As the Cole Inquiry into the AWB unfolds things aren't looking too good for the directors of the company nor, quite likely, Lord Downer, his Department and perhaps even John Howard.
To have the MD of a public company respond as he has at the AWB Inquiry is a disgrace. Then again, Lachlan Murdoch didn't demonstrate any genius either whilst being cross-examined at the One.Tel Court Case in Sydney. Not that James Packer [suffering from amnesia at his age?] showed himself up as a competent director when he was in the witness box in the same litigation.
Crikey in its "editorial comment" yesterday, tied it all together rather neatly this way:
"There's nowhere to hide. That's the point about what goes on in courts, Royal Commissions and other legal or parliamentary formal inquiries – as Lachlan Murdoch discovered to his extreme embarrassment in the One.Tel court hearings last year, and as Australian Wheat Board managing director Andrew Lindberg is finding out, to his extreme embarrassment, in the current AWB Cole inquiry. Murdoch couldn't hide his incompetence or ignorance when, on one memorable day in the One.Tel courtroom, he gave the answer "couldn't recall" to 205 questions. Yesterday, Lindberg was asked 12 times whether he was responsible for deceiving the UN by inflating the cost of wheat contracts. On 11 occasions he responded with phrases like "no,no,no,no," "I don't know," "I don't recall" and "I can't remember" before finally admitting "we had to, we had to, we had no option."
But embarrassment isn't the point. Truth is. Which is why the Cole inquiry has become a ticking time bomb for the Howard government, already implicated in either a conspiracy or a c*ck-up over AWB bribes to the former Iraqi regime. If the inquiry uncovers no more than has so far emerged – AWB bribe-paying and government incompetence – that's bad. But if the inquiry reveals that government ministers were alerted to the payment of bribes while at the same time embarking on a war against the recipients of those bribes – that's something worse than bad.
Most incompetence or illegality – corporate or political – takes places behind closed doors and therefore the perpetrators are never held accountable. But if incompetence or illegality are put under the spotlight in a courtroom run by people who are doing their job professionally, as Lachlan Murdoch and Andrew Lindberg have learned, reputations fly out the window just as fast as the truth flies in".
All worth reflecting on as we head into the weekend......
To have the MD of a public company respond as he has at the AWB Inquiry is a disgrace. Then again, Lachlan Murdoch didn't demonstrate any genius either whilst being cross-examined at the One.Tel Court Case in Sydney. Not that James Packer [suffering from amnesia at his age?] showed himself up as a competent director when he was in the witness box in the same litigation.
Crikey in its "editorial comment" yesterday, tied it all together rather neatly this way:
"There's nowhere to hide. That's the point about what goes on in courts, Royal Commissions and other legal or parliamentary formal inquiries – as Lachlan Murdoch discovered to his extreme embarrassment in the One.Tel court hearings last year, and as Australian Wheat Board managing director Andrew Lindberg is finding out, to his extreme embarrassment, in the current AWB Cole inquiry. Murdoch couldn't hide his incompetence or ignorance when, on one memorable day in the One.Tel courtroom, he gave the answer "couldn't recall" to 205 questions. Yesterday, Lindberg was asked 12 times whether he was responsible for deceiving the UN by inflating the cost of wheat contracts. On 11 occasions he responded with phrases like "no,no,no,no," "I don't know," "I don't recall" and "I can't remember" before finally admitting "we had to, we had to, we had no option."
But embarrassment isn't the point. Truth is. Which is why the Cole inquiry has become a ticking time bomb for the Howard government, already implicated in either a conspiracy or a c*ck-up over AWB bribes to the former Iraqi regime. If the inquiry uncovers no more than has so far emerged – AWB bribe-paying and government incompetence – that's bad. But if the inquiry reveals that government ministers were alerted to the payment of bribes while at the same time embarking on a war against the recipients of those bribes – that's something worse than bad.
Most incompetence or illegality – corporate or political – takes places behind closed doors and therefore the perpetrators are never held accountable. But if incompetence or illegality are put under the spotlight in a courtroom run by people who are doing their job professionally, as Lachlan Murdoch and Andrew Lindberg have learned, reputations fly out the window just as fast as the truth flies in".
All worth reflecting on as we head into the weekend......
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