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Kick Back: Inside The Australian Wheat Board Scandal
From the award-winning journalist who first broke the story, here - in forensic detail - is the incredible true story of how the Australian Wheat Board funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Saddam Hussein's regime on the eve of the 2003 war.When the Australian Wheat Board gave over AUD290 million to Saddam Hussein's brutal regime in order to secure wheat contracts, it was award-winning journalist Caroline Overington who told the world.Reading like a thriller, 'Kickback' is a blow-by-blow account of what really happened. How did a former government agency, now stand-alone company, manage to climb into bed with a corrupt regime, with which we are at war? How did they defraud the United Nations and its aid program managers? It's hard to believe that no member of the Howard government, no departmental head or employee, no advisor to a minister, knew this corruption was happening. How high up did the knowledge travel? Where and when did the government and departmental oversight occur? A couple of brave whistleblowers and the rage of the Canadian and US wheat farmers eventually blew the lid off the scandal, but what on earth did the AWB executive think it was doing and for how long did they think they could keep on doing it?This is a tale of monumental proportion. Read 'Kickback' and be appalled.
308 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
2 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Overington
30 books579 followersCaroline Overington is an Australian author and journalist.
She has worked for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and is is currently a staff writer for The Weekend Australian Magazine.
Caroline is a two-time winner of the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism. She won her first Walkley for a series of articles about a literary fraud, and her second for a series about the AWB oil for food scandal.
She is also a winner of the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for excellence in Journalism; and of the Blake Dawson Prize.
Caroline has published five books. Her first, Only in New York, was about working as a foreign correspondent in Manhattan.
Her second, Kickback, was about the UN oil for food scandal. It won the Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature.
Her first novel, Ghost Child, is about a child murdered by his parents.
Her second, I Came To Say Goodbye, takes the form of a letter from a grandfather to a Supreme Court judge. It was shortlisted for both the Fiction Book of the Year, and overall Book of the Year, in the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards.
Her latest novel, published in October 2011, is called Matilda is Missing. It is set in the Family Court, and it is about a couple's war over custody of their two year old daughter, Matilda.
Caroline's books are proudly published by Random House Australia.
Caroline is a mother of delightful, 11-year-old twins. She lives with her kids, her husband, a blue dog, and a lizard, in Bondi.
She has worked for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and is is currently a staff writer for The Weekend Australian Magazine.
Caroline is a two-time winner of the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism. She won her first Walkley for a series of articles about a literary fraud, and her second for a series about the AWB oil for food scandal.
She is also a winner of the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for excellence in Journalism; and of the Blake Dawson Prize.
Caroline has published five books. Her first, Only in New York, was about working as a foreign correspondent in Manhattan.
Her second, Kickback, was about the UN oil for food scandal. It won the Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature.
Her first novel, Ghost Child, is about a child murdered by his parents.
Her second, I Came To Say Goodbye, takes the form of a letter from a grandfather to a Supreme Court judge. It was shortlisted for both the Fiction Book of the Year, and overall Book of the Year, in the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards.
Her latest novel, published in October 2011, is called Matilda is Missing. It is set in the Family Court, and it is about a couple's war over custody of their two year old daughter, Matilda.
Caroline's books are proudly published by Random House Australia.
Caroline is a mother of delightful, 11-year-old twins. She lives with her kids, her husband, a blue dog, and a lizard, in Bondi.
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January 14, 2018
Although it is over a decade since this scandal broke, 'Kickback' remains as relevant as ever an insight into corruption, the pros and cons of UN sanctions, and government created monopolies. Overington details the complex case of the Australian Wheat Board scandal in a very readable, and indeed, exciting way, and is well worth reading even today. A highly recommended read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review