you, it is in your interest to know.

So now you want to secede?.. Stop typing and go oil the header mate .... Do you own your property outright Yabster?... If you do then sucede. If you have debt "don't" because the banks could forclose on Yabbiesville - they may assess your new nation as too high a risk. At least you'd have a single desk selling system. The downside is you'd have to pay departure tax and entry tax each time you visited my country Australia...rofl

Gee you must be psychic if you know what my wheat relatives think?.... Can you give me next weeks lotto numbers then? lol

With Stats it is the way the question is worded that is most important. Let's analyze the stats. The 83% who think that kickbacks are normal may be correct... It changes nothing! With the AWB and maybe 2200 other companies it is alleged they may have been normal.

The 70% would be right if they had said the AWB were being investigated unlike the other companies. How do you victimise a company which allegedly may have broken the law? Normally you investigate them... OOps that's what's happening!

Actually you are wrong about the tender being months away... the PM is still hopeful that we can still have a go at the one just gone. Can't remember his exact words... but he seemed to imply that he hadn't given up hope.

I don't lose any sleep over the AWB Yabby... I just want it finalised for the farmer's sakes. It looks like it will continue to be a teeth pulling exercise.

Of course farmers will survive in Oz... most farmers are determined, hard working folk. I have absolute faith in them.

So will Yabbiesville pay kickbacks? What a cack...lol

Yabby
I am going to hark back a few posts - the 24 hr limit and business got me. Funny about kidnapping and hostages - they may not be common here, they may not constitute the main business practice in the third world, but very, very common they are: look at middle east, South American and Asian news services occasionally.

I like your example of prostitution. A long history of corruption of police forces and public officials and increasing organisation of crime seems to be associated with that trade. The history shows that it started off a bit like your version of international trade: a bribe here and there, everyone does it, turn a blind eye. Like prostitution, we could just legalise bribes etc and expect the criminality to go elsewhere (somehow this doesn't seem to work in this case, but it is in line with your argument).

However, it is worth noting that the history behind the prohibition on bribes includes a request by third world countries for the first world to prohibit bribes. Apparently, they want to clean up their own backyard, but recognise that big international and multinational firms can afford to bribe officials anywhere. That makes ethics and legal compliance on the part of the international traders all the more important. In the end, ask yourself what the long term gain for wheat farmers is from bribery.

Oh, and the history of prostitution show that it is the girls that get the worst end of the deal. I'd have thought the analogy put wheat farmers in the place of the girls: getting done over in every possible sense, but still being paid for it (occasionally).

Your analogy though, so I guess you knew that when you posted it.

odsoc

Opinionated, you are clearly a young whippersnapper or you would be aware that there was once an active secession movement in WA. That does not mean that West Australians are not aware, that us 10% of the population produce a third of Australia's exports! If WA was to secede, your Eastern States peso would be dirt cheap and we could do away with all you pencil pushers over there :)

Odsoc, my prostitution point was just one example of the difference between what is written in law and sensible implementation of that law. That applies to every law. In theory you could be prosecuted nearly every day, for overstepping the speed limit by 1km/h, in practise that would be unreasonable, so it isn't done.

So my point remains this: If AWB paid kickbacks and broke some law, legally they made a mistake, but IMHO morally they were quite correct in doing what they did. Nelson Mandella broke the law many times, but long term he was proven morally correct in his claims.

In a corrupted world wheat market, corrupted by EU and US Govts,
if AWB took a can- do approach and sold wheat to the best advantage of its growers, then I commend them for it. The whole UN boycott on Iraq was at best a total fiasco from the start. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died because of it, Saddam was not affected at all. Thousands of companies who traded with Iraq did exactly what AWB did, so to now make big dramatic claims, mainly by people who want to bring down the Govt, has achieved absolutaly nothing so far except to damage AWBs potential to market wheat in that corrupted world market