Friday, May 19, 2006

Get on your bike, AWB


Eureka!! Questioning the use of cars in the CBD of Adelaide has been brought up again in the 2020 Vision series. Jane Lomax-Smith has suggested a month of Sundays for no cars on the streets of the CBD. Well, why not, it could be interesting and riding bike is far more sociable than being ensconsed inside an individual universe of a car by drivers'. Good grief people will actually be flesh and blood in action and not puppets behind a steering wheel. As far as talk-fests go this one has been interesting, of course it all has to be acted upon and this was one of the first points made when 2020 was raised. SA is notorious for death by committee.

Speaking of committee, the AWB inquiry have now released a letter from the AWB who were apologising after being caught out in the previous 'Oil for food' Volcker inquiry into corruption.
This admission of guilt was included in a letter drafted for the then managing director of AWB Andrew Lindberg, that was suppressed until yesterday. For fuck's sake AWB bloody well knew they were breaking the law and had been caught. What a load of bullshit has been delivered by people who have taken the stand in past months.

To quote the draft letter, "This was a failure, at the time, of the culture, systems and procedures which the company deeply regrets and is committed to continuing to improve." Ending with "We simply should have done better; and I am deeply sorry we didn't." the former managing director Andrew Lindberg says.

Very nicely written and in plain English would read as; " Shit we got bloody caught rorting the Oil for Food program and it was all worth it because we sold the wheat and made money. We won't do it again because the trading environment has been changed since Saddam got kicked out on his arse and we are dealing with new people to sell Australian Wheat to. Saddam was a criminal leader who lost the war to free his country and it was all his fault because we just wanted to sell wheat and doing it his way meant that ours was what was bought and paid for."

Apparently the Lawyers for AWB tried to keep the letter confidential after it was inadvertently given to the Cole Commission. So they should have, now the general public have seen the proof that the AWB were a bunch of business people who didn't give a shit as long as they made money.
Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff