Mr CREAN (Leader of the Opposition) (2:05 PM) —My question is addressed to the Foreign Minister. I refer to comments made by the Prime Minister from London where he said that he was very familiar with the information contained in the UK dossier on Iraq. Minister, if this is true, why didn't your statement to the parliament last week contain some of the specific details on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program such as the information about Iraq's attempts to acquire nuclear materials and longer range missile systems? Given that Australia is party to allied intelligence sharing arrangements, why didn't you seek to have the information declassified prior to your statement to the parliament last week? Why weren't you prepared to take the Australian people into your confidence?

The SPEAKER —The Leader of the Opposition will conclude his question.

Mr CREAN —Why are you now relying on the British government to make the case to the Australian people?

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The answer is very simple. Of course, we did in the statement provide a great deal of information but, further than that, it is not the job of the Australian government to declassify British intelligence material; it is the job of the British government. In the extraordinarily unlikely event that the Leader of the Opposition should become Prime Minister of this country—

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The minister has the call.

Mr DOWNER —if he were to declassify British intelligence information and table it in the parliament, it would terminate our intelligence relationship with Britain and I do not propose to do that.

The SPEAKER —I warn the member for McMillan! I have already issued a warning to the member for Grayndler.