Well Gassin, we saw during the debate about the supertax on...

Well Gassin, we saw during the debate about the supertax on mining companies, a debate that was essentially operated by the Minerals Council of Australia, which operates on behalf of its members andnot the whole industry, that The MCA has the power to change the govt and Prime minister of australia.

argue the toss if you like, but as the public debate on the issue unfolded, the boots and all, take no prisoners approach of the MCA as conducted by then CEO Mitchell H Hooke so destabilized the Rudd Labot govt resulting in him gettin pushed aside by Gillard, who could only then form a minority govt only two or three months later after a general election.

Make no mistake Gassin, there was a palpable sense in the offices and corridors on parliament house canberra that we had just witnessed a coup by the MCA, whose two principle members are of course BHP and RIO.

it was a deeply saddening and depressing time there at that stage, i recall, as it dawned on the industry and others of the power of BHP, Rio and the limited membership base of the MCA. They could change the govt if they wanted.

and what was Rudd trying to do? Merely siphon off through a tax onq super profits, some of the inheritance of the Commonwealth of Australia for the use of future generations, not unlike what happens now with the Norwegian fund from oil production.

that is, innorway the govt takes money from the foreign owned resource companies and places it in a fund for its citizens.

in australia now with the Abbott govt having repealed the waterered down MRRT, the govt takes money from its citizens and gives it to the predominantly foreign owned resource companies.

Australia's competition law now merely ensures companies like AGO are just collateral damage in the neverending fight by big miners to win volume and obscene profits for shareholders.