If It Is True ‘Whom The Gods Would Destroy They First Make Mad’ – Then, Boy, Have The Gods Got It In For Mayor Mullet

She’s all over the place like the proverbial excreta of a mentally unstable female, as she ducks and weaves in the Adani airstrip fiasco.

But for all that, a rare occasion – The Magpie totally agrees with The Astonisher that Mayor Mullet is the number one person of influence in this city. However, The ‘Pie may have reached that conclusion by a different path to the paper. And there’s a few others The ‘Pie has on his list.

Why the Legal Foghorn Big Bazza Taylor will be reading with interest about corruption charges being brought against a high flyer from his past …

The yearly readership figures for newspapers have just been published and shit-oh-dear, when the new Scottish editor of the Townsville Bulletin sees them, she may think about hightailing back to the highlands. But the ever-generous ‘Pie will give her a small clue as to why the numbers are through the floor.

But first … a touch of geology.

Rock of Ages To Be A No Go Area

Monolithic rocks have been religious sacred sites through the ages and across all faiths and even politics, possibly because they are generally unchanging, and represent timeless solidarity for the believer, something to hang on to in the ever-changing historical landscape. (Given the current state of affairs, we’ll be making Castle Hill a sacred site soon – it’s the only thing called Hill we can believe in).

The Muslims have the Black Stone, housed in the small building called the Kaaba, in Mecca, German pagans worshipped at Extersteine Horn-Bad Meinberg, before it was Christianised and then the Nazis adopted it as an ultra-nationalistic site. And of course, the inter-faith Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem claims all sorts of fairytales, Jewish, Muslim and Christian. These include Abraham planning to use the household cutlery there on his son to appease his sky-daddy, later Solomon erected his temple there (so they reckon) and it was also where Mohammed began his ascent to heaven (so they reckon).

Now Australia can enter the Pantheon of hard rockers. A while back, Ayers Rock suddenly became ‘Uluru’, it’s traditional dreamtime name (so they say). Climbing the rock has been a bucket-lister’s staple for many years, but not for much longer. Tribal elders have announced that climbing the rock will be banned in a couple years time, in order – so they say – to give the rock the respect and sanctity it merits.

Maybe, but Bentley for one ain’t buying it. He thinks there’s more than a bit of reverse racism at work here.

When that ban comes in, it will be interesting to see how long it will be before the Feds are asked for compensation for the loss of income from falling tourism.

New Editor, New Website, Same Old Problem

Always nice to know you can trust the Townsville Bulletin’s deep embedment into the local community. They know what’s what, who’s who and where’s where … uh oh, scrub that last one. Here’s the top story on the web site Saturday morning.

They obviously didn’t have a ‘G’ whiz on the subs desk overnight.

But believe it or not, a News Ltd executive who is some sort of tinpot pooh-bah for Rupert’s regional’s in Queensland has gone one better.

This smug oilster has gone one better all right; he is so across his brief of looking after regional Queensland, he doesn’t misspell place names … HE MAKES THEM UP!

After a strange boast about News Ltd’s dehumanising centralisation program quote:’ Advertisers now from Chinchilla can put an ad in The Australian.’ (What, they couldn’t before – even if they wanted to?), here he is turkey-gobbling about the staff ‘stepping stone’ policy.

“For our staff it means if you’re a journo starting in Bilionera or in Atherton you can end up in New York or you could end up in Sydney or Melbourne – the world is your oyster really. So I think that people are starting to really understand that their opportunities are greatly expanded.”

‘Bilonera’? Bilon-bloody-era’? According to the Australian post code list, to Google Search and to Yellow Pages, there is not such place. Don’t tell us Simple Simon meant Biloela? Or maybe Bilyana.

And they wonder why we don’t believe a word they write and why readers are deserting them in droves. Here at the readership figures for the year to September, and see if you can spot the salt in the wound.

Yes, the Townsville Bulletin plummets, while the Cairns Post soars. New edtor, Scot Jenna Cairney will be saying a sight more than ‘Hoots mon’ when she sees that. But the ray of hope is that the great performance in Cairns is from a female editor, and Cath Webber did a great job at the Gold Coast before Mayor Tom Tate knifed her.  So maybe it’s a women’s touch – brains  maybe – to steady things down.

And Typo Gleeson continues playing undertaker at the Sunday Mail, off nearly 15% in the past year. A dud iditor if ever there was one.

She Can’t Be Far Away From Foaming Lunacy

Mayor Mullet has further descended into gabbling demented panic, accidentally giving herself away at every turn. This time in Thursday’s Financial Review, in essence admitting the irresponsible and unethical extent to which she has used millions of ratepayer funds to bolster he own political image of ‘the battler’s mayor’.

The Mullet is unaccustomed to being interviewed by real journalists who are not lap dogs directed to give editorial support for her every thought fart of the moment. But good journalists like those at the Fin Review know the truism about ‘give ‘em enough rope etc’. So in Thursday’s AFR, we see Mayor Mullet airily gracing us with her opinion that she backed using taxpayers money to build the rail line to the Galilee basin ‘ if the business case stacks up.’

Err, what?

So, madam mayor, in your own words, you agree that the business case for the Adani Carmichael mine is yet to be proven?

That being the case, how does the following compute for you?

1. A desperate Adani needs the mine-to-port rail line to ensure it can sustain its financially wobbly port operations at Abbott Point. It says it can built it with its own money, but clearly can’t. It does not explain its reluctance to do so, and puts out the begging bowl in Canberra.
2. Adani repeatedly keeps putting back dates when it claims the funding will be accomplished, (latest: next March) all the while assuring us that that will eventually be the case, despite no bank or lending institution agreeing their business case ‘stacks up’ and won’t touch it.

3. You, Mayor Mullet, after being handsomely hosted on a trip to Adani HQ in India, succumb to Adani’s demands that the two council’s most likely to benefit from the mine’s FIFO requirements build a gold-plated airstrip for an eye-watering $30million plus.

4. While you suspected there would be some backwash when this hitherto secret arrangement is made public, you are taken aback and alarmed at the widespread and strident opposition to the use of ratepayers money ($18.5 million) in this manner. But you stick to your guns, saying it was necessary to secure FIFO JOBS for Townsville, based on gossamer thin assurances from the Indian shysters. You added a nice little kick in the cods for those who have been forced to leave their council jobs by saying the council won’t have to borrow the airstrip funds, they will come ‘from the savings made by the staff restructure’.

5. You then adopt a crash or crash through strategy, further enraging Townsville ratepayers by announcing you want the airstrip built BEFORE the final funding approval for the project is known. If it happens at all. This indicates that you have every confidence of the mine starting up, which in turn must surely mean that you have studied the details and concluded that the ‘business case stacks up’.

6. But then you have two-bob each way and say should the venture – for some obscure reason (???) – not proceed, we would get our money back because you have demanded that Adani supply a bank guarantee regarding that eventuality. Just where this roundly repudiated mob of slicksters will finally find a bank that will even guarantee a relative piddling $18.5million is your secret, which you coyly decline to share with us mugs. Not fibbing are you, dearie?

7. You continue to refuse to release the report by KPMG which you claim justifies your actions because the mine will inject $90million EACH YEAR for 30 YEARS into the Townsville economy. When pressed, you say it remains Commercial In Confidence ‘because negotiations with Adani are on-going.’

Then on Thursday, you ramp up your arrogance by advocating a billion dollars of Australian taxpayer money for a rail line is a good idea. But only ‘if the business case stacks up’!! All the banks have already says it doesn’t.

Seriously, are you mad? Or do you think we are?

As has been said elsewhere, under your strategy, we could end up with a rail line to nowhere with an airstrip at the end of it.

It would seem the gods are well down the track with their initial goal of making you gaga, Mrs Hill. They’ll leave the destruction part to either the voters or a CCC/QLG inquiry, whichever comes first.

Headlines We’d Like To See

‘Got’em Adani Charged With Multiple Sex Offences After Caught Trying To Inappropriately Touch 70,000 Townsville Ratepayers. Mayor Mullet Charged With Being An Accessory’

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 Under The Influence

Yet again, The Astonisher continues its progress down the path of the right idea with the wrong execution.

It is that perennial old chestnut solely designed to hopefully sell papers (it doesn’t, especially not if you’re silly enough to put it out on a Friday) of the 50 Most Influential people in Townsville. Now this list of transparent tosh simply exists in the heads of the iditor and the advertising manager of the Townsville Daily Astonisher. The list is formulated in part by self-interest (advertising – McDonalds frachisee, casino owner, rich dentist, various developers), a smattering of public servants who doing what they’re paid to do, Pricey gets a guernsey (good on him). It really is an exercise in stretching the imagination, witnessed by the inclusion of old Magpie mate, Rabieh Krayem, whose entire career has been centered on Rabieh and The Magpie cannot point to anything substantive that he has done for the community.

The ‘Pie’s Picks

OK, seems we’re all under the influence … this lot would drive you to drink.

So The Magpie will now present his brief Most Influential , formulated on one simple rule – the unvarnished truth. For a start, let’s look at the dictionary definition.

influence |ˈinfloŏəns|

noun

the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself .The power to shape policy or ensure favorable treatment from someone, esp. through status, contacts, or

• a person or thing with such a capacity or power

BUT there is also another word often linked to influence, that word being ‘malign’ ‘evil in effect; pernicious; baleful; injurious’: And it is with that in mind that The Magpie kicks off his little list with

#1: Mayor Mullet, Mrs Jennifer Hill.

Indeed, Mayor Mullet can take the bulk of the credit for the busted-arse state in which our poor bloody city finds itself. The scorecard ain’t flash.

*Into office deriding her opponent’s policy that there was an urgent water crisis … then back flips when she has to bring in water restrictions and is faced with the social media revolt demanding a solution to what she said was not an issue

*imports a fellow-traveller Labor apparatchik Adele Young as council CEO to implement her specially commissioned report recommending reducing council staff by almost a quarter in a virtual purge. Ms Young quickly demonstrates personally and professionally she is unqualified and unsuitable for the job.

* encourages Young to replace senior staff with Labor’s yesterday yes men and women from outside the city to consolidate her position and power

* at a stroke, trashes Townsville’s multi-million dollar arts reputation by inexplicably and unceremoniously sacking Shane Fitzgerald, nationally acknowledged as one of the finest regional arts administrators who had the Perc Tucker gallery flying

*blocks pivotal breakthrough development called The Hive on the Queens Hotel site. While she quotes some obscure planning and heritage mumbo jumbo as the reason, it became apparent that it didn’t fit in with other personally ordered planning projects that were all ‘blue sky’

* tells the unquestioning Astonisher there has been a rate reduction, Soon, ratepayers discover there is actually a number shuffle that is in fact a rise for most – including a ‘waste charge'; for a ‘free’ dump day!

*decides to enter a stoush to back her TEL board chairman (she is deputy chair) to urge Qantas to collect a $3 per passenger tax to finance the Queensland Airports Limited asset Townsville Airport’s proposed $80million renovation. When Qantas point blank refuses because air fares are dear enough already in Townsville, the mayor makes a public call for locals to boycott Qantas. She is ignored , makes herself and the city a national laughing stock, and Qantas is widely praised for its stand

*flies to India to receive hospitality from the Adani group, and soon after returning, undertakes secret talks and eventually reveals she is ‘gifting’ Adani $18.5million of ratepayer funds to build an airport at the yet too be financed mine site. The backlash is instant and spectacular. A petition of over 50,000 signatures is gathered. She refuses to receive the petition in person, and dismisses the thousands of angry ratepayers as ‘keyboard warriors’.

This latter matter has really got her tits caught in the wringer and the matter is far from resolved, as written earlier.

So yes, Mayor Hill, The ‘Pie believes it was your major influence that sees the unkempt, dowdy and downhearted city which has seen 9000 people leave in the past two years. Not all your fault, but it’s a multiplier effect.

#2: Adele The Impaler Young

Ms Young, a known labor Party head-kicker, wasted no time is implementing a callous and largely unnecessary purge of council staff. No program of natural attrition, no acceptable time frame, just a brutal clear out.

The result has created a toxic overworked workplace where she is by all reports, universally loathed, in part because of her widely reported unprofessional and possibly unstable workplace behaviour .

There are as yet unconfirmed reports that Ms Young suddenly took leave when the state election was called, and is said to be in Brisbane helping run the state Labor campaign. Adding fuel to this conjecture is that her sudden leave will end the Monday after election day.

 #3: Ben ‘Bogan’ English and the Townsville Bulletin.

The paper fancies itself as an ‘opinion leader’ and shaper of community debate (what codswallop) but HAS NEVER included itself or its editor in this list. The paper which The ‘Pie long ago dubbed the Astonisher has been variously called the Adani Argus, the Bullsheet and Jenny Hill’s PR letter. There has been virtually no criticism of any of her programs or pronouncements, with most receiving puppy-wetting and unquestioning eager backing. There has been no investigative journalism, no examination of various claims, especially financial ones, and any outside opposition is effectively stifled. Ben ‘Bogan’ English has left now the damage has been done, and a new editor Jenna Cairney is due, or is already here. But the lack of a regular forum for community concerns being treated with balance and fairness has had one spectacular result … the paper’s sales have tanked and despite increasingly expensive bribe offers (a free Ferrari to new subscribers can’t be far away) few are swapping over the digital subscriptions. Townsville without a responsible, properly run paper is at a major disadvantage and even further from the recovery twaddle they regularly peddle. So the Townsville Bulletin and Editor English have played a pivotal role in the frustration and feeling of helplessness that pervades Townsville right now.

We no longer have effective voice that is respected by decision makers in George Street or Canberra. Or anywhere.

# 4: The Townsville voter.

Frankly, the rusted-on rump of backward looking voters live by their own (mostly Labor) mythology and morality. They believe what they’re told and are somehow surprised when they find they’ve been shafted at every turn of the social compact. You folks are the real influencers and should hang your heads in shame. Townsville has gone back by a decade because of you, you chuckleheads.

The Memories Come Flooding Back

Read this little snippet with interest during the week.

And it’s a fair bet that old mate Bazza The Legal Foghorn Taylor did, too. Seeing an old business associate in strife is always upsetting for the sensitive and delicate of this world. Like Bazza.

Way back when, Wayne Myers was a director of a company called Rennison. It started life as a mining company and then switched to telecommunications. In the 2000s, Myers had the bright idea to set up a company to create a regional Telco for Townsville. Richard Ferry became chairman, and a score of local businessmen were talked into chucking in something like $20 grand each. Bazza Taylor was among them, although it was his wife who was named as a director. Now to the best of The ‘Pie’s knowledge then and now, there was nothing untoward about all this if a deal that sees $20k equity from Council, all of council’s voice and data business and  an unsecured loan of, from memory, $800k, is regarded as on the up and up. Certainly nothing illegal.

The business offering was essentially a reseller product on the back of Optus. The only business guaranteed fees was Rennison. The rest was in the lap of the Gods.

 But The ‘Pie well remembers shortly after he mentioned Mrs Taylor’s directorship in the newspaper, blustering Baz went off his cruet, accusing The Magpie of ‘attacking my family’. Which of course was arrant rot, unless stating a harmless bit of public knowledge can be regarded as an ‘attack’.  Made one wonder, and still does, what you were so upset about, Barry.

Anyway, from memory. Myers tried to get an injection of ratepayer funds in the form of an equity injection and a large unsecured loan from then mayor His Radiance Tony Mooney.   Mayor Mooney thought about – after all, several of his major backers were involved, including Bazza – but in the end showed that he was no Jenny Hill and rejected the idea.

No idea what happened after that.

But Myers, who was for a while chairman of the Queensland arm of the Eddie Obeid now-discredited vehicle,  Australian Water Holdings, figured there was still a quid to be had from Walker Street. He met with Mooney and Craig Wallace to see if they could muscle in on a local water deal. And guess who Myers recruited locally to push the case? None other than our old mate Rabeah Krayem.

Mooney saw this one off as well, proving that we don’t always have to thank responsible leaders for what they do, more often for what they don’t do. Are you listening, Mayor Mullet?

In Passing

Seen to be a lot of walking dead zombie stuff on TV lately (no Walker Street jokes please) , so for a moment, The ‘Pie thought this headline in the Guardian was along those lines.

Necrophilia, anyone?  But just turned out to be a whinge from some sensitive petal unhappy with the parents.

And do the sexual harassment scandals never end? In Britain, where the BBC stands accused of letting mega-kiddy fiddler Jimmy Saville get away with his grubby exploits for years, is back in the firing line again with sensational new charges coming to light.

There are unconfirmed reports that Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Ozzie Ostrich is consulting lawyers.

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That’s it for another week, comments should as always be lively throughout the week, do join in. And if you think its worth it, a helping hand with blog costs will be much appreciated. The how to donate button is below.