And in the process with his chums down at The Astonisher, does Mr Krayem more damage than The ‘Pie ever could. This interesting little legal excursion, upped by an extra $193,000 since last week, could not have been designed better by Blackadders cunning Baldrick.
The Astonisher’s amazing case of asnomia – inability to smell anything – as the paper blunders on with backing the battery project, ignoring legitimate background questions. And the mayor and CEO continue to refuse to answer questions on the subject that the ratepayers have a RIGHT to know …
A reminder of damning evidence of just who we’re dealing with at Adani … bet you won’t see it in the Astonisher …
Looks like we have another FIFO council executive, but the real fun is the rumour about how he got the job …
… and the Townsville Bulletin’s moving to news offices. They won’t say where but The ‘Pie reckons he knows … he’s even got a photograph.
But first …
The Spice Of Life Is No Longer … Sean Spicer Makes An Honest Man Of Himself
The entertaining Sean Spicer has quit being The Trumpet’s mouthpiece, and there are many, including The ‘Pie who will miss him. Our PM ‘Trumble’ will also have a wistful thought or two. The Spice Boy was a cringing laugh a minute, with perhaps his crowning moment when he declared that ‘not even Hitler sank so low to use chemical weapons’. That took care of the next Jewish vote then and there.
His departure gave the Guardian the opportunity for headline of the week, heading their story ‘Sean Of The Dead’.
So the stupefying Washington parade marches on, covered so much elsewhere The ‘Pie isn’t too fussed, but Bentley is a keen observer of human behaviour, and detects that there is a marital power play going.
Her favourite song is from La Boheme – Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen.
Your Council At Work – Not.
These comments during the week tell a dismal and dangerous story about the turmoil at the Townsville City Council … speaks for itself.
Damage Control
July 18, 2017 at 12:26 pm (Edit)
I’m reliably advised that:
TCC has still not sent Food licence renewals or dog registration out, with both due payable by 30th June. Franchise operators are concerned that the Franchisor audit requires a current food licence. TCC after numerous requests have stated that current licenced will be extended by 60 days.
This is basic stuff. Systems, processes and resourcing must be in total turmoil.
- The Magpie
July 18, 2017 at 12:30 pm (Edit)
Now the chaos in council is becoming dangerous to the public, and to business confidence.
The council has admitted there is a delay but has offered no explanation for this costly situation (dog registration renewals are in a similar position).
It will take just one incident involving the public during the 60 day period and then, hello CCC, and goodbye a big slab of ratepayer money on legal fees and damages. Great job, Impaler, Mullet.
Has Council’s FIFO Force Gained A New Recruit?
Recently, The ‘Pie told you about this fellow, one Stephen Beckett.
He is the newly appointed manager of Community Relations. But word is, don’t call him on the weekends. Apparently the ratepayers have to stump up for him to jet in on Monday’s and out again to Brisbane/Gold Coast on Fridays.
And the story doing the rounds, for which The Magpie cannot vouch but it comes from a usually reliable source with well placed Brisbane contacts, is the strange manner of his appointment in the first place.
Source says:
Beckett is bragging in Brisbane that the Council approached him to seek his suggestions for the role. He told them after a while that he didn’t have anyone, and that in truth, only he could really do the job properly. At that stage, Council (so the story goes), slid an envelope over the table making an offer to Beckett. Beckett opened it, and responded that he could not possibly do the gig for the dollars on offer. At this point, again so the story goes, Council then slid the next envelope over with a bigger number …
No, nothing illegal in that. Maybe, But something’s definitely on the honker if it’s true.
Humble Pie: Flattered To Be Followed Up Three Days Later By The Astonisher
After last weekend’s investigation into the fading likelihood of a you beaut battery plant being established here in Townsville, the Astonisher was dragged kicking and screaming to acknowledge there may be a wee problem, with the prime mover company suspended from Stock Exchange trading.
But hey, the paper associate editor Mayor Mullet must have gone ballistic, because a couple of days later, we got this unqualified bit of flapdoodle.
Flapdoodle indeed.
Here’s the dictionary definition ‘feasibility study’
an assessment of the practicality of a proposed plan or method.
So in order to lend this struggling concept a hand, the paper tells us there will be a feasibility study into whether a feasibility study is … well, feasible. And hey, no one need worry about the outcome, jobs ‘could start’ start at the Woodstock site within 9 months.
And still they wonder why no one … that is NO ONE – believes a word they write
But Let’s Face It, A Gal Needs All The Help She Can Get
Mayor Mullet would have welcomed a boost to her campaign of ‘say something they’ll soon forget’ method of PR. She needed it with the revelation during the week that the much ballyhooed idea of an underwater art gallery she is claiming as one of her brainchild’s was actually that of sacked arts supremo Shane Fitzgerald. He apparently put it to the sock puppet CEO of TEL Little Patti O’Callaghan while still at the Perc Tucker, who apparently loved it, but when she put it to Mayor Mullet as her own plan, was loudly rubbished for her trouble. Ideas must belong to The Mullet.
But now, the mayor is touting her credentials as a visionary arts genius, pushing the idea like a runaway bulldozer.
Moving Times At The Astonisher
Word is that the Astonisher is about to break its lease and vacate its Flinders Street West address because it is now too big for the already ‘downsized’ staff, with more scheduled to go soon. It is said the new digs will be somewhere in the city.
So here’s an exclusive from The Magpie … he reckons exactly where the Townsville Bulletin will take up residence, and thus at least be transparent and honest about its operations.
Even have a photograph of it.
At Least The Dudley Do Nothings Are Being Honest – By Accident
Recent check of the TEL website brought up this bit of brutal honesty.
No Such Backdown On The Adani Mob Though
Both the Astonisher iditor and trainee iditor Damien Tomlinson have been banging on selectively and single-mindedly about the reputed benefits of the Adani Carmichael mine – not a downside in sight, according to these bozos – here’s a reminder of what they refuse to report, although the ABC reported it in January.
And here is the killer part of the story about these corporate twisters.
‘In August 2015, the Federal Environment Department wrote to Mr Janakaraj seeking “information about environmental history of [Adani’s] executive officers” as part of its assessment of the Indian company’s proposed $16 billion Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.
The letter, obtained by the ABC, asked the company to provide information about any executive officer who “has been the subject of any civil or criminal penalties or compliance-related findings, for breaches of, or non-compliance with environmental laws…[and] information about his or her roles both in Australia and in other countries”.
But in its response, Adani failed to disclose the Zambia incident and Mr Janakaraj’s role with KCM at the time.’
Simply put, all the evidence shows that the Adani mine is a dud, with high corporate risk to the Australian taxpayer and to the environment, particularly the invaluable water table. The Townsville Bulletin, Mayor Mullet and various southern urgers chasing a vote or a dollar insist it’s a goer, in the vain hope of electoral value for the handful of jobs for Townsville … and even they are highly questionable.
Gosh, The Magpie Feels Thrice Important Today, Because …
- Someone feels he’s worth suing, because someone
thinks he has $300,000 (last week they thought he only had $107,000)
2. That the Bulletin thinks the issue so important that in the electronic edition it has put the story behind the Premium content wall
- and that the Bulletin has chosen to give The Magpie blog a free publicity kick – for what that’s worth, given the Astonisher’s sinking circulation.
Yup, Bazza Taylor has advised his client of choice Rabieh Krayem that his entertainment value to this blog is worth $300,000. The ‘Pie was served with another neatly typed letter which is full all sorts of legal stuff, but the covering letter was pure Bazza The Bazooka Taylor. One line The ‘Pie particularly loved was the one that read, Quote: ‘In addition, we expect also that Weatherup will not turn attention to Krayem’s legal adviors, family or associates.’
Well, Baz, old mate, abandon hope all ye who enter this blog.
The first reference means Bazza himself, shy petal that he is, who has had some fixation about being mentioned publicly, despite being active politically behind the scenes. He also has threatened to sue The Magpie himself on more than one occasion, but has never done so, because he’s never had cause. Gleeson has also always been asking him to do so, but Bazza has always declined, presumably for the same reason. But now it seems he has put Krayem up to acting as his stalking horse, because he can’t achieve his cherished goal of legally bashing the old bird in his own right. Emanate must be doing it on the house, because can’t think Rabieh, smart businessman that he is, would waste money to defend a reputation that is hardly dented by anything said in this blog. That’s if he’s got the money anyway, and Barry Taylor’s justly famous enthusiastic charging policy would make sure he’d need plenty of it if he is actually paying.
Bet he isn’t.
The second reference in the sentence is to Vanesa Gleeson, his solicitor/associate and wife of workplace bully Peter Gleeson (now of the dying Sunday Mail, having kept his job despite having cost his employers close on a million dollars in legal costs for the action he caused The Magpie to win for defamation). Mrs Gleeson was hired by Baz the moment the Gleeson’s hit town when he was appointed editor of the Astonisher, thus making sure that Taylor had the editor of the local paper obligated to him. And that no mention of him would be made in its pages. The Magpie discovered this when Gleeson refused to allow a harmless mention about Bazza’s $10million Noosa home he purchased a decade ago. and to which he shortly hopes to retire.
The third reference is somewhat weird and calls into question Mr Taylor’s psychological well being. He keeps insisting, with absolutely zero proof, that The ‘Pie has a secret agenda, including attacks on his wife. For the record, you rude boofhead, as The ‘Pie proved to Typo (to no avail) you were mentioned a total of seven times in eight years, and your wife but once only, and then only to name her as a director of one of your companies doing some sort of tech deal with the Mooney council administration. You claim the same about your kids, the number and names of whom The ‘Pie knows not and has NEVER mentioned them. Nor would he, unless they break the law or offend against the community.
Since you made these claims to a third party in a letter to Gleeson, who was The Magpie’s boss at the time, it is The Magpie who should be suing you for reputational damage. But mate, The ‘Pie’s a generous old bird and will settle for a small apology and a weekend by the water at your Noosa pad (when your away).
The reason The Magpie is even more convinced this is a set-up was Krayem’s statement to the Bulletin that this wasn’t about money, it was about his reputation. Mate, any barrister will tell you libel suits are ONLY about money. That usually boils down to who has the most but ironically in this case, it’s who has the least i.e nothing. That would be The Magpie, any recent enhancement of the bird’s bank account has evaporated. As it will for you, if you are actually paying Taylor and crew.
Good luck.
But Baz And His ‘Client’ Have A Problem Of Unexpected Consequences
The current Bulletin regime ain’t too chuffed with the Magpie humour either, so thought they’d prominenty report the story. They were never going to miss it, what with the iditor of the News Ltd Sunday tabloid being married to the plaintiff’s solicitor in this matter. But it doesn’t seem to have occurred to them that by detailing what Krayem complains of, the Astonisher has thus widened the audience to the matters about 50-fold. And given the blog an almighty boost. Good thinking folks, The ‘Pie salutes you, and he hopes the Sunday Mail does likewise.
Journalistic jackasses.
Final note
The cost of ignorance can be very expensive. Next week it gets dearer. The Bulletin goes up to $1.60 weekdays and $2.60 weekends.
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