You are all naturally getting over excited here as today is NOT the verdict day that Pep-11 will be or has been approved .
Today is in simple non-legal terms a day of " Administration by the Courts " to notify the Government ( the Respondent ) that it has been served a legal claim against it from the Claimant ( Advent/ Bph energy ).
It is not a judgement day or a Court order that Pep 11 is approved . You are all getting ahead of yourselves here in excitement most likely caused by the stress and anxiety caused by this long and over drawn out saga of getting a simple approval from the Joint Authority , which has now come to the final stages with this submission by Advent to the Courts to force .
The Government now will be represented by their lawyers , Clayton Utz, to front up and officially receive the Claim from the Claimant ( that us, BPH and Co ) and thereby they will be officially and legally acknowledge that they have been a served a legal demand that the Government has to approve the Pep-11 permit within 45 days .
It is what legal eagles call a "Day of Discovery " whereby Advent presents it case and evidence and then Government will be directed but the Judge to then open their books and evidence and either defend the allegations or roll over and concede to Advent
The Government will then say" thank your worship we acknowledge the serving by the Claimant and we will come back within 14 days as directed by the Court to appeal or agree to Claimants " and then the Judge will likely order the Government to come back in 14 day or 28 days, ect to come back to Court to either :
A. Defend against Advent' affidavit of facts stating that Government has unreasonably delayed the decision of Approval ( see Madeline Kings' s notes scribble of 18 months being "unfair to all parties " which has now passed 18 months from the FOI extract ) , which means they will have to open their official government record of ministerial and public service books, notes , emails , meetings, etc which could be very politically embarrassing and damaging if there is evidence of corruption , bias , mishandling , delay tactics .
In my opinion ( I am not a professional lawyer ) the Government is unlikely to take the action of defence and deny the allegations as it would dangerously expose their inner workings and could be very politically damaging with evidence of public servants being manipulated , meetings with private renewable investment firms ( aka Twiggy & mates and Matt Kean's s ex-Macquarie bank group mates who lobby the Government hard and Pep 11 is competition to renewables ) and could also expose Albanese and Bowens directions to stall at any costs the approval of Pep 11, see labor party internal notes of the fear of effect of Labor being seen as Soft on the Environment on inner city labor votes to the greens and the loss of 3-4 seats in inner Sydney and Brisbane .
All official information whether good or bad has to be exposed in Court without any redaction ( unless on grounds of national security ie request by ASIO , which one drill for gas in sea waters is not national security ) .
B. Choose not to defend the case and make a Joint decision within 45 days of this 2nd Court day of say 14 days Time , as per Assets request . They will then come back with an official decision within 45 days from today , whether it's either Approved or Rejected . It is unlikely it will be rejected as if the Government has legal grounds to reject it, they would have done so ages ago . Instead they do not , so they have ben delaying the decision of approval by kicking the can down the road avoiding it hoping that time and its powerful tax payer funde resources which the Government has endless amount will eventually destroy the tiny ASX listed minnow of BPH/ Buy and Advent would relinquish the title back on default and all would be forgotten .
The only avenue that the Government had to reject the permit was on the grounds of "financial capacity " which Scott Morrison used as the excuse . That was rejected by the Courts . Why do you think David Breeze keeps doing capital raising on a regularly basis when they have stacks of cash in the bank ? Its definitely not for the meagre small office rent in Perth suburbia of $600 per week ( its tiny .. say 70 sqm for 2-3 people above a neighbourhood shopping which has a hairdresser , dry cleaner ) or his reasonable CEO salary ? or his Co-directors who are personally liable for just $25,000 per year ? No ....it's to show the potential Court action or the Government that BPH energy can raise money any time it wants and is financial stable , so thereby denying the Government the only excuse of refusal of permit approval . So those who keep crying that Breeze is taking advantage of a " pump " and enriching himself , take a good look at yourself in the mirror . It's a tactic by Breeze and smart defence tactic that has now the Government finally cornered and forced to make a legal decision for the approval of the permit .
This option B of choosing not to defend against Advent is the likely outcome above by Government and they dont want to expose their inner workings and be damaged politically by the revelations which the Dutton opposition would have a field day attacking them . Remember the Government thinks how it will stay in power for the next term and does not prioritise countries constituents and voters . It's sadly all about votes , not about energy security or benefits to its citizens and Pep-11 has generated a deep fear in both Scomo and Labor of losing seats at the expense of cheap gas energy for the east coast .
Anyway , in the end. which hopefully is 14 days + 45 days from today ( ie mid - end Oct 2024 ) , I could be wrong , but at least I hopefully provided some insightful entertainment for the HC BPH readers
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