The Wire

Finding out that our own Australian wheat authority knowingly paid around 3 million dollars in bribes to Saddam Hussein’s regime came as quite a shock to the Australian public. The Cole Inquiry has now laid bare the dirty little tale of the businessmen who thought they could separate ethics from trade issues, and who went to extraordinary lengths to cover up what they were doing. Caroline Overington is the journalist who broke the story – her book about the saga is called “Kickback”and it’s just been released. She says it’s the biggest business scandal in Australia’s history and if Alexander Downer didn’t know then he should be ashamed for not having tried harder to find out.