Thursday, 23rd February, 2006

The Australian is proving relentless in its pursuit of the Howard Government over the AWB bribery scandal. Hardly a day goes by without the paper having another embarrassing twist to the tale. Yesterday it was the headlines "Everyone in Canberra knew - UN cable warned of Iraq corruption bid five years ago." Today The Australian leads on the AWB chairman Brendan Stewart quitting the government mission to Iraq to try and salvage the wheat trade. But more worrying for the Government will be the continuing editorial attack.

"It was skilful stuff: the Prime Minister came over all outraged, defending himself against an allegation The Australian had not made. By denying a non-existent accusation, Mr Howard managed to bluff his way through the rest of the interview. As political theatre it was hard to beat. As an explanation of why the Government ducked its duty to scrutinise AWB's relations with Iraq at the highest level, it was a slippery stunt."

They are strong words that show the paper is not backing down form the hardline it has taken in earlier editorials. And this from the paper that has been the Howard Government's strongest media supporter.

Dennis Shanahan, for years the Liberal Party's pin-up boy among political commentators, is now the most critical journalist in the press gallery pack. This morning he described the Government's latest defence against the allegations of corruption as "disingenuous" as he accused it of continuing "to avoid the basic question: why the Government failed to investigate the illegal transactions."

I am sure that there will be no let-up in The Australian's pursuit of the truth about who knew what and when. And remember that it will be when most journalists are bored with the subject that the scandal will just be getting through to ordinary members of the public.