Sunday - Tuesday, May 16 - 18 2010 (diary)

Sandra, from the Diddilliba Bridge Club (my club on the Sunshine Coast), sent us all an email to say farewell. She departs this week on a 104 days around the world cruise in Westward rotation. We wish her well.

Meanwhile Mairead has safely arrived in Ireland, without flight holdups. Lucky, as some of the airports in the UK closed again shortly after her arrival.
Mairead will remain in Ireland for two months (with her family and friends) and in her absence I have started playing bridge with another relative beginner player, Sybil, last night at the Arafura Bridge Club. We did quite well.

Still very strange weather here, overcast all day due to two rain depressions moving across the Northern part of Australia. Quite a bit of rain in Darwin itself yesterday (Monday), but nothing here at the Mango farm in Virginia (30 km inland).

Wednesday & Thursday, May 19 & 20 2010 (diary, mining politics)

Wednesday my usual Zushi Bar lunch and then on to the Nightcliff pool for some swimming exercise. It is lovely out there and I sit for a while reading in the sun after my swim.
In the evening the news on TV is not good. The absolute stupidity of our Labour Government is starting to show its grave consequences. Just one week after revealing its ill conceived proposal of the 40% super tax on mining companies reactions are coming to the surface.

Several large proposed new mining projects (two of them alone worth 17 billion dollars and involving 30,000 workers) have been put on hold and it is very clear that more are to follow.
Investment institutions around the world, who had been "overweight" in Australian resources stocks, are selling down their holdings and foreign investments are bleeding out off Australia at a rate of knots.
In the process the Australian dollar is being dumped in unprecedented severity. As I check this morning (Thursday) the Aussie dollar has dropped 3.5 Euro cents in just 48 hours from 72 to 68.5 Euro cents, and that while the Euro itself is falling against all other currencies in the world at present!!

It is pure "Rex Connorism"* of the Whitlam Labour Government in the early 1970s all over again.
This happens when a small group of bureaucrats with no experience of the real world whatsoever (having worked all their lives in the Public Service, like Rudd and Swan) are in charge of a country. So far they have bungled every project they introduced, and this super tax idea is surely the biggest of them all.
The proposed scheme (which has had the "thumbs down" from economic commentators around the world) puts an overall tax of 57% on mining (of any commodity) in Australia. This compares with around 30-35% in most other countries, and just 23% in a country like Canada.
The Canadian Prime Minister is of course delighted by Australia "killing the goose which lies the golden eggs" and has invited all mining companies in Australia to come to Canada.

* : Rex Connor was the Minister for Resources and Mining in the Whitlam Government.