Prime Minister Must Report Tomorrow On Peter Reith

Media Statement - 10 December 2002

Only after repeated questioning from Labor has the Prime Minister agreed to investigate Peter Reith's knowledge of a $900 million Defence contract awarded to his employer, Tenix.

John Howard should report back to Parliament tomorrow on the many questions that have been raised over the awarding of the Defence Integrated Distribution System (DIDS) contract.

In reporting back to the Parliament, the Prime Minister must answer these questions:

• Did Peter Reith, as the Minister for Defence, have access to commercially sensitive information on the initial DIDS tender round?
• When did his employment with Tenix start?
• When did Tenix lodge its bid for the second DIDS tender round?

There is clearly a potential for a conflict of interest when you have a former Minister jumping across to a Defence company that then wins a tender, which their new employee had been briefed on as Minister.

This is what we do know about the DIDS contract:

• In July 2001 Peter Reith cancelled the tender for the DIDS after being provided with information on the bids of the six tenderers, and just ten days after announcing he would retire at the next election.
• Six months later, Mr Reith was working for one of those tenderers, Tenix, while it was preparing its bid for the restarted DIDS tender process.
• In October this year the Government announced that Tenix had won the $900 million contract for DIDS.