Hard to do business in your favourite safe country?9 Apr 2021 00:43
Every now and then I read the Fraser report, which rates the different countries in terms of ease of doing business. Worth a read and some thought. Australia is ranked very highly, Egypt lowly. However all is not what it seems in my experience, and the devil is in the detail, under your feet.
Getting access to ground quickly, and being able to work efficently and effectively has been getting harder for a decade or 2.
But now another issue s is on the rise. In Australia, the High Court has recently opened the flood gates for compensation claims by the indigenous people against the present generation of Australians for deeds done from 0 to 10 generations ago. "The High Court has ruled native title holders from the remote Northern Territory town of Timber Creek will receive $2.5 million in compensation for loss of their rights, including spiritual connection to the land." and this is the top of the iceberg, as it does open up the compensation claims for all manner of things, and of course lawyers need to keep employed and right the wongs of past, especially if they are paid $850/hr to do so.
I recently went to the High Court judgement handed down in a remote locality in outback Australia, on a complex Native Title issue (3 different claimant groups had made claims over the same piece of ground, which is entirely reasonable given they were all hunting and gathering for 50,000 years or thereabouts). The judgement took 24 years, and involved a cartel of silks, most of whom turned up at the remote sight to hear the final judgement (and who would refuse if you rare getting paid $850/hr?). The judgement? All claims were valid and they had to work together to resolve any claims! OK?
So if you are a mining company in this claimed land, you have to negotiate with 3 different claimant groups, getting clearance from each one, each time you want to do some exploration work. Each clearance by each group requires finding and getting the key people to the site. But its not that easy, as the men cannot go with the women, as they have different sacred sites in the same location. So one has to organise 2 different trips for each claimants group. So for each activity in the Exploration activity, one has to organise 6 trips to clear the site. Now for each trip, the company is responsible for the travel costs, food, accomodation, provision of vehciles or rental, and insurance...and you can guess the rest....but years go by...money out the door, little $ into the ground...few disocveries get made....and on it goes...
swimming now
the gnome
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