Ozpolitic: Howard at Royal Commission

Will Howard remember anything? Will he claim he was never advised (as he did with the children overboard story)? Will he blame Downer and Vaile or are they now off the hook? Whatever happens we know that Chairman of the Commission Cole can't make any finding that Minister's did anything wrong, can only say whether any actions or omissions may have constituted a breach of Commonwealth laws.

There's an old political saying that such Commission's take minutes to establish and years to determine anything of substance. Howard might be the first PM to face such an inquiry in almost 30 years, and Kevin Rudd's bound to call for his resignation (he's done this every day at least five times a day since the hearings began), but he's likely to escape relatively unscathed. I think the Australian public know something's wrong with this situation but the fact that AWB was indirectly financing the defence of Iraq doesn't appear to worry them much despite the fact that their tax funds are now paying to secure Iraq...