ABC Online; The Federal Opposition says letters released by the Cole inquiry into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal provide new evidence linking the Australian Government to the wheat scam.
One letter is from Prime Minister John Howard and the other from Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile to the AWB.
The letter from Mr Howard asks the AWB to remain in close contact in order to jointly attempt to achieve a satisfactory outcome.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says the letters make it harder for the Government to say it did not know what the AWB was doing.
"We're still led to believe, or asked to believe by the Howard Government, that no warning bells were being sounded at all during this period - I mean frankly it's not believable," he said.
"What these letters demonstrate, at the highest levels of the Howard Government, is that there was a pattern of systematic briefing, contact and engagement with ministers, their advisers and officials throughout this period.
"Yet the Howard Government wants to somehow cause us all to believe that only the AWB and not themselves should be under the scrutiny of a proper commission of inquiry."
But Mr Howard strongly denies the Labor allegation that his letter links the Government to the wheat scam.
"I don't find this letter embarrassing," he said. "I don't find it proves what Mr Rudd rather breathlessly says it does.
"It would have been astonishing in 2002, if as Prime Minister, I hadn't done everything I possibly could to preserve Australia's very valuable wheat market."
Inquiry hearings continue in Sydney today.
Dave R.
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