Oz Democrats demand Iraq inquiry

The Australian government has signaled that a new inquiry into what Australia knew about Iraq's weapons need not report before the next election. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Sunday the search for weapons in Iraq should be completed before any new inquiry is established. That's ridiculous, say the Australian Democrats.

"Senator Bartlett said Iraq's WMD could become a repeat of the children-overboard controversy when it became clear after the 2001 election that the government had misled the public about whether asylum seekers had thrown children into the sea.

'The Democrats believe the foreign minister's suggestion that we should perhaps wait until they finish looking for the weapons before we have a proper inquiry is simply ridiculous,' Senator Bartlett told reporters.

'This government didn't think we needed to wait until the weapons inspectors team had done their job before going into war against Iraq and yet it wants us to wait now before they have a proper inquiry.' "