Who are you talking about Runner.

Poirot's post is the epitome of left whinger posts everywhere. ie. completely irrelevant to the topic, vacuous, devoid of facts, and based purely on unsupported personal opinion.

Please note that a conservationist may mean to greenie froot loops someone that stops all development, but to rational people it means ensuring that development only occurs if damage to the environment has been minimised or eliminated, and that all aspects comply to EPA standards.

The coal terminal at Abbot's point that will save billions in transport costs, create jobs and boost the economy, was blocked by Juliar because the dredgings are to be dumped in an area that is part of the Great barrier reef protection area. That the area chosen for dumping of the dredgings contains no actual reef for miles and consists of sand bed with sea grass. The development like so many others had all the required departmental sign offs except the federal government. Labor's dependence on the greens had essentially frozen most major developments, and large parts of the economy.

International bank HSBC has said it would be "extraordinarily unlikely" to lend to the controversial Abbot Point coal port expansion on the Great Barrier Reef, Dredging Today reports.

According to the website, HSBC group chief executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank “would be extraordinarily unlikely to go anywhere near” the project, which is expected to involve the dredging of 3 million cubic metres of seabed in the reef’s world heritage waters.

The move follows peer Deutsche Bank's similar decision, with both citing UNESCO concerns over the plan, Dredging Today reports, with failure to fund the expansion meaning $26 billion worth of coal projects will be left hanging in the balance.

Australian environmental groups are now looking to pressure Australia's big four banks to follow the lead of the international banks, the website adds.

I've just read Poirot's posts, and then read Shadow Minister's reply near the top of this page.

Shadow Minister, you are so correct, in fact your words are worth repeating "Poirot's post is the epitome of left whinger posts everywhere. ie. completely irrelevant to the topic, vacuous, devoid of facts, and based purely on unsupported personal opinion".

Keep up your highly intelligent posts Shadow Minister, I enjoy them very much. All the left whingers can do is moan.

Tony, we need to talk about your gambling problem.

Now, yes Tony, we’ve been doing really well out of this bet on fossil fuels in the last few years. China’s sudden switch from net exporter to importer of coal was brilliant. And Japan’s Fukishima nuclear meltdown was a great shot in the arm, too.

What’s that? Yes, I know on a per capita basis we’ve got an awful lot more hydrocarbons under the ground than we could possibly use. And yes, behind iron ore (which by the way has been plummeting in price) it’s our next biggest export. Indeed over the last few years construction of new coal and gas production capacity has been a major contributor to Australia’s economic growth.

But with this construction phase now tapering off, and Australian coal miners now struggling to make a profit, it might be time to think about diversifying the investment portfolio. You know how when you gamble it can sometimes pay off handsomely but, as they say, you also need to know when to cash in your chips and not get too greedy?

You see, your attempt to team up with Canada’s PM, Stephen Harper, to build a coalition of the unwilling on reducing global warming gases doesn’t look like it’s going too well at present.

The PM is a diplomatic genius; he has handled all situations very well indeed, and he has the respect of the world. Even that mad leftie Obama could not find words to criticize our PM.