"As far as the AWB scandal, there is not a single shred of evidence that the libs knew of the rort whilst it was happening, and they even allowed a judicial inquiry to occur which subpoenaed hundreds of thousands of documents and emails. I don't have any reason to believe they knew. If you have, please share it."

'Shred' being the operative word. Just because an inquiry is conducted does not mean that all evidence is forthcoming just as in the Children Overboard investigations where it was proven public servants and advisers who lied about when the government knew were rewarded later with senior roles.

Do you really think any evidence to the contrary would make it to the light of day. Does the phrase "protecting the integrity of government" mean anything to you. Sometimes stability comes at any cost including ethical ones.

Try getting ALL the Cole Inquiry papers under FOI before you make up your mind on this one.

There was a great deal of criticim about the narrow terms of reference of the Inquiry thus the government, DFAT and other relevant parties were not included in the terms of reference and hence did not come under any semblance of close scrutiny. Disgusting given the circumstances.

Dear Shadow Minister,
All are capable of great honor and All are capable of great depravity For All fall short of Gods best. Only in the anointing do we have the power to resist temptation. Religious tradition does not hold us true to our chosen course as Simon Peter found out in his hour of pressure. After the anointing arrived his resolve was strengthened where he could say "Not my will but thine be done". Believing is not enough for we need the daily dose of power. That is why Jesus took the time out to go and have dialog with his father (pray) daily. It takes putting God First place in your life which we are incapable of doing without His help. Without a Holy reverence and fear of God according to accurate knowledge honor can not be restored and a mans word and his handshake are again his worth or value = character. The answer is not found in man for it is found in Gods Word.

Pelican,

As I thought, only conjecture.

If there was nothing to hide why not widen the terms of reference as far as communications between DFAT and the government and other agencies?

Try and get all the information from participating agencies under FOI and get back to me on your success.

Pelican,

With the enquiry costing more than $1m a day, to extend the terms of reference and the inquiry by months would have required more than Labor's desire for a fishing expedition.

With no evidence produced from the most likely sources, there was no justification for wasting time and money on tenuous sources.

Using your own logic, if Labor has nothing to hide, why are they strenuously avoiding an inquiry into the the pink batts, the BER, or a productivity inquiry into the NBN when for all of them there is huge evidence that all is not well.

Well there was a review into the pink batts with the findings showing that there was a poor oversight and negligence in taking advice about safety aspects and rorting. It was pretty obvious anyway that the whole thing was a shemozzle and even the PM took responsibility so there is no need for a formal judicial inquiry.

I don't know enough about NBN matters to comment specifically but what would the terms of reference be that are not already covered in policy or in the process of establishing the network? Yes there could be greater transparency but this is true of most policy initiatives on either side.

I agree with you that if Oakeshott intervened in protecting a political donor from scrutiny after dumping toxic waste into the river then that should be exposed or at least investigaged (as should all incidents of this nature).

It just does not behove well when the same poster raises issues that reveal the negatives on one side of politics on the basis of 'fighting corruption' but fails to do the same on the other.

As for AWB - widening the terms of reference would have assured the public that all avenues were investigated thoroughly including communications between government and DFAT/PMC/AGD etc and AWB executives. The inquiry, in the end, did not even probe into what the government knew or when they knew, or what actions were taken/not taken. That is negligence and makes a mockery out of any inquiry that purports to facilitate transparency and accountability.

It is more a waste of money to run a Clayton's Inquiry than to do it properly.