The Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, has told the Cole inquiry he wasn't told six years ago about warnings that AWB's wheat contracts with Iraq could have contained irregularities.
He says he didn't see a series of 21 confidential diplomatic cables urging officials to tell him, including one from Australia's Trade Commissioner in Washington, Alistair Nicholas.
Mr Vaile was giving evidence to the inquiry into allegations that AWB paid almost $300-million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, in direct breach of U-N sanctions.
Going into the inquiry, he repeated that the government was being transparent.
"My appearance here this afternoon following my submission to the inquiry is proof of that, and of course the Foreign Minister will be giving evidence tomorrow afternoon.
"We've said that it's an open and transparent process that we've established in Australia, but not too many other governments around the world have done.
"This is proof positive of that."