A Kick in The Head For Christmas: The Council Votes To Continue Hermit Kingdom Secrecy

The disheartening performance last Tuesday was the seasonal gift from all parties, Crisafulli, Greaney, Jacob, Oberhardt and most of all the jellybacked councillors bullied into undemocratic dereliction of their sworn duty.

The mayoral musical chairs in Walker Street descended into deep farce  after the grasping Ann-Maree Greaney  elbowed and shin-kicked her way to an unmerited mayoral chair as the new deputy.  Bad as that was, the lunacy was laid bare in the following days of attempted justification.  With a particularly juvenile pidece of prize idiocy from the Bulletin editor.

With Greaney the Grasper now on the top table, there seems little hope of revisiting and averting an issue that is potentially more damaging to this city that parking meters on the Strand … the council handing over millions in ratepayer funds to a totally incompetent TEL is a scandal that we should not tolerate.

Astonisher reporter Leighton ‘Light On’ Smith ends the year with a trademark bit of stenography,  but in this case his lack of curiosity is a dangerous silence for a journalist.

An interesting take on the nuclear debate, a point The ‘Pie hadn’t come across before.

Australia’s casual racism is latent but alive and well, with the latest media dog whistle to old prejudices aimed at craven populism.  But no one questions the mysterious but revealing paradox of the media frenzy over the return to Australia of the remaining Bali 9 drug smugglers.

And try as they might, American’s editorial cartoonists are having trouble seeing a Merry Christmas, ahead, let alone a  Happy New Year.

This is the final Nest for the year, and the ‘Pie will rest his weary keyboard hands for a couple of weeks but will as always be on the alert for silly season announcements authorities might like you to miss. The Magpie will flap back into your inbox on Sunday Jan 12, or if nothing worth ranting about, maybe 19th.  BUT COMMENTS WILL CONTINUE TO BE PUBLISHED THROUGHOUT THE HOLIDAY PERIOD. Trust you all have a great Christmas and even if it isn’t shaping up as a Happy New Year, it’ll certainly be interesting. Big thanks to all who have supported the blog throughout 2024, it wouldn’t have happened without you. 

And a much missed blast from the past wishes you the best, too. Bentley says farewell to the year that was.

The Return Of Kabuki Theatre To The Walker Street Playhouse 

Rehearsed behind the scenes, last Tuesday’s performance had all the elements of traditional Japanese theatre, a closely choreographed, tightly scripted set piece of Townsville tradition.  The special meeting to ‘decide’  the deputy mayoralty  was about as spontaneous as a moon launch but lacking that thrilling frisson that something might go wrong. It was a done deal,  hammered together out of sight and without any pesky public looking on.

Deputy mayor Paul Jacob mumbled and stumbled through a few largely incomprehensible thought farts, and then suddenly wasn’ the deputy doo-dah anymore when the position was declared vacant.  Vigorous, lively debate, with strong advocacy and sharp comment followed ….

Sorry, just kidding,  John ‘Nanny McPhee’ Oberhardt, that box ticking bald-headed bandicoot had read the riot act to any contemplating exercising their democratic right to public expression, noms called, only Food Truck Greaney humbly offered her services, and was duly elected unopposed. When there was a pro forma  call for comment from councillors, only Clr Dirou spoke, deploring the whole circus (not her words, but no doubt what she would’ve liked to have said).was the only one to deplore the unseeingly spectacle. Food Trucks was taking no chances, and closed the meeting with a smarmy smirk.

The feeling of disenfranchisment,  promoted by an out-of-touch out-of-towner  Oberhardt,  was immediately widespread,  and social media, the Astonisher and The Nest were inundated with enraged comments. Most were free character readings of the grasping Greaney,  the woman who boasted her last ten years as part oif the most destructive council team in living memory not only best equipped her for job, but also entitled her to it.  The ‘Pie was quite taken with this comment into the Nest:

“The Little Fat Food Truck Who Thought She Could” .

A grubby little bit of low level politicking for despicable self-interest the only motivator of an unnecessary spill. Just what the community needed after the year from Thompson hell.

But Paul Jacob was all over the shop and didn’t make much sense when he spoke to the media after the event.  In a confused, thought-disordered interview, he claimed he was bullied into stepping down.

Greaney has had little – actually nothing – of substance to say after her successful putsch, we’ll get enough guff come 2025, she willundoubtedly spent a few weeks doing a victory lap around her regular cocktail circuit and smorgasbord Ladies Who Lunch functions.(These get togethers start as Ladies Who Lunch but quickly by 2pm invariably become Ladies Who lurch.)

But some commentary from others was dazzling in it’s stupidity. Leading the category was Bulletin iditor Cas Garvey. Clearly unsure if she had this tiger by the tail,  she retreated in cliches, nonsensical platitudes that simply did not make sense. And her fascinatingly bizarre take on things had a few scratching their heads. Garvey seemed to be indulging in some rose-coloured glasses pontification.

Really? Having a cut price, bargain basement Lucia Borgia recycled into a Jenny Hill cloned mayoral position is a fresh start?This from a proven bully and back room schemer who without fail voted for for every single one of Jenny Hill’s ruinous flights of fancy, including trying to balance a neglected budget by putting parking meters on the Strand (an issue she has openly said could be back on the agenda in a year or so.)

So much for a malodorous ‘fresh start’.

But one wonders just what Cas Garvey was watching and then hearing from readers by the scvore last Tuesday, when she wrote this.

A sense of fucking calm? Don’t you read you own readers correspondence, Ms Garvey?  Of all the descriptors you could’ve used, ‘calm’ is so far from the mark, it’s belly laugh territory.  But the guffaws turn to cross-eyed bewilderment when later we read …

The damage you witter on about, Madam,  is the lack of a stable, trustworthy popularly elected mayor of ability, vision and integrity.  And we are still in the old leaky boat, and will remain sinking until Captain Crisafulli  calls time on the criminalk conman in whose thrall he is apparently under.  But all writers like a good punchline to underline their wisdom, so we get this final burst from our Pollyanna iditor

Do you actually think about you’re writing, Cas?  ‘Keep their word about being united’?  What does that actually mean, or more to the point, what do YOU mean by that nonsense? United against what? Disagreeing, politely, using the required nanny state language, with another councillor’s view? And then being united in accepting whatever the democratic outcome is after a vote? Or are you hinting that you would like a return to closed caucus meetings to decide everything like your pal Jenny Hill mandated, for the very reason of showing a united front, with her as the boss.

And just what business has been overlooked, just what business hasn’t been gotten on with?

Seems to The ‘Pie that leadership sideshows have been exactly that, and councillors have been robust in their debates and handling of all the various community issues that have come before them. Which why The ‘Pie is steadfast in his belief that this council is not dysfunctional, although there are who insist some quite unproven (but likely) past misdeeds as reason to dissolve the whole shebang.  But a council being able to present a strong face to the outside world can only happen when it is led by a popularly elected mayor.

Something that the untrustworthy and scheming Food Trucks Greaney will never be.

One Bastard Child Policy Left Over From The Hill Era Must Be Rescinded And Rethought

it is this outrageous plan that has financially ruinous possibilities.

The Townsville Events Strategy document on which this shift in responsibility is based is nothing more than a 12 page buzz word glitzy brochure of virtually no substance, a disgraceful amateurish document that was typical of the Hill administration.  Mayor Mullet had this shift in mind to consolidate her power over Townsville Enterprise, of which she vive-chairman of the board.

When it was announced that there was to be an ‘independent’ (ha!) events advisory board, Ann-Maree Greaney was first to say she wanted in.  She had nclearly planned her path from this inane non-existent strategy from its inception last year.

Now she is acting Mayor, there seems little hope of reversing this decision to give millions more to an incompetent, unproven organisation taht consistently refuses to be accountable with public money.  But did this ever go out to tender?

This is a disaster just waiting to happen. It must be challenged.

While We’ve Got Your Attention Ms Garvey …

It seems your love of cliches is shared by your photographers, especially when there some storms around. We had this story on the weekend of welcome rains.

But check the photograph against the perennial warning from authorities about the danger and kids playing in flood waters, in the very same edition of the newspaper. It was about a rescue in Mareeba about … guess what? ‘ a kid in floodwater.

Mareeba Police Station Acting Sergeant Daley Boney said the incident serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of flood waters.“We strongly advise parents to highlight these dangers to their children, to ensure they aren’t putting themselves in unnecessary risk by playing in stormwater drains, rivers and parklands,” Sergeant Boney said.

Every wet season, indeed anytime there a decent rainfall,  your own paper, Ms Garvey, regularly runs warning stories from authorities along these lines. But what do you and your photograophers do  … they take photographs that you print of … kids playing floodwaters. And any youngster will do silly things for the chance to become a schoolyard hero by getting his/her happy snap in the media.

It is a fact that your snappers actually encourage these kids and sometimes older people who should know better to pose in the floodwaters (Evan Morgan, my old mate, you are a serial offender in this area). And then you put together a gallery of this irresponsible foolhardiness for a few cheap clicks.

So far, you’ve all been lucky, call a halt to this hypocrisy while you can.

He’s Called Light On Smith For A Reason

Astonisher reporter and leading media-release stenographer Leighton Smith has had a run of bad fortune with a number of stories in recent times, he will no doubt be glad to see the back 2024. But his famous failure to ask even the most obvious questions, join a tentative dot or two or show the least bit of curiosity about his subject may well come back to haunt him in the coming year.

In recent times, he has ballyhooed as fact the ill-fated Hilton Hotel next to the stadium despite warning signs (the council nixed it), has slavishly fell for the utter transparent bullshit of a 20 storey hotel for the Hive project (never even close to reality) , shamelessly promoted the doomed-from-the-outset Magnetic Views development of an impossible rocky outcrop at Pallarenda (an outright con by the same Mark Tonge who slipped him the Hive hotel story – Townsville no longer enjoys the presence of this white-shoe brigade shonk, who has slithered back to the Goldie), and more recently, a phantasmagorically absurd water park super plan for land next the Cluden racecourse. Now if this sounds a bit harsh, well, it is, because Leighton has been Light-On on all these stories, presenting them as fact and done deals. peddling hopeless hope as it were.

But his latest foray into mixing fact with cheering forecasts  is more serious, and the subject matter demanded that the Bulletin show greater integrity towards the community.

Some background. The paper is regularly running homemprice stories, and for some inexplicablenbreason, give the imporession that prices spirallg uowards is a good thing.

Which is a silly way to view the housing crisis … in no way is it good news. It’s not even that good for owners except for collateral or down-sizing … if they sell, they then have to buy into a market that would still put them at a financial disadvantage and playing catch-up. But this anxiety about runaay housingb proces and shortages has given rise to a new industry – land lease retirement villages.

To the cynical Magpie, this is a development where you build your house but on land that you lease. In effect, although there are early upsides to this arrangement – ready made facilities, security and presumably no rates because you don’t own the land – these schemes mean you build your own house and then pay rent to live in it.

And Townsville Council has two such development applications in the works at the moment.

So what’s the problem. Well, if Leighton is alert across this area of business and housing,  he would be aware that there are emerging pitfalls involved in developments like this. They have been widely publicised and perhaps a more balanced story would’ve taken this into account. Like the ABC has done.

Lifestyle specialises in land lease communities in Victoria, where residents buy the home, usually a manufactured or moveable dwelling, and rent the land, paying site rental fees of up to $250 a week for a couple. It is part of a booming $12 billion land lease industry that houses more than 130,000 Australians, fuelled by a housing affordability crisis and an ageing population.

This investigative report have prompted some governments to examine possible legislation to regulate the industry which targets a vulnerable market of the ageing.

The Magpie is in no way suggesting that either of the two Townsville developers have or intend to engage in what might politely be called sharp practice beyond what is legally permissible. 

But you’d think possible pitfalls that can ruin lives in an industry rife with legalised rorts deserve more than Leighton coughing in his rompers by simply rewriting a press release and quoting a self-penned hagiography of the developer.

On The National Scene,  A Few Brief Observations

The repatriation of the Bali drug smugglers.

There seems to be the assumption that there is cause for jubilation, some sort of vindication that these base criminals, whose activities two decades ago could have caused untold misery and death, across a foreign country  are now back in their homeland – a homeland that morally should remain ashamed of them. The tone of all the reporting and commentary has an unspoken but unmistakeable racist dog whistle running through it.  There is the judgement that their sentences – even though it was life instead of death – was too harsh,  that Indonesia is a ruthless authoritarian country (it isn’t by some comparisons) and that anyway, those life sentences should have been served here in Australia and not have be in prisons teeming with all a manner of unsavoury Asians.

But OK, fine, the Bali prisoners sentences have been commuted or whatever technical term politicians and do-gooders wish to apply,  let them quietly slip back into the country and pick up the pieces of the lives they themselves chucked down the toilet. But political capital was to be gained by Albanese, so he felt he had little choice to make the announcement of this significant diplomatic matter,  he was hoping for the extra election campaign boost of images to back up his self-delivered herogram.

The media saw some meat in this one, a mini-repeat of the Schapelle Corby cause celebre,  one of the most unseemly and sickening media circuses ever witnessed in Australia. The has always raised a question for the ‘Pie: would the slavering media shit storm over her incarceration and return have ever happened if Corby, instead of being a pretty blue-eyed blonde causcasian, was in fact an overweight, unattractive sweaty woman with part Asian antecedents?  You can answer that for yourself.

The Nuclear Debate.

The merits of nuclear power generation will rage on in 2025 and beyond, but the base argument is now one of economics. But Labor, desperate with a looming election that doesn’t look good fo them, suddenly popped up with a typical Labor scare campaign. And typically, shot themselves in the foot yet again when the claims were convincingly refuted by experts.  Neatly summed by Johannes Leak in the Australian.

……..