By Matthew Moore
THE Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs sparked Australia's biggest biological terror scare last year when they distorted test results to claim white powder sent to the Indonesian embassy was a "biological agent".
Documents from ACT Pathology and the federal police, obtained under freedom of information laws, show the microbiologist who examined the powder on June 1 last year and the federal police never called it a "biological agent", and described it as a commonly occurring bacteria.
The documents also reveal that some days after testing began, the powder was shown to be flour.
Among the documents is an email sent by the federal police's national manager intelligence, Grant Wardlaw, to the Justice Minister, Chris Ellison, at 6.35pm on the day of the attack advising the Government the powder had tested positive to "gram bacilli", but that did not mean it posed a threat.
"Gram bacilli is a commonly occurring bacteria," Mr Wardlaw said in the email. "If spores of this bacteria are found to be growing in the substance, this raises the level of potential risk. Information to date indicates that no spores have been identified by pathology."
Despite that advice, the Government did not tell the media that no threat had been identified. The following day newspapers and other media gave prominence to the Government's claims, running headlines saying the country had experienced a bio-terror attack.
Alexander Downer announced in question time on June 1 that a suspicious package had been sent to the embassy. Soon after question time he revealed "the initial analysis of the powder has tested positive as a biological agent, though further testing will need to be carried out to determine what the substance actually is".
John Howard then told reporters that sending the powder to the embassy was an act of "murderous criminality". He rejected a suggestion from a reporter the substance could turn out to be "rather benign".
"No … the reference biological agent does not mean it's benign," he said.
The description of the powder as a biological agent torpedoed a wave of public anger directed at
the Indonesian Government and its justice system that had been building for five days after a Bali court convicted Schapelle Corby of drug smuggling on May 27.
Before announcing the powder had tested positive as a biological agent, Mr Downer warned Parliament the public attacks on Indonesia would cause "a good deal of anti-Australian sentiment in Indonesia" and make it difficult to conclude agreements with Indonesia.
The Government's revelations that a biological agent had threatened the safety of Indonesians at the embassy sent shock waves through Corby's defence team. Her lawyers condemned it for damaging her chances of winning an appeal. After the public outcry over the biological agent, Corby never again enjoyed the public support she had previously received.
More than 50 pages of documents released by the federal police described how police and the fire brigade were called to the embassy at 10.30am after white powder fell from an envelope containing a letter written in Indonesian.
Constable Helena Cox took the powder to ACT Pathology at Canberra Hospital at 12.35pm, where it was analysed by an unidentified microbiologist. After checking it under a microscope, she told Constable Cox it contained a live organism called "gram positive bacilli" and would take 48 hours to identify. Constable Cox said in her note she rang her superior to pass on this result, some time after 1.18pm, and before question time.
The documents do not show who advised Mr Downer and Mr Howard of the results, or what information was given to them. The Government has refused to say.
Mr Howard, Mr Downer, the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, and Senator Ellison have all failed to answer written questions on who came up with the term biological agent, generally used to describe diseases like anthrax, used in biological weapons to cause mass loss of life.
Senator Ellison's spokesman said tests showed the material was "biological", but would not say who added the word agent. "The use of the term 'biological agent' was not inappropriate," he said.
The president of the Australian Society of Infectious Diseases, Lindsay Grayson, disagreed. He said it was quite possible that ordinary flour bought in a shop would contain gram positive bacilli, and that until tests were done showing otherwise the material should only have been described as biological. The problem was adding the word agent. "At the end of the day that's a simple, easily understood way to describe it that everyone can recognise," Professor Grayson said.
Staff at ACT Health and ACT Emergency Services were stunned when the Government called the powder a biological agent.