This detailed account tells the background story of a privatised monopoly whose sharp practices embroiled a national government in scandal and shocked a nation that prides itself on the strength of its institutions. AWB Limited, the former Australian Wheat Board that in the 1990s was sold into the private sector, paid more than $US200m in kickbacks to the pariah regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, exploiting the provisions of the United Nations' Oil for Food program by inflating the price of the wheat it sent there to disguise the pay-offs that secured the contracts. The ensuing uproar threatened the careers of key cabinet ministers in the Howard government and contributed to the rise and subsequent election victory of the Australian Labor Party's Kevin Rudd.
- ISBN13 9789400793408
- Publish Date 22 February 2014 (first published 6 January 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country NL
- Imprint Springer
- Edition 2012 ed.
- Format Paperback
- Pages 148
- Language English