The record showed that at the meeting, Howard and Honan, the principal of Australia's main ethanol producer, the Manildra Group, discussed means to protect the ethanol industry.
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Nothing exceptional in that: captains of industry are always lobbying the Government for special treatment.
The problem is that later in Parliament, Howard denied ever having met Honan about any such thing. Some background here about the special treatment Honan's company has received from the Government - mostly from Howard himself - in trying to protect its product from market forces and regulation.
Somehow, ethanol was exempted from national fuel standards introduced 18 months ago. Somehow, it managed to avoid having to declare the ethanol content of its fuel, so consumers would know what they were buying. Somehow, it managed to sell it at twice the concentration the car makers deemed safe for engines.
But most outrageously, it managed to get a rushed decision last year to impose tariff and subsidy arrangements to prevent it facing competition from imported ethanol.
The changes to the tax regime applying to ethanol were rammed through even as a shipment of Brazilian ethanol was en route to Australia, having been purchased by a small petrol company, Trafigura Fuels, sick of paying high prices for domestic ethanol.
) but he is hardly the first politician to ever lie...
