Kenneth Davidson on Cole Report

From Age opinions :
"It is the actual knowledge of the Commonwealth that the information was false or misleading that is material ... It is immaterial that the Commonwealth may have had the means or ability to find out that the information was misleading, or that it ought reasonably to have known that the information was misleading ... the question whether the Commonwealth may have had constructive knowledge (in the sense that it ought reasonably to have known the truth or that it had the means and the ability to find out the truth) is immaterial. A false statement may still operate on the mind of the person who merely has constructive knowledge so as to result in the person being misled or deceived."
COLE REPORT INTO AWB KICKBACKS

Brilliant. The Houdini defence. It is what we know we know that makes us guilty. That which we know we don't know gets us off the hook. Effectively, the Government's innocence was written into the terms of reference of the Cole inquiry, bolstered by the choice of commissioner who showed his mettle to the Government's satisfaction in the two-year inquiry into the building industry.
Update: See http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2006/11/28/cole-concludes/ for more information and discussion.