re: carpenter - spovend Bear in mind Carpenter would not...

re: carpenter - spovend Bear in mind Carpenter would not actually conduct the primary review of submissions - he would just take the advice and recommendations of his staff take into account political factors and put out a Media Release prepared by his staff.

This is not a very complex matter (technically, anyway), so the review and recommendations should be with the Minister already.

My view is that Rio's objection can be turned down very simply, simply saying that there are insufficient reasons not to grant Cazaly's application.

On the other hand, if The Minister decides that he "... is satisfied on reasonable grounds in the public interest that ... the application should not be granted", then I would think his reasons would have to be publicly explained.

Given this, there is a good chance that he could simply announce the decision, expecially if it is positive for Cazaly - probably on Monday. That might be good for him politically, depending on what sort of statement he wants to make.

However he may choose to pass it on to the next Development Minister, which would probably cause a delay of some weeks.

I lean towards an positive announcement early next week.

Cheers

Nix