is this the smoking gun?

The 2010 Federal Election results are summarised usefully at:

http://results.aec.gov.au/15508/Website/HouseResultsMenu-15508.htm

Qld was the worst performing state for Federal Labor. There was a swing of 5.9% away from Labor and a swing of 4% to the Greens. Not one Qld Labor Federal seat was won on first preferences. The seats that were won were on the basis of preference votes and most obviously on Greens preference votes.

During April 2010 Cougar advised the market their trial UCG project at Kingaroy was interrupted due to casing issues and that new extraction wells would be installed. The wells were drilled and commissioned. It is understood that during June and the first half of July 2010 there had been cordial/professional discussions going on between Cougar and DERM officials about groundwater test results.

An interesting timeline followed:

July 15 2010 >>> DERM issued a late night press release, without prior warning, ordering Cougar to keep its Kingaroy Plant closed and made a range of damaging statements and claims about the company which are now before the court.

July 17 2010 >>> John Bradley (or a delegate) of DERM authorised the serving of formal orders on Cougar preventing the recommencement of operations

July 17 2010 >>> Federal Election called

A media frenzy followed the DERM press release of July 15 and it was all bad for Cougar.

There was simply nothing Cougar could do or say to defend itself. The story grew wings and played to the "fears" of a minority of "concerned" local residents and was "proof" to environmentally aware people everywhere. Imo, it is hard not to see these stories about toxic contamination by Cougar and the "responsible" Qld Labor Govt as being election propaganda that I imagine would surely have sent many voters to the Greens and thus by default to Labor via preferences.

Imo, Labor and the Greens finally had found their elusive "get out of jail card" in Qld and they played it to the hilt, assisted by hapless journalists and gormless editors who just spewed forth all that was fed to them, instead of researching to verify that their reporting was factual.

It is patently clear that if not for the Greens preferences, Labor would have lost more Qld seats, including perhaps even that of the Deputy Prime Minister. This is an important point because the loss of even one more seat in Qld to the Liberals would have seen Federal Labor out of Government.

Imo, it is hard not to see that Cougar was targeted as the unwitting sacrificial lamb in a swirling morass of political power plays in the middle of 2010.

One has to wonder what goes on in the corridors of state and federal politics and what lies we have been fed and will be fed in future in the grubby games of political one-upmanship by parties striving to stay in power.

Federal Labor was able to form a minority government in the 2010 election and was sworn in September 14 2010. Imo federal and state Labor are indebted to the Greens, who now just happen to have unprecendented influence in national and state affairs.

It will be an interesting court case imo.

Dex