barnetts big mouth, page-4

An excert from yeserdays West Australian front page.
(Readers Digest version)

"Colin Barnet has issued a thinly veiled threat to BHP-B that he will try to block or at the very least complicate any atempt by BHP-B to take over Woodside .
Mr Barnet hinted yesterday that although he did not have the power to stop the takeover of Woodside, he could use a fair degree of influence to affect the outcome.
His comments came only months after he demanded hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments from BHP and Rio Tintos' Pilbara iron ore business in return for granting government support for a potential JV.
"I urge you, hands off Woodside, its not a great move for the industry"he said at the APPEA conference.

Veiled threats include the granting of environmental approvals, and pipeline easments.

Sounds like the Mafia to me...from the premier who said, if electricity bills are hurting West Australians just turn off the air conditioning.