Jvest here...on paper we're crying in our beer today.
It's a bit like a high jump bar...you trained hard for years to make a certain height....finally success, you qualified to enter the world champs...and then, the invisible folks (enter the agenda driven NTEPA) ratchet up the bar again.
However, the warning signs were there IMO. Protect the black footed rat; low flying ducks need corridors; road signs are probably pointed in the wrong direction; the proposed huts for the workers aren't air conditioned etc, etc. This is crap.
Ask the question, how did the major Impex gas project (next door) ever get approved? answer, politics.
I suspect that to succeed against this tide of anti investment & anti job creation would take both a major legal & Fed intervention. But, will that happen...or, can it be made to happen?
Gunner seems to have no sway over the lobby (many & various) that mitigate against his outwardly pro NT investment persona. Again, politics. Otherwise, he would step in and get the project off the ground
Clearly, Paul Burton is in the sights again & it must have been pure agony for him to have released this latest broadside (or should I say blindside) from the NTEPA. Leaders talk to leaders to get the drift & respond accordingly on the basis that that was likely to be the best road to success. So, was Paul led astray by Gunner & the NTEPA? If so, that's a gamechanger in my view. If not, could be a transparency issue.
But what of the political positioning of the NTEPA.
Propunter put it pretty well in an earlier post:
"Also, the NTEPA need to publish the public submissions. Such a deviation from the items tabled by them in response to the draft EIS doesn't seem to be following their own processes. Certainly falls WAY outside what would be a consultative approach to businesses dealing with the NTEPA. Without this transparency, the integrity of the process, particularly considering that TNG have followed it at every turn & then some, is questionable in my mind."
If you've been involved in complex Project Management, then you will know he's right.
So where to from here?
The Feds
*Put pressure on Gunner...absolutely. Why would the final sign off on $$$ support from the NAIF for such a strategic project be derailed like this?
*Strategic protection & stockpiling of our critical minerals...absolutely. The Feds have already announced this = TNG major project status. This is beyond the remit of the NT pollies. More then ever, the West has finally got the message that they need to protect critical minerals.
TNG
*Fast track the production site...tell Gunner we need a clear path solution by July, or, we give WA & SA Govts an option to be the production hub for Tivan (there will be a plan b,c & d in the pipeline ...because you do. But it will impact the IRR). In other words, time to call the bluff of these NT cretins.
*Join with SMS in creating a Tivan production site ex Australia, thus circumventing our environmental politics.
*And, sorry Paul, but you should focus on your key strength, geology. You've been tremendous in getting the project to where it is, but, I believe we need a different leader. In American football they have an offensive & defensive team. Western managements tend to use the same team for both, why? They need a different skill set. If you ask Propunter, I'm sure he will agree that defining a project is a helluva lot different than delivering that project. At least that's my experience. So, I would suggest that you need a mover & shaker & who has the ears of those who matter at the highest levels. Twiggy Forrest...yep he'll do. Follow his decentralisation strategy out of iron ore...its brilliant & pretty "green". Get Twiggy to finance the project & take it thru to an Aussie renewable tertiary producer. He knows northern Australia & can negotiate as required. This NTEPA crap would cease to be the centrefold for some of the DRW elite.
Offshore Production
For those of us that have been around long enough re the Malaysia alternative...think Lynas & beware.
And finally, I remember when PB said to me at a conference in Sydney that, with the Impex DRW site environmental approvals in place (next door), all we had to do was look after the low flying ducks to get our EPA tick!
Obviously these views & opinions are mine alone & shouldn't influence anybody.
Jvest
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