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It Speaks For Itself

"Here in the Crikey bunker we have been furiously hunting the Cole Commission transcripts for a tally of how many times the memories of our government ministers, officials and AWB executives have lapsed. How many times the key witnesses at the Cole inquiry have answered questions with phrases like: “I can't recall”, “not to my knowledge”, “I don't know”, “I'm not across that detail”, “I'm not sure”, “I'm not certain” and “not that I'm aware of”.

So here it is – the 2006 Australian Leadership & Competence Index:

John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia – 2 times at least (subject to transcript)
Mark Vaile, Deputy PM and Trade Minister – 44 times
Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs – 62 times
Andrew Lindberg, Managing Director of AWB – 733 times
Trevor Flugge, Chairman AWB – 201 timesMichael Long, General Manager, AWB International Sales and Marketing Division – 138 times
Peter Geary, Domestic and Global Trading International Sales and Marketing, Risk Management – 275 times
Paul Ingleby, CFO AWB – 30 times
Charles Stott, Marketing Chief AWB – 24 times
Ian Donges, International Chairman AWB – 74 times
Richard Fuller, Company Secretary and Director AWB – 37 times
Jim Cooper, Counsel and Company Secretary AWB – 94 times
Brendan Stewart, Chairman AWB – 43 times

That comes to 1757 expressions of ignorance, denial, obfuscation, memory lapse, vagueness and incompetence we can find by a range of people in influential leadership positions in Australian government and business. Bet you don't find that many eggs in your Easter hunt."

By the way.....do yourself a favour and take out a subscription for Crikey. Money well-spent!

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