AWB email date wrong, PM says. 10/05/2006. ABC News Online
Prime Minister John Howard says Opposition claims that he was aware of the AWB corruption allegations in September 2004 are wrong.
Emails mentioned in the Cole inquiry from the head of the Government’s Iraq task force imply that Mr Howard was aware of the allegations in late 2004, months before he has previously stated.
The Prime Minister has told Parliament the date of the emails’ circulation is incorrect.
“The emails which form the basis of the Leader of the Opposition’s question were in fact exchanged in February of 2005, not in September or October of 2004,” he said.
Commissioner Terence Cole is heading the inquiry investigating $300 million worth of payments made by wheat exporter AWB to the former Iraqi regime in contravention of UN sanctions against Iraq.
