Ann: Full year results presentation, page-16

A political risk is with the almost certain election of a NSW Labor government in NSW in March 2023, from 2023-24's Budget, NSW Hunter Valley coal royalties will rise.

Like Queensland Labor, the government in NSW will claim 'it's only a small rise' and 'it only applies fully from A$XXX per tonne'.

But what these royalties do over time is discourage investment in similar fields, and give foreign investors the message that there are better continents on which to do business.

It's also 'theft' from you and me, because it's not as if we get a refund when the coal price drops say to A$90 a tonne and met and thermal coal producers start to make A$1 billion or more annual losses.

Less investment = lower tonnes of coal transported. Not great for East Coast Rail.