nice, page-33

Thanks Mozart,

It's intersting that in this day & age, we still have protected monopolies & oligopolies like the pilbara rail networks. BHP Rio etc. wil aruge they funded them, but it was out of the concessions they acquired for the right to mine in the first place. These companies are big on talking about competitive market forces, but only when it suits their need. Other than that they believe in "tough trade", not "fair trade" - witness the IO price negotiations as to how they are attempting to exploit thier monopoly positions

From this perspsective the NW alliance is a usfeul. Hopefully the WA & Fed govermnent will grw some real gonads & get behind ean efficient market. It's not as thought BHP & Rio have done anything really clever with Iron Ore anyway. They've just dug it up & dumped it on a boat with no value add for the country. So let seom smaller guys in to encourage the fat asses to work a bit harder!