BHP Billiton have a Joint Venture in Queensland with Japanese company, Mitsubishi Development. This alliance happens to be Australia's largest coal miner and the world's largest supplier to the seaborne coking coal market. When it comes to Billiton, things don't come small. So in the short term this is not great news for BHP. Add that to huge transport delays caused by the floods.
So will this extreme weather and vast media coverage finally start pushing governments to actually act on environmental control instead of just talking about it? My feeling is that when it starts having a significant monetary affect, the ball will start rolling. But in the very short term let us up hope the rain stays away tomorrow so we can all enjoy the cricket!"