Buckets!

I'm dropping a bucket on the Opposition and others for the outrageous proliferation of lies and conjecture as truth.

I know that Kim Beazley is an unhappy man - he was a disaster as Defence Minister and copped two floggings at elections. Described as not having the 'ticker' to be Prime Minister, he was the most unpopular Opposition leader... ever.

Now though, he's back, and with a vengeance. He's shrouded himself in 'moral outrage' over a number of topics, but none more so than the AWB scandal. Not content with accusing the Australian Wheat Board of paying kickbacks to the Hussein regime, he now says he has evidence that the payments to a Jordanian trucking company that transported Australian wheat, was used to fund arms buying and the so-called weapons of mass destruction.

I'm sorry, but... what? This was the guy who accused the government of going to war for a lie, that there weren't WMDs. Now he's saying there were, and he has evidence? Please, Kim, share this with us; not just your party, but the United Nations - who found no evidence - with the whole world - who are a little embarrassed that they were wrong. Are you now saying Hussein did have WMDs? And that we paid for them?

For a politician, he's being remarkably naive if he thinks the Australians were the only ones to pay for the transportation of products. It's custom in middle east and eastern countries to pay 'that little bit extra' to clear the way. Call it a bribe, a kickback, whatever, but that is the way these countries do business.

And because Kim is pissed off that we went to war - against his wishes - he's spouting all sorts of bile. The Cole inquiry has yet to hand down it's findings, but Kim has made up his mind on this.

Nationals leader, Mark Vaile, has come out and said he was aware of concerns with the AWB some four years ago, but the lack of evidence had him dismissing those concerns.

The inquiry itself has come about because an American senator wanted to further his, and his country's, ambition in the Iraq region. Given that Australia exports more wheat to Iraq than America does, and they want an in, we became the logical target. Ban Australian wheat and the way is open for American wheat. If a 'scandal' ensues, well, that's politics and it's becoming dirty.

I have to say that the US Wheat Association was a little late in it's howling for blood. Did they not know about this? Or is it a case that for American companies, this is the way business is done: that payments are made in the same way? Whatever.

What pisses me off is a politician making outlandish and unsubstantiated claims that the AWB financed weapons to kill our own troops. Bull. Shit. If you're going that route, then the French, Germans, Russians and yes, the British and Americans are guilty too; after all, it was western countries who financed the war against Iran. That's where the weapons came from.

Mr Beazley should present the evidence, or shut the hell up before he's considered more than just a posturing idiot.