





LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION



JOINT STATEMENT BY THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION  THE HON SIMON CREAN MP  SHADOW MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS  KEVIN RUDD MP

Prime Minister must correct record on Iraq’s WMD

The Prime Minister today breached his own code of conduct by failing to  correct his false claim to the Parliament that Iraq had sought uranium from  Africa to develop a nuclear weapons program.

Mr Howard told Parliament on February 4 this year that:

“Iraq continues to work on developing nuclear weapons - uranium has  been sought from A rica that has no civil nuclear application in Iraq.” f

This claim was advanced by Mr Howard as one of the key pieces of evidence  underpinning his case for waging war against Iraq.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has since exposed this claim as  having been based on falsified documents, a fact acknowledged yesterday by  Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“….an intelligence claim about Iraq’s effort to acquire uranium from  Africa proved to be erroneous.”

Mr Howard’s own Code of Conduct requires him to immediately come into  Parliament and correct any statement that is subsequently found to be false.

His refusal today to correct the record, together with his attempt to block  parliamentary scrutiny of his handling of intelligence material on Iraq’s  weapons of mass destruction, can only add to the perception that Mr Howard  has not been honest with the Australian people.



CANBERRA  19 JUNE 2003

