Ann: Further Update on NT EPA Direction on Darwin EIS Supplement, page-146

Now this has fired up as a public spat, someone will lose.

It could be PB and JE, TNG, TNG shareholders, NT govt or NTEPA chief,( or all of them)

I find a macabre sense of relief that this dreadfully slow mess of red, green tape is now thrust into the limelight. It will finally shine intense scrutiny on all players and their part in the obfuscation of the outcome.

From a very long term shareholder perspective, PB and TNG and its highly paid consultants will now be forced to do much better not only in communicating and engaging their shareholder base, but getting a handle on what gets this over the bloody line. That's fine by me.

Obviously political and community pressure coming to bear on NTEPA, hence the media release. That's fine by me too. They need to do much better as well.

I have to say that the requirement on the proponent to respond to all submissions is total BS. It should be up to the NTEPA to sort the important submissions from the frivolous, reject the frivolous and assist in the process for what is left. It should also have the ability to award EIS with conditions precedent, just like any bog standard local municipality does with an extractive industry.(obviously a different scale to this project)

There will be a loser.

Right now it looks like TNG shareholders, but it is possible that will change now this has become political.