So good underlying logic T4PFrom my post to Millways earlier...

So good underlying logic T4P

From my post to Millways earlier today


Sorry Millways,
Just got back from LOTO because they owe me $15million, because I intended to put in the same numbers that won. Just that my hire car broke down so it wasn’t my fault. I’ve contacted the minister to right the wrong based on “public interest”.

Your right where will it NOW end. Mr Bowler has certainly secured a permanent job assessing just “public interest” issues. In fact his work load will require an entire department. In fact they’ll make a position called “Minister for Public Interest”

Now ethics…….. note the small print, that’s because it doesn’t exist in the legal system, because that’s why we have a legal system. If the culture of the country was ethical and moral we wouldn’t need a legal system. Laws are formed when E&M breaks down. Unfortunately the Law can’t capture the intent of all issues it professes to cover. Theoretically, once implemented (and if we all spend Sunday afternoons reading the Law) we would all know were we stand and the limitations of our actions. The Law sets the game rules so that we can all play the game of community based on a level playing field. Any interpretation of that LAW brings conflict and once resolved set the precedence on how that LAW is to be interpreted. Hence lawyers are always quoting previous cases “Apples V’s Oranges” and the outcome. Of course if it was so simple the Courts wouldn’t be overflowing and Lawyer’s would be middle income earners. The more you shift from ethics the greater the community chaos and the greater the need for LAW, and the resultant interpretation of it. The churches [our ethical and moral founders] many centuries ago blew its enforcement. So today our system is guided by LAW, enforced by the police and prison. Limiting as it is the LAW (and I am sure, will be laugh about in the future) it what we have now and is how we operate. Like the church, too much intransigence or abuse brings disrespect and eventual collapse. I can’t go to jail for being unethical nor immoral. I can only go to jail for breaking the LAW (of which there are many based on ethics and moral) but it is the LAW I must break. It is the continuity of the Law (and hence the fundamental importance of precedence) that sets the playing field for us all. So, on ethical grounds I think RIO deserves the lease, BUT on LEGAL grounds CAZ is the true owner. The Govt can change to LAW to include RIO plight but they can’t do that retrospectively.

(Drum roll) ….Enter the Minister stage left.
The Law gives him/her the right to over-ride the law should he/she see fit to do so. Problem is the minister has certain limitations. What they are for WA I’m not sure, but in the main the minister’s involvement is based on aspects other than the legality. i.e. environmental, criminal, safety, etc. That is why it is call “public interest” and not “legal bickering”. The minister has to be very careful not to interfere if a law exist because he can set a new precedence and hence avenue for legal interpretation. When it comes to over-riding legality, that usually only occurs where there has been no precedent set. This is what I think he has done. A law already existed and had been enforced for many years (counter to the ethical reasoning of former losing mining companies). If this had been a, small jimmy V’s small John issue, the minister would have (and probably has in the past) told them to take it to court. Which in this case would have been the warden. And he already gave it to CAZ based on existing precedence of Law. So I think there are many (not just CAZ holders) who will rightly whinge about this decision. I’m not being cynical and I’m sure RIO never approached the GOVT unethically, but you’d have to be off this planet not to conclude (even before this) that big business has clout. It puts in doubt for the mining industry how the law is to be interpreted regarding lease renewals. The Bowler may have done the ethical thing but he has created a minefield for the mining industry. For shareholders the Friday decision is at present the determinant.