Trevor Flugge, former chairman of AWB, was paid close to $1m by the Australian Government to serve for 11 months as an adviser in Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry in 2003. This payment, strangely, was made through AusAid, ie it was provided as foreign aid by Australia.

Nice to be well connected with the Government, isn’t it? Flugge is a one time National Party candidate.

I’d be fascinated to know how Mr Flugge’s contract was negotiated, who initiated, who approved it, who decided that AusAid should pay, etc. Of course, we all know that no Ministers will have had anything to do with it. I wonder what AusAid was paying other advisers doing comparable work in Iraq?

While he was considered to be worth $1m for 11 months’ work, he seems to suffer from the same failings of memory as other senior AWB people, claiming to be unaware of the dodgy payments which are the subject of the Cole inquiry. Given that AWB pays its chairman over $200k (for a part time role), I’d be expecting him to be all over the business. Mind you, I’d also expect our government to be all over any significant business dealings with Iraq during the time sanctions were applied - that expectation seems to have been far too high for Ministers, Foreign Affairs and Trade officials and others within government.


Technorati Tags: AWB, Iraq, kickbacks