Sense and Census-ability seemed to be lacking this week as the botched attempt to gather statistical information during the first week of the Olympics did not win the government any medals. Letter writers were outraged at not just the Australian Bureau of Statistics but also IBM, the company hired to provide IT expertise for the census. As Naomi Wulff of North Wahroonga put it: "If our new innovative (jobs and growth) Prime Minister was aware that IBM Australia had retrenched many of its most loyal and experienced employees to send their jobs offshore, leaving many of them no option but to live on unemployment benefits, maybe he would have thought twice about whom he should contract to provide the IT expertise for the census. Why would our government want to pay Australian taxpayers' money to a company included in the list of the world's top 10 corporate tax dodgers, which shows contempt for its employees and causes unemployment and financial hardship for many? Also on the receiving end of the wrath from letter writers by week's end was the NSW government for paying $220 million worth of taxpayers money to buy back BHP Billiton's Caroona exploration licence. While the decision to stop coal mining on the Liverpool Plains was welcomed, the payout to BHP was not. Letters echoed the sentiments of Gavin Gatenby of Turrella about Deputy Premier Troy Grant's arithmetic at the value of the licence in today's dollars. "According to the Reserve Bank's inflation calculator, the $100 million BHP in 2006 would be worth $125.3 million today. Is the deputy premier innumerate, or is the public paying BHP, on some dubious grounds, $95 million compensation?"