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  • Boo Hoo: $6m AWB man cries about Iraqi atrocities

    AWB sent millions of dollars in foreign currency to Saddam Hussein so he could build concrete bunkers, which AWB executives speculated might be used by the regime to bury Kurds.

    The shocking email detailing the reinforced bunkers came on an extraordinary final day of the Cole inquiry in which a former AWB managing director broke down on the stand and new Trade Minister Warren Truss was drawn into the Iraqi kickback scandal.

    But the extent of the scandal was revealed in the email by executive Daryl Borlase, who said Iraq wanted to build 2000 concrete bunkers, ostensibly to store grain, but "the bunkers will have cement walls and floors so they are actually designed for burying the Kurds – under the cement?"

    "They intend to build them with fumigation capability so the mind boggles as to whether they are fumigating insects or any other pest that pisses them off," the email says.

    It continued: "On a serious note, they will have cement flooring …"

    Saddam is on trial in Iraq for the genocide of 182,000 people in a 1987-88 campaign against the Kurds.

    The dramatic revelations came just hours after Mr Truss, who was sworn in as Trade Minister at 2.30pm yesterday, was dragged into the scandal.

    Senior counsel John Agius produced a letter, drawn from the archives of AWB’s computers just this week, which suggested that former AWB chairman Trevor Flugge had discussed problems with the Iraq "trucking fee" with Mr Truss when he was agriculture minister in 2000.

    The letter, which Mr Flugge swore he had never seen, was written on April 5, 2000, and addressed to the former Iraqi minister for trade, Mohammed Medhi Saleh, who later became the Six of Hearts in the Most Wanted pack of Iraqis.

    It was written for Mr Flugge by an AWB executive turned whistleblower, Mark Emons.

    Former AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg, who was the last witness on the last day of the inquiry, was asked by Mr Agius whether his staff knew that AWB’s millions was being funnelled to Iraq at a time when Saddam was accused of massive human rights abuses.

    "Would you agree with me, Mr Lindberg, that the (Kurds) email does make plain that there were personnel within AWB who were aware of what … the Iraqi regime was capable of doing?" Mr Agius asked.

    A short time later, Mr Lindberg collapsed into tears in the witness box.

    His wife, who had been sitting in the public gallery, and several supporters rushed to comfort him.

    Mr Lindberg resigned as CEO in February, shortly after Mr Agius asked him whether he was a "complete fool" for ignoring the scandal for so long.The job had paid him more than $6million in four years.

    "I hope that wasn’t said in a serious way," he said yesterday, of the Kurds email. "I think it’s open for you to draw that inference."

    Mr Lindberg told the inquiry he understood one of the reasons UN sanctions had been in place against Iraq was to stop Saddam’s regime getting hold of foreign currency to buy weapons or for other nefarious purposes.

    In his final question Commissioner Cole asked former AWB CEO Andrew Lindberg: “Are you able to give me any understanding as to how you think this came about, how it happened in a company like AWB?” Mr Lindberg replied: “It would appear that it was set up before I arrived by former employees and it continued under my stewardship, and it shouldn’t have.”

    Source: news.com.au

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  • CHINA ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL FUSION TEST

    EAST is based at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. During the experiment, reports indicate, the superheated plasma attained a temperature of about 100 million Celsius. The first tests lasted nearly three minutes, and generated an electrical current of 200 kiloamps, a scientist taking part in the experiment told Xinhua. The experiments are continuing, he added.

    Li Jiangang, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, said the results of the tests met the expectations of the sicentists and signified a great breeakthrough in the research of thermonuclear fusion. "That means we lead all our competitors by at least a decade," said Li. "The breakththrough will make it possible for mankind to harness a safe, clean, and endless source of energy."

    The data of the EAST test will be submitted to the International Atomic Energy General Conference in Vienna.

  • New gas fired electricty plant for Wagga

    Contracts due soon: B&B is completing construction contracts for the gas-fired plant, which would cost about $600 million to build using standard industry cost assumptions of $1 million a megawatt.

    Other expansions mooted: It gained development approval earlier this year. B&B is also considering expanding its Ecogen gas-fired power business in Victoria and its Braemar joint venture in Queensland.

    Float up in the air: Meanwhile, B&B must decide within the next month whether to go ahead with a sharernarket float of its power assets this year, wait until 2007 or restructure the assets into an unlisted fund. It has mandated investment banks Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley to lead the potential float.

    ERM a long-time partner: B&B’s stake in the plant at Wagga, which it is developing in a joint venture with long-time partner ERM, would be part of any power station business. Other assets likely to form the power fund are B&B’s interests in Queensland gas-fired power stations at Braemar and Oakey and Western Australia’s NewGen venture at Kwinana, all of which are also joint ventures with ERM.

    The Australian Financial Review, 28/9/2006, p. 16

  • Green buildings not expensive says survey

    Cost premium "small: Romilly Madew, chief executive of the Green Building Council, said the GBC’s cost-benefit analysis of green buildings The Dollars & Sense of Green Buildings showed that green buildings incur a small premium of no more than 3 per cent above the costs of standard construction. This made the cost of going green for CBD commercial building “less than $100 per square metre,” Ms Madew said.

    Momentum is there: BCI Australia chief executive officer Matthias Krups said that the results reflected the momentum in the industry to build green, but that manufacturers were slow to respond.

    Window of opportunity: “The results also point to a strategic window of opportunity for manufacturers’ branding and positioning, with ‘specifying green products’ ranking among the most common of green building activities, yet few if any architects are able to specifically put their finger on a ‘green manufacturer’,” Dr Krups said.

    Green building sales on rise: Among other findings in the survey: More than 50 per cent of Australia’s architectural firms and contractors see their sales associated with green building on the rise, yet 65 per cent of architects and contractors see ”little or no impact” of green building on their profits.

    The Australian Financial Review, 28/9/2006, p. 55