Documents from a senior diplomat, reported in a newspaper story today as fresh evidence showing the government knew about the kickbacks in 2004, were in fact tendered to the Cole inquiry into the illicit payments four months ago.
It is understood the inquiry's investigators have little interest in the documents and will not pursue the matter further.
While the evidence is not new, the opposition insists it raises more questions about the government's failure to heed warnings that AWB was paying hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq to secure wheat exports under the UN's oil-for-food program.
'Massive beatup'
Questioned about the documents today, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer rejected the claims as "a massive beatup".
He told ABC Radio it was the latest "childish attempt to try to establish the government knew AWB was involved in rorts".
Prime Minister John Howard also dismissed the claims.
"They don't conclusively prove anything," he told ABC Radio in Adelaide.
But Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said the documents were further evidence of the government's lies about AWB and the exporter's activities under the UN program.
"The only reason that Alexander Downer has not been sacked for gross incompetence must be that John Howard knows his fingerprints are there as well," he said.
Claims from two meetings
The claims stem from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) official John Quinn's handwritten notes of his two meetings in July 2004 with Australian army Colonel Mike Kelly, who had been seconded to Iraq's post-war Coalition Provisional Authority.
Mr Quinn's notes of his meetings with Colonel Kelly mention such terms as "AWB Ltd", "service fees", "10 per cent" and "exposure" in the context of the impending UN investigation into the $290 million AWB paid to Saddam Hussein's regime.
His notes also show one of the meetings was attended by representatives from the Attorney-General's Department, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and DFAT.
Mr Quinn was head of the government's Iraq task force at the time and is now a diplomat in Hawaii.
Government officials, including Mr Downer, Mr Howard and Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, have all said on oath they did not know about AWB's illicit payments until a UN probe into the affair began in 2004.
Commissioner Terence Cole is due to deliver his report to the government by the end of next month.