voelte sovereign risk, page-5

Wintermute,

Well Voelte's view is that the RSPT (or perhaps more the way it is being imposed) raises substantial sovereign risk concerns for potential financiers of all major Australian projects, whether onshore or offshore.

When you put it in the context of last years changes to NWS condensate royalty/tax, the rheteric about BHP and RIO shareholders being mostly foreign and therefore not mattering, moves against Telstra, and perhaps aspects of the proposed ETS then I think this is a real concern.

For CUE holders the specific concern is that if we make a gas discovery, and financing the development becomes more costly or doesn't happen due to this increased risk. Even at this stage this adversely impacts the NPV of any potential discovery at Artemis or Caterina.

Australia is simply now a riskier place to do business, esp in resources, than it was under Costello and Howard (whom I loathed). Although I will continue investing in ASX listed companies, and do not have any major selling intentions, for my future investments, I will definitely be looking mostly at companies with projects outside Australia, and will probably start looking at the TSX.

Just my views, no direct impact, but collateral damage does impact the potential value of two of our potential prizes. Not enough for me to sell, NZ still the main game at this stage.

EL