Work has been, well, a challenge lately. I was almost made redundant, then redundant, then I had a job, then I might have one...a lot of uncertainty has come with the whole fucking global financial crisis, especially in the mining industry. The work I have at the moment appears quite secure, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm working in the coal, which is a big change from the hard rock metal mines I've worked at previously. The biggest difference I've noticed the the work ethic - coal miners are far less enthused about working. Coal is also dirty - the dust gets everywhere. Other than that, we're still shifting dirt. Same same. I have an uncle who thinks that coal should stay in the ground. I agree with him in some respects, but the fact is its such a huge industry that there's no stopping it now. Queensland especially would crumple and die without it. I don't think any ETS or CPRS or similar will make much difference. Without huge investments made by the government into renewable energy, we will continue to rely on coal. There's no such thing as clean coal, and the money being thrown away researching or developing new technologies would be far better used developing a new industry from existing renewable energy, eg solar. Continue mining coal, hike up the taxes a bit, and throw everything behind existing, green, renewable energy, make it more affordable and let people choose where they get their energy from. That's what I think anyway...