It seems that the Cole inquiry is back in full swing. The latest evidence demonstrates that the Howard government knew in great detail about the involvement of the AWB in the Oil-for-Food scandal before it broke in late 2004.
I would like to say that this means that heads will role in Canberra as the Government has always maintained that they knew nothing untill the Oil-for-Food scandal broke. It seems now that they knew, and were planning how to deal with the political fallout months before the findings of the UN inquiry were released. In particular it seems that Alexander Downer had to have known about the AWBs involvement in the scandal.
It will be interesting to see if the Cole inquiry re-calls Downer or any other senior ministers to give more evidence before the inquiry.