"Short of a neon sign flashing 'Saddam bribes hidden here' it is hard to imagine what more Mr Downer and DFAT would have needed to comprehensively investigate AWB, long before the Volcker inquiry belled the cat. The most innocent explanation of Mr Downer's behaviour is that he has been at DFAT too long, and, like his senior public servants, did not want to rock AWB's boat. A worse one is that Mr Downer did not want to know what was going on and hoped that nobody would notice how renegade Australians were trading with the enemy, right up until the shooting started in 2003."
- Editorial, The Australian, 29.3.06

Over the last couple of days I've highlighted some of the right-wing rhetoric emanating from The Australian's op-ed pages (and, let's face it, The Australian is a Murdoch outlet), but in fairness they have pursued the AWB scandal with a great deal of diligence. To the extent that yesterday's editorial page called for the Global Village Idiot's resignation.

Downer, of course, is not the only minister who should walk the plank over this astonishing episode. Mark Vaile and Warren Truss should both be there right behind him. John Anderson's forgetfulness in not disclosing his ownership of AWB shares, which he disposed of last year, deserves a lot more scrutiny.

And then there's the man with whom the buck, in any self-respecting democratic government, would stop. If John Winston Howard is to escape from this with his hands clean, then history is obliged to remember him as the Prime Minister who was unable to control, or effectively communicate with, his public service, and only ever made decisions based on incorrect advice.

Note for future reference: Terrence Cole, head of the inquiry investigating the AWB imbroglio, was a member of the Class of '61 at Sydney University's law school. So too was John Winston Howard. This item in yesterday's Australian does a fair bit of straw clutching, but keep it in mind just in case...