itc it is necessary to understand that Jeremy Buckingham is trying to create an issue where none exists. I would be very interested in seeing the totality of the FOI release but Jeremy seems to be very keen to release only his selected version of events. If you have access to all the FOI information I would be very interested in the link. I have been invested in MEL since 1972, and while I believe that the performance of the current management and the Board is ordinary to say the least, this issue is a beat up by the uninitiated.
The MEL power station and gas field development was approved on June 3, 2010 by the Department of Planning under the old Part 3A by the previous Labor Government. The approval included a long list of conditions. All of this is publicly available - and there was no involvement by our mate Ian McDonald.
One of the obligations on the Government under the Part 3A legislation was that the Department of Resources and Energy then issue the Production Lease with conditions that were not inconsistent with conditions of the Part 3A approval. No ifs no buts. So from June 3, 2010 the NSW Government was obliged by legislation to issue the Production Lease with known conditions. To suggest that sometime in August 2012 it was a surprise that the Production Lease would be issued and that the conditions still had to be settled can only be a monstrous beat up. I am at a loss to understand why Jeremy would have such a misunderstanding of NSW legislation.
Depending on your point of view, the delay by the NSW Government in issuing the Production Lease was a breach of their own legislation and I believe caused a significant loss to MEL shareholders. I am still at a loss as to why MEL did not purse the formal issue of the Production Lease more aggressively between 2010 and when it was eventually issued in 2012.
Any shareholder who closely followed MEL would have been fully aware of these legislative requirements and would not have been at all surprised by the issue of the Production Lease. And just in case they had missed it, Imre Salusinszky was writing articles in the Australian in the lead up to September 2012 saying that the Production Lease would be issued.
This is a beat up by Jeremy for his own purposes - let him run with it. I am very surprised that any of this would be new to you with your holding of 400,000.
MEL Price at posting:
5.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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