Fed: PM must come clean on Honan/ethanol meeting: ALP

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Fed: PM must come clean on Honan/ethanol meeting: ALP

CANBERRA, Aug 4 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard had to come clean about a meetinghe had with businessman Dick Honan about the ethanol industry, Labor said today.

Opposition primary industries spokesman Kerry O'Brien said it defied belief that MrHoward could not remember a meeting he had with Mr Honan, which he denied while answeringquestions in parliament.

A series of Freedom of Information requests made by Senator O'Brien have discoveredMr Honan and Mr Howard met on August 1 last year.

A month later, the government changed the excise system covering ethanol, making importedethanol effectively uncompetitive.

Mr Honan's company Manildra is the country's largest producer of ethanol, a fuel additivethat is derived from grain or sugar cane.

Senator O'Brien said Mr Howard, when quizzed by Labor in parliament on the issue, deniedhaving met Mr Honan.

"It's time for Mr Howard to come clean and reveal the whole truth about his secretnegotiations with Australia's largest ethanol producer," he said in a statement.

"It defies credulity to suggest Mr Howard didn't understand the questions he was askedin Question Time on 17, 18 and 19 September 2002, or had forgotten his private meetingwith Mr Honan on 1 August."

Senator O'Brien said the government's ethanol policy changes announced in Septemberhad delivered more than $20 million to Mr Honan's company.

He said the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had censored details of the recordof meeting between Mr Howard and Mr Honan.

Mr Howard earlier today denied misleading the parliament over the issue.

AAP sw/drp/de

KEYWORD: MANILDRA LABOR