Cover for Me
There’s a valid argument to be made by any senior official in any organization that delegated authority can result in actions being taken that turn out to be contrary to the obligations of the group as a whole, whether to itself or to some oversight authority, but there’s also the principle of “The buck stops here,” and that’s not one that you hear much of in government anymore. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer’s testimony before the Cole Commission amounts to the same litany of excuses Mark Vaile used yesterday, with the additional, seemingly contradictory, assertion that although it was within the purview of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to review the practices of AWB in its trading relations with Iraq under the oil-for-food program, DFAT had no power to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing or otherwise refer such allegations or evidence to the Federal Police. So what can DFAT do? Approve the license. What can Mr. Downer do? Nothing. It’s the job of the clerks, who were only operating as a mailbox anyway, and apparently a dead letter office at that. So what’s the point of Dolly Downer? I guess it’s just to look pretty and toss his curly locks merrily. Cute.