Why This Exists
COGS of Australia Foundation exists because of a gap in the law. Australian citizens sit above hundreds of billions of dollars in mineral wealth. The law says that underground resource wealth belongs to seven separate legal entities that are all commonly referred to as the "Crown". This creates public misunderstanding and an opportunity for opportunistic behaviour by governments and corporations. This chapter explains why that matters, how it happened, and what can be done.
The Australian Dilemma
The land beneath Australian feet holds some of the most valuable mineral deposits on earth. The law says none of it belongs to the people who live above it. The gap between what Australians believe and what the law says is the Australian Dilemma.
This essay explains the Crown ownership doctrine, how it survived Mabo, how the political system has been shaped by resource interests, and why the Corporations Act offers a door that the Crown never closed.
Australian Mineral Law
A plain-language guide to how Australian mineral law actually works. Who owns the minerals. How mining tenements are granted. What rights communities and landowners have. What the royalty system does and does not do.
This page is a legal reference, written in plain English. It is the evidence base behind the Australian Dilemma.
The Fifty Years
Six attempts. Four prime ministers. One unresolved question: who should benefit from Australian natural resources?
This page traces the political history of resource governance in Australia over the last fifty years. The Whitlam Loans Affair. The Hawke-Keating royalty debates. The Howard resource tax. The Rudd mining tax. The Gillard MRRT. The Abbott repeal.
The pattern is consistent. Every attempt to redirect resource value toward the public has been defeated by the same coalition of interests. Understanding that pattern is how you design a structure that gets around it.