The Magpie has it from a trusted source that the Civic site isn’t in the running … and hasn’t been for a long time. AECOM has proved to be just another member of Jenny’s marionettes, giving a finger to the community. But they stand by and allow those in a community public debate look foolish.
Messagebank gets the message … he’s out, but what’s going to be fun is the bullshit reason he gives for being turfed out … And which female candidate will replace him. The same scenario hovers over Aaron Harper’s Brylcreemed head. The ‘Pie has some names in the mix, but explains why we’ll probably have to wait a while or all contenders.
The Bulletin’s costly cock-up … worth heaps to one person (who doesn’t deserve it).
The Voice road show keeps hitting speed bumps … but so does Peter Mutton.
Have gaff, will travel … Joe Biden stumbles his way through cloverleaf country … plus our American gallery and a few other laughs.
A couple of big crunch times coming up for the blog financially, and since you’re reading this, perhaps you might like to help with the Nest’s upkeep, which is a constant distraction for The Magpie ( it will be even more so when the government shortly removes rental support to pensioners). Be great if you could help out, I do this weekly offering because I think it is important, but it is vital to stay independent. . The donate button is at the bottom of the blog. Sincere thanks to those of you have already helped out.
Purleeese … The Voice, They Witter, Should Be Above Politics …
… and then instantly make it about nothing but politics. Sleazy politics at that. Which it always has been anyway.
Here’s what could’ve gone down :The Libs decide to oppose the Voice proposal for whatever arcane reasons, but they’re the Libs after all. So do the supporters of the Voice sadly suggest that in a democracy, Dutton is entitled to his opinion but they believe on the wrong side of history, leaving the politics at that, and get on with answering some big questions troubling voters and talk of nothing but the perceived virtues of The Voice?
Well no, not exactly – or even close.
The avalanche of vitriol, the personal abuse and name calling, and the outrage that someone could be so immorally degenerate to not agree with the demands of the Yes proposal – basic argument: no questions please, trust us – has been deafening. In fact, it took Senator Jacinta Price to put some perspective on it when she said on ABC Radio (over constant interruptions from Hamish McDonald) to point out that the outcry over Dutton’s stand was blocking actual discussion about the proposal. Her most salient comment starts at about 9.04 of the interview tape.
Bentley also believes that the Voice is a political weapon in the hands of a prime minister needing distraction from … ahem … other matters.
No matter here you stand on the referendum issue, it should not stop anyone from enjoying the twirlyfuck contortions of Darth Dutton. Kicking his Guggi’s in the dust of Alice Springs, he suddenly stubbed his toe when a reporter asked him what evidence he had of for his claims of ‘nightly child rapes and domestic violence’. The essence of the media conference conversation went like this:
ABC reporter: Although all authorities who collect data on these matters deny your assertion of the extent of nightly child rapes, what evidence do you have of that happening?”
Pete The Petulant: ‘What an ABC sort of a question. Do you know it’s not happening, do you live here?
ABC reporter: Yes I live locally. What’s your evidence?
Pete: ‘I’ve talked to people …’
… and so it went.
But the thing that tickled The ‘Pie was this man who for months has been demanding details – i.e evidence – of another issue was suddenly so indignant that someone should demand details of evidence from him on a separate issue.
Interesting Voice Footnote
Seems there’s a gender issue emerging in the Voice debate, particularly on the local ALP branches.
In a nutshell, women are Yes, men are No.
What a reversal of traditional gender roles there’s someone’s going to be fucked over.
Commercial In Connivance
Over his years doing this blog – 12 years now – The Magpie has attracted a solid band of confidantes who share information that is to be trusted, even if not able to be immediately proven. The sources remain by agreement anonymous to the public. Such risks have to be taken because the highly compromised, venal and rapidly failing Townsville Bulletin won’t. The Magpie’s track record is pretty good (we’ll trumpet that track record elsewhere another time).
So The ‘Pie is willing to vouch for the following that floated into the Nest in the past day or so.’
AECOM, commissioned by Mayor Jenny Hill to evaluate several possible sites for the proposed Townsville Performing Arts Centre (TPAC) are only considering Dean Park, the just sold Hive/Queens Hotel development on The Strand or a site opposite currently occupied by the old bowling club and Enterprise House. An insider claims AECOM never, from the outset, seriously considered the expansion of the Civic Theatre site – the mayor was against it from the outset – but went through the motions of a cursory dismissal of the site. Their decision was always only among those other three sites.
The AECOM mob, so handsomely overpaid for a basic task are revealed as having no real connect with this community at all, despite posturing nonsense about ‘public consultation’.
This is a political stitch up job from the get-go, orchestrated by one person, Mayor Mullet.
The basic task, to make a judgement on the best visionary location for the Townsville Performing Arts Centres (TPAC) should have been done by a locally appointed task force head by respected local business people who are actually part of this community. We had a water task force, why not an arts site taskforce. And it would’ve been done for a fraction of the cost. AECOM are copping an outrageous $2.7m for this study, an amount that the tax and ratepayers would like to see justified, but good luck with that. And the study would have been done twice as well and twice as honestly in half the time. Of course, if AECOM or their marionette mistress the mayor, gave a fig about what is said here (they don’t) they would unleash a blizzard of buzzword bullshit to justify their gouging presence.
Yet AECOM and the mayor were willing to let prominent people in local art circles, the Bulletin and a rival mayoral candidate, Fran O’Callaghan, believe there was site a fair and balanced consideration that could include the Civic complex.
The information that the ‘Pie has only just received takes on a more sinister complexion with the sale of the Hive site (yet to be completed) by a big Gold Coast crowd. This sale, achieved in the currently difficult national market for such development projects, would’ve had a few hurdles to jump with both state and particularly the council, but has appeared to sail through without any problem. Simples, eh, as the meerkat says. You can bet deals were done, but we won’t know until it’s too late to have any input.
The fall-out from final site decision is going to be most interesting – although interesting is perhaps not the correct word. The overwhelming view of the arts community … although by no means unanimous – favours a thoughtful architectural imaginative expansion of the Civic Theatre area.
To those holding that view, a message for you from your mayor Jenny Hill … go fuck yourselves.
The Message For Messagebank
Th doleful look on Les Walker’s hangdog background visage in news snaps and TV ‘noddies’ of late has given the game away – he is now trying to work out the most gracious way he can exit the political stage as directed by a fed-up ALP, and what the hell he’s going to do for a crust. Let’s face it. he’s not even smart enough to work for his mate, Dolan.
And what a difficult task indeed trying to link the word ‘gracious’ with unsuccessful barroom brawler and walking political minefield. Best bet is tht he says he is at risk of a heart attack if exerting himself in his onerous parliamentary duties (those damn restaurant stairs!), or losing some toes in a lawn mower while having said heart attack.
The proof that the fix is on is that old rumours … certainly true … that Les was sacked from the Town and Country Club at the Townsville Showgrounds for stealing booze …not the odd tossed-back free Glenfiddich or such, but whole box loads. been kept very quite until now, with the party dripping out stuff to encourage a no-fuss departure.
He sure looks like he needs a few bottles right now.
But Here’s A Question
A scenario of which Stephen King would approve;
In the next few months – probably after October to avoid a by-election, Les walks the plank. Sitting vat home in Fourex wonderland, he suddenly realises his old gig … TCC councillor for Division 10, is up for grabs, because the current incumbent will be vacating it to run for mayor. So Les staggers out to drains his last can nominate … probably with Labor endorsement to shut him up and tries to get his old sinecure back. AND DOES!!!
Now try to get a good night’s sleep, sweet reader.
So Who’s A Likely Replacement For Our Hot Air (Sorry, Hydrogen) Champion at State??
Well you may be assured you’ll be hearing for from this Labor foot soldier in the near future.
Ms Naunton is the former media adviser to Cathy O’Toole’s (remember her?) That’s not the most ringing endorsement of competence, but Ms Naughton has dutifully travelled the obligatory road of worthy deeds required of all candidates to cement their sincerity with the public, and thus qualify for the Brisbane plush. The Bulletin has been recruited to assist, and this is just one of two or three inconsequential items featuring Ms Naunton in recent times. Bit of a giveaway.
As to the other current member under the backroom boy’s sword of Damocles, Aaron Harper must be soiling his small clothes, cursing the timing of the next election. You see, he realises it is well AFTER the next council election next March (state will be October) , and there are several current TCC incumbents champing at the bit for the gates to open. Should some of councillors of the current crop fails at the next poll, or be endorsed as a candidate for Thuringowa even before the council election (think Suzy Batkovic, a sporting heroine and dual Olympic medallist is a backroom boy’s wet dream) Harpic will suddenly be glad that he is the man who introduced voluntary assisted dying to the state of Queensland. he may feel like availing himself of the services he championed.
An Expensive Week For The Bulletin
This has no doubt cost them a shit load, – as defamation goes, it doesn’t ‘t get much bigger than this.
It
It puts tThe ‘Pie in mind of Typo Gleeson when he was the ill-fated iditor of the Bulletin. He planned a frontpage for one of my trial stories that screamed MURDERER WALKS FREE, until I pointed out to him he may have. a million dollar problem, because the bloke had been acquitted completely on charges arising from the death of a man is a Charters Towers fight. He duly changed it to ‘KILLER WALK FREE. It took a $500, two minute phone call to our stand-by legal advisor to convince him this was just as bad. In fairness, Gleeson did thank me for saving his bacon on thisnone, but this was very early in our relationship.
Will The Magpie Vote Yes In The Referendum
He certainly will be happy to – if the following wording is added to the referendum question:
“After advising and having had privileged discussions with the cabinet , The Voice group agrees to abide by whatever decision is made by the cabinet in the overall best interests of the whole country, with no further discussions entered into.”
Biden’s Blarney
President Joe Biden has brought to his his trademark goofy gaffs to his visit to Ireland. But many love him for that, because of the stark contrast to the horror years of his deeply demented predecessor’s vicious and callous idea of arrogant diplomacy.
Two samples
Courting Disaster
This week’s American gallery mainly concerns the open destruction of the US Supreme Court’s standing by the egregious. Clarence Thomas and his equally appalling wife Ginny. That, and the other subjects of the week attention, will make any laughter grim indeed.
\
Is There No End To Her Fearless Leadership?
Worse than anything Meghan did], the daring hussy. 
And Former Lumberjack Demonstrates DYI Gender Change …
……………….
That’s it for this week. Until next time, laugh heartily, think deeply, give generously. All are needed for a sane life.
So Aaron Harpers divisive and nasty attacks on business , Catholic Church , other political parties is about being his parties preferred candidate rather than assisting his electorates crime , housing , cost of living issues . In response to Bishop Timothy Aaron claims he believes in ” democracy and free speech for people to have their say ” everywhere except his tax payer facebook page where they are blocked .
The Magpie’s take on Les Walker’s demise certainly got my hopes up – until I got to the bit about “Memoryblank” running for council again. Strewth, just when we thought we were rid of him!
I’ve got a couple more theories to toss into the mix:
– Mayor Mullet won’t be able to handle the prospect of losing the mayoralty to an opponent she has tried (unsuccessfully) to shaft over the past two years and will stand down to make way for Frothy Molachino. The frothy one has been turning up with the mayor at all sorts of important meetings she would normally attend alone (she doesn’t need any help with big decisions, you know, like the Ross River Dam) and he performed admirably at a recent council dress rehearsal (sorry, meeting) while the mayor was away possibly trying to shore up backing for a run for State Parliament (she gave up on her Senate wishful thinking a long time ago), and
– Ann-Maree “Gushing” Greaney, who thinks a council funded North Queensland Festival of Arts disaster generated fantastic vibes, will also put her hand up (not just when told to in council this time) for a State padded seat. She’s got a bright political future, you know – just ask her
Can’t wait for next year.
Cutie Pie did you miss this info?
“The latest statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show incidences of child protection notifications or investigations are up to five times higher in the Northern Territory than in other states around Australia.”
This came out a day or so ago from respected journalist Matt Cunningham. at NT Sky
Yes, agree it is appalling. And The ‘Pie’s comment – we all know you have a problem with these things like language, so go slowly here – was about the irony of Dutton’s objection to being asked for evidence of his claim when he has been doing nothing else but demand evidence on the powers of the Voice. Nothing to do with the deeply concerning issue itself.
But The ‘Pie must say he is surprised and delighted at your sudden display of sophisticated humour, putting the words ‘respected’ and ‘journalist’ in the same sentence with ”NT Sky”. A nice light touch, didn’t know you made genuinely humorous jokes.
That comment, is as usual crap which you specialize in. Dutton has been asking for evidence on the powers of the voice and rightly so.
Perhaps you can enlighten us as to the powers of the Voice.
Miss your meds this morning, old dear? THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THE ‘PIE SAID … and then made the comment about the irony of Dutton getting upset when asked for evidence for his claims on another matter.
Keep up or keep out ..,. and this time The ‘Pie means it, you poor benighted bugger, your really not up to speed or IQ for this blog. This comments section is not for the crayon-wielding, helmet-wearing likes of you.
Now, now Pie, please don’t ban the Bob (aka Tropical). Many enjoy his troppo right wing comments. He’s worth at least a dozen ‘comments’ to the blog. Plus it just reminds us that God missed some key ingredients when he invented the fruitcake.
Banning isn’t the style, it’s a comment by comment decision, and many of Troppo’s contribution nhave been severely edited or binned to avoid childish abusive sand-pit rants. No one gets expelled around here, just sent to the naughty corner occasionally. Main sin: being boring.
It seems the Dolan-ites aren’t even sure which side they are on or what they are fighting about any more. May be the talking notes for the week didn’t come out from ALPHQ on time.
If these are the latest statistics then NT child abuse and neglet substantiation rates were 33.7 per 1000 in 2016/17 (because that appears to be the most recent data).
That is 3.37 times more the national average.
Indigenous children nationally are 7 times more likely to experience substantiated child abuse and neglect than non Indigenous. And there has been an increase, also possibly to an increase in awareness.
These statistics are appalling. But they aren’t the numbers Dutton was trying to pass off.
Additionally, and this doesn’t make it any better, child abuse, isn’t always kiddy fiddling. Emotional abuse is also classified as child abuse.
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/childrens-headline-indicators/contents/indicator-17
Dutton and Price are clearly on the record on several occasions talking about child sexual abuse. And how disgraceful from a callous bureaucracy lumping in what they characterise as emotional abuse, which in this ‘enlightened woke age’ could include “Johnny, do your homework or no screen time for for two weeks for you’ with the lifelong trauma and deeply despicable crime of actual sexual abuse. Those stats should be kept separate, as a mark of respect for the victims of real crime, not fantasy woke offending.
Well to be honest Magpie, emotional abuse is more along the lines of telling Johnny, he’s a fucking useless little no good piece of shit. And a loser. And he’s useless at everything. And no wonder he has no friends. And spending money to feed Johnny is a waste.
It’s nasty stuff and should be lumped in with sexual abuse, its just as damaging. Ongoing emotional abuse causes mental health problems and suicide.
Emotional abuse usually occurs when the perpetrators have untreated mental health issues.
So let’s unpack that. Telling little Johnny or Joanna (or you actually, one suspects) he is a loser and is useless at everything, with no friends and he’s a waste of money to feed is equivalent to a physically large person of authority who is a parent or sibling forcibly pulling a child’s pants down and penetrating them, brutally and painfully in an act of sheer physical and psychological terror?
What fucking planet are you from, mate, a disgusting comment from a modern woke moral degenerate, especially when the issue was simply keeping the offences separate and not of equivalence in the records. If you had a single shred of decency, you will apologise for that truly low comment. Not doing so, you have outed yourself as being beneath contempt. And do not think this is a joke reply, I mean every word of it.
It is unthinking woke cunts like you that would hasten the end of any chance of decent society with your callous nonsense if we allowed you to. Which we bloody won’t. Your participation in this blog is under review.
Unfortunately Magpie, calling me names and being abusive because you don’t agree with me doesn’t make you right. It also doesn’t make me wrong.
Emotional abuse, like sexual abuse, is about power and control. It may not be as violently invasive as sexual abuse but its a precursor to both physical and sexual abuse. It also causes long term psychological damage to the victim. And research shows, psychological abuse does the damage first to enable the victim to be raped repeatedly by the perpetrator. It’s the demoralising, the grooming, the mental abuse, that lowers rhe victims guard and puts them in a vulnerable state.
So I’m not some “woke cunt”.
You most certainly are on both counts, and you’ve again proved it with your response, which just repeats your original barbaric proposition. It is a throwback to original extreme feminism (eg, all men are rapists) which has long been repudiated by the more responsible leadership of the modern feminist movement.
All the great writers who railed against the perversion of language like Orwell and Huxley clearly demonstrated that the greatest threat to a free and equitable society was exactly that … the perversion of language which leads inevitably to the domination and intimidation of private thought … an automatic self-censorship triggered by fear. You – and academics and government bureaucracy – equating derogatory emotional abuse with what you seem nto claim as the inevitable and ultimate physical act – is using language to pervert reality. Cf the effect of religious teachings on the very young. Many who suffered the psychological trauma dished out by Christianity and Islam et al but were not sexually abused go on to live productive and happy lives despite their early indoctrination. But for those who were sexually abused, it is a very different story of a shattered life wrought by a monstrous betrayal by authority. It’s the same in the domestic situation.
But that is exactly what you are doing … perverting language to create a false equivalent. Even the law makes distinctions in the matter of rape, after the definition was changed some years ago … in deciding sentence in terms of seriousness, the judge considers the gradients of touching outside the clothes, inside the clothes, digital penetration and the original sole meaning, penile penetration. And the age of the victim. And they generally see any grooming or emotional abuse as an aggravating factor only, of various levels as a contributing factor.
Like many an academic study, you first select a desired result for your hypothesis and then you pluck out ‘facts’ to support it … and you’ve done exactly that with the tell-tale phrase ‘raped repeatedly’, as though frequency is relevant, inevitable and somehow makes the ‘grooming abuse’ more heinous.
Once is enough for a child. Or anybody, but we’re talking kids here.
But if you wish to stick with this theory , how about a little experiment – what say we sent someone like Tropical around for visit …the first night, he’ll tie you up – the bondage to reduce you to the helplessness of a child – call you a useless waste of space, a loser with no friends, maybe give you a clip around the ear, and a few other putdowns, then lets you go. The next night he comes back, ties you up again, calls you names again – and then rapes you. Possibly repeatedly.
It would be interesting to hear your opinions about which night you remember most.
Ducks nuts, your comments always show up how emotionally challenged you are. We’re you fiddled as a kid?
Ah the hypocrisy. Suggesting I pluck facts to suit my definition, whilst doing it yourself.
And thank you for showing us all who you are. Suggesting one person you don’t know, rape another you don’t know, to prove a point is at best purile and at worst perverted.
…said you to someone you don’t know, about someone else you don’t know.
This is going nowhere, so this thread is ended. But your apology for your disgusting original comment will be published.
Magpie, there’s an article in today’s Guardian about child abuse in the NT which uses some of the statistics which have been discussed here in this exchange with Ducky:
“In the NT, the data shows there were five times as many children with substantiations for neglect than for sexual abuse.
Publicly available figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show sexual abuse was the primary reason for 5.6% of substantiations of child harm compared with the national average of 7.3% in 2020/21 the latest available data.
New South Wales has the highest percentage of substantiations for sexual abuse at 10.8%. I don’t hear any politicians calling for a national investigation into child sexual abuse in NSW.”
There are stats and then there are statistics.
And The ‘Pie is gratified to see that the statistics for the different issues – one an outright crime, the other not always recognised as one – are being kept separate. A neglected child, a wandering kid, can be offered love and shelter in a variety of ways, but a raped child will forever live in a moment long past for the rest of us …. and part of them will live in that moment and carry it through their entire life. At least there is decency and sanity out there somewhere in at least one bureaucracy.
Palm – anyone who has worked in remote areas shall tell you the issue is the cases of sexual abuse that are NOT reported.
Like a Pommie racehorse trainer trying to get his horse into the Melbourne Cup, surely the TPAC site has to be a late nomination for the Performing Arts Centre Stakes. With the TPAC proposal getting 63% of the vote in a Townsville Bulletin poll, there’s a bit of credibility at risk here for both Jenny Hill and AECOM. So does the mayor pretend she included TPAC in council’s list of possible sites, or will AECOM come clean and tell local residents what really happened?
Either way, we deserve an explanation.
While you’re at it Jenny, can you please inform ratepayers how much of their money has been paid to AECOM over the past two years. Surely that’s not commercial-in-confidence. It is, after all, our money.
Townsville Bulletin polls aren’t real.
Precisely. Designed only to manufacture statistics that can be skewed either way to make a story. Newspoll in The Australian and some polls done by others like the Guardian have more rigorous criteria, and can be of some nuse, but the Bulletin wouldn’t even understand what The ‘Pie has just said.
Shades of Yes Prime Minister where Sir Humphrey “educates” Bernard on how to conduct a survey, and get the results you want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GSKwf4AIlI
Townsville Bulletin Polls are real Santa (unlike you). They just aren’t official.
They all manipulated fairy floss … not necessarily by the paper, they’re probably not intellectually equipped for such chicanery, but certain interest groups find yes/no polls easy to stack. This sort of fucking varound isn’t new.
The ‘Pie well remembers his surprise when joining the paper 2002 one of the first things he was asked to do, along with other journos, was write letters to the paper about certain subjects for publication in letters to the ed. Fake names of course. I was a bit affronted by this unethical request, but – and they didn’t at the The ‘Pie was a wannabee humorist then – I wrote a letter and signed it M.A Stabata of Ingham. The senior journo in charge of this tomfoolery caught on at the last moment when the page had been set, and stamped a pretty foot very publicly and loudly at this my oafishly grinning head, about how the paper could’ve been made a laughing stock (this was before actually was). She didn’t appreciate my suggestion that such heinous trickery wouldn’t happen if professional journalists weren’t insulted by being directed to write fake letters and lies.
These days it seems to be the norm, although we see during the week a first for this noisome rag … the iditor begging people to write letters to the ed and to send messages to text the editor. That’s a sure sign of rapidly diminishing readership and the paper’s widening disengagement with the Townsville community.
And if the result had been in favour of, say, Dean Park, our Mayor and others would be holding it up as solid evidence of support by the general population of Townsville.
And they would be wrong to do it.
I believe the local AECOM price list looks something like the following.
1) We do a basic business case based on engineering first principles $3-500,000
2) We do a business case where you pick the outcome in advance $1,000,000
3) We do a shiny business case where you pick a really stupid outcome in advance and we try to shine that turd $2,000,000
What do the ratepayers get for the extra $700,000 they chucked in courtesy of Jenny?
Funny, same number as the missing dough out of the half yearly budget review which Fran O’Callaghan inquired about 9and never got an answer). Hmmmm …
Thankfully the Feds seem to be able to see through the crap that passes for business cases from our local Mullet. Think back to the clueless disjointed and quite fanciful pile of guano TEL served up for Hells Gate which the Feds quite rightly consined to the waste basket of history. Not a bad project but nothing behind the fanciful claims. Hers hoping they send this one back for a redo.
Suzy wasn’t an Olympic Gold medalist. Commonwealth Games yes but not Olympic- not even World Championships.
You right, not gold but she was a duel medallist in two olympics.
from Wiki:
She has been a member of the Australia women’s national basketball team, being named to the team for the first time in 1999. She won a silver medal with the team at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Pie, I really hope Suzy doesn’t take the bait from Dolan and his labor mates and be coerced into standing for a state seat. She is an excellent councillor for constituents but in my opinion not a political animal. She would be better of in advancing with her sport portfolio.
I’m a bit confused over this performing arts centre. Apart from where it should go, wasn’t the very original plan to build a convention centre that could cater for all levels of entertainment. Wasn’t the deal to build a footy stadium plus convention centre? Cairns make a killing from their convention centre. Our problem with attracting conventions and big events is venue and lack of accommodation yet our so called civic leaders continue to sprinkle a road to nowhere. Build it and they will come.
I heard that the behind closed doors deal done between Mayor Mullet and others and the ALP government at the time was Townsville gets the Stadium and Cairns gets the upgrade and expansion of the existing Convention Centre. Part of the reasoning was that expansion of the existing Cairns Convention Centre was the cheaper option and Cairns had the facilities to cater for convention attendees eg international standard hotels, airport quality restaurants and numerous tourist activities for visitors to visit.
You sure that';s what happened … sounds all too sensible for those involved.
I just couldn’t resist showing what Townsville doesn’t have for a well used quality Convention Centre but Jenny did get a little used stadium
https://www.spicenews.com.au/industry-news/cairns-convention-centres-176-million-expansion/
KK, Reid Park was nominated to be the performing arts precinct soon after the Civic Theatre was opened in 1978.
At some stage in the 2000s(?) there was a rumour that there would be a precinct built in the city centre, but (no surprise) that came to naught.
In relation to a convention centre doubling as a theatre space, it is just not feasible. The convention centre has no backstage, no wings and no ability to fly scenery. The only backstage toilets are in the team locker rooms! The staging of Shrek there a couple of years ago was bordering on chaotic as people tripped over props and each other in the VERY cramped space behind the stage.
Agree. never quite understood why some people have seen a convention centre as being anything like a theatre … possibly a place for bands and such, but modern theatres are highly technical and carefully planned, both front and back of house. Or should be …. wonder what we’ll get for a relative paltry $98m.
A concert hall with no expensive backstage, wings or ability to fly scenery! Acoustics, presumably, will be brilliant.
NQ Girl, yes very cramped indeed but that was only because Mayor Jenny was having difficulties getting into her Shrek costume !
Shrek is lovable and caring.
And Jenny isn’t ?
Why do you think she needs a costume?
Jenny is Lord Farquaad, with her guards (aka Team Hill) around her. Self important, pompous and if she doesn’t like you, will banish you from her crumbling kingdom.
https://youtu.be/TV4uvOn8Mzo
This was not on ABC news, Why ?
Ah, Lydia, my hero! Such eloquence, panache, and tenacity. The indigenous electorate must be so proud.
The ideal woman to take home and punch your parents. Even the ex bikie boyfriend’s parents would be scared of that fucking psycho!!
She should get in contact with Les. I reckon they get on well.
She dumped her bikie boyfriend he only had a 2stroke.
(sigh)
Good news for Cowboys fans – they didn’t get beaten by the Warriors on Saturday afternoon, in fact according to the Townsville Bulletin website, they didn’t even play the game.
Townsvilleans got a glimpse of what to expect in the future this morning when the local paper failed to find space on its website for a report on Saturday’s debacle when the Cowboys had 57 per cent of possession and a tidy completion rate of 85 per cent but still couldn’t beat a Warriors side that made 11 errors.
Two questions arise.
1 Has the Townsville Bulletin become so slack that they can’t post a report (written by a southern journalist) the same day of the game, the following day, or even 2 days after, or are they waiting for the Cowboys to come up with their own version of another woeful performance?
2 What’s going on at the Cowboys? Last year they were tipped to get the wooden spoon but surprised everyone including themselves by finishing 3rd. This year they were tipped to win the competition but have only managed to scrape together 2 wins from 7 games, and one of those was by a single point. They let go one of the most exciting young players in the game (Hammer) and a forward who is on the verge of playing Origin, but kept older players who are borderline NRL standard at best. They also give the coach and a couple of other players a significant upgrade on their salaries and the result – 16th place on the ladder out of 17.
If the Cowboys were a racehorse they would be sent to the swabbing stalls.
Yes, I watched the last game.
Is it too late to book a Kiss concert for November?
hahaha … luv it.
As a joke only, want the Boys to buck up, they’ve come from down the ladder before.
Magpie, you are correct. When the $300million Stadium and $50 Million High performance Centre of Excellence kick in there will be no stopping them. It only needs to be fine tuned with a few tweeks here and there. (I wonder if there are any KPI’s associated the the Cowboys investment)
Footy Fan, not sure if any money needed to be spent on swabs…a trip to the knackery perhaps ! The Cows are definitely not show ticker/dicipline when it counts on the paddock but now their woes just copped a kick in the Jatzcrakers (see what I did there).
Jason Taumalolo out for 6 to 8 weeks with surgery. The achilles heel of big forwards. There was plenty of raised eyebrows when the Cows board decided to pay big Jason $1,000,000 a year FOR TEN YEARS !
WTF were they thinking ? Doesn’t matter how good they are, big forwards develop knee issues and this will be the start of that problem for the big fella !
Still, he won’t be on the food line seeing he’s got $20,000 a week to play with !
And again a spelink fail in print. Page 3 photo caption refers to “Austrlaian performer Kurt Phelan……”
Even my spell check picked it up!
You will note that the error … admittedly a minor but one that points to a wider malaise at the Astonisher … is in the photo caption. Therefore written by the photographer, in this case, one of the best snappers the paper has ever had, Evan Morgan. One would have thought after the merging of the two very discrete skills of reporting and photographing by a rapacious News management downgrading quality for profit , you’d think that captioning would be flagged for close checking.
And here’s another admittedly small oversight that also adds to the cumulative ‘couldn’t give a fuck’ attitude.
But two things catch the eye in an otherwise informative and useful story. . The first is this:
Reprinting media releases such as this one is fine for such matters, but they still need checking to fulfil the paper’s obligation to make statements clear. So instead of the dates making reader having to work out when the footbridge will be open again after necessary finishing work, a sub would normally write ‘ after completing finishing work tomorrow and on Thursday, the footbridge will be open again on Friday.’ Using dates is just lazy parrot stuff, especially on an embargoed item like this.
And the second thing, an independent paper responsible to the community would’ve deleted the last bit of fluff about the council works program, it isn’t new and it isn’t news, it’s been announced in the budget, so it was just a bit of self-back-slapping to make the council look good for doing what we pay it to do anyway.
Look, The ‘Pie knows these two matters are inconsequential as of themselves, but as previously stated, when they are added to many others, they all add up to a complete lack of trust and credibility to any claim of being as a professionally run newspaper.
And that’s not good news for any community. Especially Townsville.
Three days now and still no match report on the Townsville Bulletin website on the Cowboys loss to the Warriors.
What’s going on Mr Editor, censorship or just slackness?
Is it a commercial decision? Are the Cowboys not spending as much in advertising as what is expected? Are the Cowboys management smart enough to realise that the Astonisher is useless and their circulation is mud. Is it (Cowboys expenditure in the Astonisher) a reverse policy to that of which the allshitty Mullet has?
After the Magpie , Arts community , media raised Councils poor support for the Arts community the Mayor announced NAFA ” Northern Australia Festival of Arts ” being cut from 30 days to 13 claiming there is too much on . Dance North funding reduced along with others .
And while we’re, then, question: Is Councillor Greaney / Council funding the advertising, bands, food pre- and post-Cowboys Games at Councils jointly owned money sinkhole Arcade … which remains tenant free. Your rates at work, folks.
They have to save some money toward this year’s Strand Ephemera $90k first prize for another pile of scrap metal.
Perhaps the Astonisher should invest in a copy of Grammarly?
Page 5, sub headline
Couple’s mission to make Maggie……
Sigh
Well, Granny, yes and no … and The ‘Pie certainly would not expect the gum chewing denizens of the Bulletin newsroom to either know or care about a word of such nuances like ‘couple’. But in this case, it appears the paper is correct in standard English, but wrong by its own style book.
‘Couple’ in the sense used here is a singular noun (there is only one couple, a singular collective word for two associated people), and therefore takes the possessive apostrophe before the ‘s’. BUT – and ya just gotta love english grammar, this is a word as ambivalent as an Oxford Street stroller – it can be treated as a plural, or singular depending on context. This from an explainer from Merriam Webster:
When writing of a couple getting married, it is more common to use the plural form (“the couple are to be wed”). When writing of an established couple, it is more common to use a singular verb (“the couple has six puppies, each more destructive than the next”).
But gets even more interesting when we look at News Ltd’s own style book (4th revised edition, page 137) which shows the Bulletin headline is wrong because it instructs its writers: Couple, in the sense of of two associated people the word should be construed as plural(Example) The couple were married in 1992. BUT: Each couple was asked to give $10.’
Would seem fair if the Astonisher coughed up a bit more than $10 to The ‘Pie for the tutorial.
And interesting to note in the sub-head, they go against the style book’s dictum on: God: Cap for references to the religious entity.
The definition of PALTERING:
To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead and withhold information.
The Director of Infrastructure and Operations is an EXPERT.
Precise definition, although archaic and in not much use nowadays – hope you’ve helped to revive a much-needed word. Much the same as The ‘Pie’s favourite word for these twicers – eristic. basically means a statement aimed at winning an argument but not necessarily to find the truth. Lot of that around here in comments, which is what makes it so much fun, fish in a barrel etc.
Here’s what happens when Jenny Hill and Townsville Enterprise have a collective brain fart.
From today’s Townsville Bulletin:
Build-to-Rent plan for rail yards faces land contamination and heritage challenges
A 1000-apartment Build-to-Rent development for the CBD will need to overcome a century of industrial rail use, and a heritage listing. See what’s in the soil.
An ambitious plan to construct a 1000-apartment Build-to-Rent project at Townsville’s former North Yards railway land will need to overcome the dual challenges of land contamination and heritage listed buildings.
Established in the 1880s, the historic railway workshops have remained vacant since their closure in 1990, with Townsville City Council purchasing the 4.5ha site from Queensland Rail for $20,000 in 2013, and two adjoining land parcels for $1.64m in 2022.
Townsville Enterprise (TEL) and Townsville City Council (TCC) are currently seeking government support for a $40m Build-to-Rent project, as part of TEL’s Unlock the North submission.
Council’s vision was to transform the site into an “active and exciting” southern gateway precinct into the CBD, with high density housing, commercial activity, and cultural activation.
It would provide “contemporary use of the rail heritage buildings, retaining their key architectural form and historical elements while respectfully integrating the intent of the Priority Development Area”.
At the time this was announced my mates at the pub all said it wouldn’t happen because of the cost of removing the contaminated soil.
That Jenny Hill and TEL weren’t aware of that well known fact says it all.
For goodness sake Jenny Hill, stop trying to be a developer and concentrate on your real job – maintaining our roads, supplying our water, treating our sewerage and cleaning up our parks and median strips.
You’re becoming a laughing stock.
‘Becoming’? Bit behind the times there mate.
And if Jenny Hill ever said she wasn’t aware of the contamination issue, then she is dead-set, straight-out, flat-tack LYING.
Remediation of that land would literally cost millions. No wonder QRail was happy to offload it for $20k back in 2013. They got out of it cheap. That land is totally rooted and TCC would require damn good justification and a robust business case put forward to ratepayers to explain why millions of our dollars should be spent on a lemon, considering we are already up to our eyeballs in debt.
This airy fairy proposal is typical of what we will see over and over for the next 11 months. The wearer of pink doonas will be working overtime on crap like this. The real selling should be her promoting business development, trying to bring industries o Townsville which will create revenue streams and jobs. But of course, a nasty douche like her isn’t capable of doing that.
The point in the renewed odour around the railyards is the fact that both the council and TEL KNEW that any build-to-rent scheme … in fact any affordable development for housing on that land – was financially impossible under current restrictions (which are basically nanny state crap anyway).
But in the guise of looking like they’re doing something … and trying to look like they KNOW what they’re doing … Mayor Mullet and Ms B-S of the Dudley Do Nothings publicly lie to our faces, citing the area as suitable.
If Hercules looked over the piles of bullshit around Townsville and was asked to clean it up, he’d retreat immediately to the relative easy task of the Augean stables.
But oh how that term fits our situation, perhaps we should go for a name change to Augeanville.
“Augean stable” most often appears in the phrase “clean the Augean stable,” which usually means “clear away corruption” or “perform a large and unpleasant task that has long called for attention.” Augeas, the mythical king of Elis, kept great stables that held 3,000 oxen and had not been cleaned for thirty years — …
Sounds exactly the situation here.
Long suffering, it would be interesting to know what your mates at the pub think the likely cost of removing or remediating the soil at that site might be. A big remediation job was done a few years ago on perhaps similarly ‘contaminated’ soil nearer to the old railway station where residential and commercial land has now been developed. A decontamination job will need to be done sometime, might as well be now. If the state government can be conned into cleaning up its own (historical) mess so much the better.
Palm weekender, No where near the size and no where near the contamination levels as the railway yards.
I know, was involved ! Still got the shovel !
Jatz, the point I was trying to make is that the site along the western end of Flinders Street is probably perfectly OK geographically or town planning-wise for some sort of high density residential precinct. Leaving aside the ‘heritage’ matter, the otherwise appropriate location comes with some environmental issues which may be large in scale and possibly in complication (I have no idea) but not insurmountable. The technology is improving all the time and the site is languishing. Therefore it becomes a matter of who should/might be induced to contribute to the cost of the remediation and future facilitation and of course the direction of our gaze turns towards higher levels of government. If there is a kind of contest between housing, sport, cultural and industrial infrastructure development then the pragmatic political climate of the day will have some important impacts. We have a stadium, it looks like Lansdown may have a future mapped out (and funded), Hells Gate won’t be happening and so we look at other parts of the social and political landscape to see where the next priority might lie. An inner city environmental/residential makeover combined with cultural development across the creek at the Civic Theatre or nearby makes a lot of sense for a state and federal government, especially with an election year coming up. Sooner or later political parties have to take a punt and show their hand. Townsville might just be nicely positioned in that regard.
That is a comment that reflects really badly on you, Palm … it is sensible, well reasoned, moderate in tone and is free of any glaring grammatical errors, The ‘Pie rates it the best comment on the subject so far.
But by submitting it, you now have nowhere to hide and no possible excuse for the absolute drivel you spout on some other matters, in those cases you REALLY do know better.
Easy Peasy PS. Jenny and her mates will get special dispensation from Puddleduck and the EPA and simply put a layer of roadbase over the contamination and away they go. Similar to what happened at the stadium.
Doubt it.
All this fuss about the Rail Yards and their alleged historical value.
The Adelaide City Council got around that piece of ideological bull dust.
They had a “sacred” building on the ctiies’ main road King William St. which they wanted out of the way, so they circumvented the intellectual knob throttlers, and got them to admit that “the site was not of any historical value per se, only the building” so the ACC had the building (well the facade anyway) put on wheels and relocated as the front piece for a Bank, further down the road, QED.
OK! its not Abu Simbal, but the same result was achieved.
So why not move the whole edifice (by rail) out to The Bole and deal with the so called polluted ground with a few meters of concrete and build something needed useful and an attractive asset?
Or perhaps get another assessment of the alleged contamination by someone independent?
Wherever you moved them, they should still be torn down as derelict and of dubious heritage value.
The difference here, Achilles, is that both state and federal governments may well be in the mood to facilitate the remediation of the site (not necessarily the historical / heritage stuff) so that some sort of public / private partnership can get on with a low-rent housing project – which itself is probably a desirable development. The site cannot be left ‘contaminated’ forever. It is actually quite a straightforward process to carry out the required remediation as has already been demonstrated nearby and at at least one service station site along Charters Towers Road in the last few years. From memory, no actual soil material left either site. It was dug up and the mounds inoculated with some fancy bacterial thing which devoured the undesirable hydrocarbons over a few weeks until the levels were OK. Yes, millions maybe, but not that many millions.
(MAGPIE NOTE: This comment is NOT from The (barely) Civil Engineer, it is from a troll without the wit to think up his own nom de plume.)If we at Wanker Street just took the simple steps of getting out of the way of developers and other smart people who are prepared to invest their money in the city as well as just doing the work mandated to us in the Local Government and Water Acts rather than trying to chase headlines the city would be much better off. The Rotten Mullet jetting off to Malta would be a third good step.
The trouble is, True or False Engineer, TCC has always owned lots of land in the city which, at the time of acquisition, was not ready or available for anyone else – cf Lansdown. The square mile (640 acre) site of JCU was ‘donated’ by TCC back in the 1960s and I seem to remember that Stage1 of what is now Douglas, up against the river at the Nathan Street bridge, was carved out of chinee apple-infested Council-owned scrub in the early 70s as a Council project. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Thank God that they had people in the council with vision in those days compared with the rubbish that we have at present, Townsville would be nothing without Lavarack Barracks and JCU. Landsdown should be renamed Letdown.
OT, before you were old or a tradie, say 50-odd years ago, Townsville council had a shocking reputation in parts. Real estate agents had awful connections to the then Country Party of Joh Bjelke Petersen and Labor had only passing inclusion in local government. It’s quite possible that the stadium, Lansdown and the redeveloped north rail yards will be seen as visionary in 50 years, regardless of who thought of it, who paid for it or who lost some argument about it at the time.
Ouch!
Here’s another story you won’t read in the Townsville Bulletin.
Fox settles Dominion defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million, avoiding trial.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/us/fox-settles-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-for-787-5-million-avoiding-trial/ar-AA1a1jl6
And it ain’t over yet … another voting machine company which had already filed a similar suit is angling for a multi-million payout, and given Dominion got as part of the settlement not the cash but also a Fox statement that Fox admitted wrong doing. Of course, this will do nothing but strengthen the gap in synapses of the MAGA crowd – court cases can’t cure cults.
Koolaid cures cults.
If you want to see a sad example of the future of journalism, watch the last episode of The Insiders.the panel was 2 women from various news outlets and a bloke from The Age. All journalists. The bloke just slouched on the couch and stared at his phone the whole time. When Speers directed a question to him he looked up surprised and said “ Huh……what…” and then went on an unrelated rant about the coalition.
That program, a few years ago with Cassidy, was a Sunday morning must watch (making allowances for the then subtle leftish bias). Now, under Speers and the FRW weirdos from Murdoch they get on, it is like a gender confused luvvie, and doesn’t know whether its Insiders or Outsiders. Prefer watching the golf round-up instead nowadays.
I’m curious as to how much work has AECOM done for Council over the past few years and if so how much have they been paid? Have they donated money to Hill’s previous Mayoral campaigns? Have they donated money to the ALP over recent years? It would be interesting to sift the wheat from the chaff with this mob. I’m not saying anybody has done anything untoward, but sometimes that sort of information as mentioned above can paint a picture of whether consultants/contractors are prone to doing exactly what somebody in office wants, rather than following due diligence and governance guidelines.
The Magpie had retained a document from two or three years ago that stated the council’s favoured site was Dean Park and a feasibility study was underway. Still looking for the document, which was in fact published in the blog at the time, but due to a computer glitch (loose nut on the keyboard probably) can’t find, still looking. It’s very interesting.
Old mate Mangrove Jack found it for The ‘Pie. Here it is … what a monument to the wasted time and insidious nasty politicking by a tin-point regional little local government Hitler. Disgusting … and of course, down the bottom you’ll note a familiar hand in the ratepayers pocket. Last updated 2020, and be sitting down when you look at the estimated costs.
From memory wasn’t this project part of the City Deal funding between the 3 levels of government.
By memory, yes, but there’s been so much back room shape shifting, deals and nasty politicking, that The ‘Pie has lost track completely.
@ Prince Rollmop if you do a search of AECOM on the TCC website, it brings up a fair bit of info on various contracts and tenders they have been involved in. It’s fair to say that have had a bloody good feed out of the ratepayers of Townsville.
Magpie, in all the hoo haa about a possible ‘performing arts centre’ and its location, I’m wondering about who is going to pay for this thing. A commenter has said there was a deal done between Mayor Mullet and others and the ALP [state] government at the time [that] Townsville gets the Stadium and Cairns gets the upgrade and expansion of the existing Convention Centre. But wasn’t there also a ‘deal’ that the federal government would make some significant contribution – possibly tied to a particular site or a particular budget source? And anyway, the federal government has changed. And a federal contribution around the Hive development is or is not connected to office space, or was. In other words, since TCC will not be going alone on a performing arts centre, are we back at square one with no project funding and therefore no project – and is the current ‘consultation’ (ha ha) more about manoeuvring around potential funding sources?
Yet another one of the mayor’s chaos balls.
Palm, as I understand it the Performing Arts Centre will be funded by the $100 million left over from the State Government’s ridiculous refusal to accept Federal Govt funding for the pipeline, leaving ratepayers to pick up a $70 million bill. $2 million of that has disappeared somewhere because the council is now saying they have $98 million to play with.
Murky waters indeed but that’s what you get when a mayor manages to convince the local media that everything is commercial in confidence.
And where is Phil Thompson on this? He got the funding in the first place so does he now have no say at all in where it goes?
Also note that there has been no denial from AECOM about the Civic Theatre site not even being considered in their expensive study on where the new performing arts centre should be built.
The stench is overpowering.
Performer,
Can’t say I have seen that connection made before. The ex-Haughton2 pipeline money once held (as it were) by Phillip Thompson, was partly spent on a number of projects including the demolition of the GBRMPA buildings and was said to be earmarked for a new building in the same place or nearby (at the Hive?) plus some contribution to a new ferry terminal and hotel complex at the very end of the Strand. Maybe a lot of hopefuls were lining up for a piece of that pie and maybe an arts/cultural complex is still in the running. That doc that the Magpie has just re-discovered mentions a figure of $315 million. Can’t see that falling out of the next federal budget and I doubt PThompson Esq still has $100m in his Herbert kitty.
Palm Sunday the connection of the Concert Hall funding to the $195 mil Phil Thompson secured funding is there in the public domain . Queensland State Governmemt rejected it over gst and continual political delays Phil organized $55 mil to go to Reef HQ + RFDS leaving $140 mil . City Deal requires all 3 levels of Government to sign off . Correct me if I’m wrong but Concert Hall funding comes out of the $140 mil .
Minus a couple or four million for any new shelter sheds on castle Hill, if the mayor was an announcement of another world class tourist attraction.
Mike, pretty sure the $195m was not to be mistaken for CityDeal money. It was in a separate category where it may or may not still reside. I don’t imagine the member for herbert has much say over to now.
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressrel%2F8198692%22;src1=sm1
The Concert Hall is absolutely funded from the left over money from the $195 million Haughton Pipeline funding thanks to the Member for Herbert.
However, with a change of government Labor and Jenny Hill will be throwing their weight around with this project even though the Mayor never wanted this concert hall and wanted the funds for her pet project Landsdown. Hence, the back and forth over the $195m over the last couple of years.
GST Sham, sorry to carry on about this but the September 2021 media release you linked to contained the following sentence:
““Of the $124 million in Commonwealth funding that remains to be reallocated [from the $195m Haughton2 budget], it is the mutual intention of the parties that an amount of $100 million will be committed to the Concert Hall, subject to the outcomes of the business case being satisfactory to all parties.”
That was 19 months and a federal election ago. There is a new government with some different priorities. It is extremely unlikely that there is $100-124m sitting in some obsolete budget awaiting a business case – unless that is what AECOM is currently preparing.
Mr Pie, the document your looking for could be the one in the May 2nd 2021 edition of the Nest.
cheers
mangrove mate, where the hell ya been? And yes, thanks, got it.
Vale Fr Bob Maguire – a long time thorn in the side of the Catholic hierarchy. The man’s only fault appears to be that he was a Collingwood supporter.
I see Phil Thompson was back handing out flags at the Council’s citizenship ceremony.
Where did you see this?
His Facebook page.
Mummy must have given him permission. He has no balls. If he could think for himself he would have handed out flags last time instead of listening to Jenny.
No balls, eh? You seen overseas service and faced a real enemy, Corny?
Surely Garry Ablett Snr. can’t be serious regarding his law suit against Geelong, claiming brain damage from playing footy.
Any damage if any would have been nothing compared to the extensive period after retirement (maybe before) of using cocktails of brain pickling illegal drugs in such quantities that they actually killed a female companion. Also probably melted his bank account too!!
Of course the courageous legal team he’s hired won’t give a dam, win or lose, their bill is current and due.
He is a burned out bum. A desperate junkie looking for quick and easy cash. What a sad way to go about it, suing those who paid his wages. Pathetic
Are the symptoms of brain damage from repeated concussions and that from substance abuse indistinguishable?
With footy players of any code, it is very difficult to tell, since even before they started playing, most started out with a deficit to begin with – especially forwards.
I had a chance to see the images of the Honourable Senator Lidia Thorpe in action. To the people demending an Indigenous Voice in Parliament be very careful what you wish for because this is what one looks like. I hope she gets a big badge saying Honourable Senator when she goes back to work so no one mistakes her for a transvestite hooker which she looks and acts more like. When she was yelling about small penises I wondered whether she was saying she had one or wanted one.
Albo Right, Crikey Wrong
The most succinct and measured comment of the week comes from PM Albanese – and the most ill-considered question comes from the Crikey Worm’s editor Emma Elsworthy.
Crikey’s comment ignores two salient factors: Thorpe’s history – including adjudicating on a parliamentary committee about the possible criminal activities while not declaring that she was sleeping with the bikie boss under scrutiny – and just as importantly, the standards Australians can reasonably expect from their elected representatives. ‘Just a few swear words’, which btw were racially motivated, is hardly the required public sentiments of someone who has a hand in shaping the laws of our land. Thorpe definitely needs help to understand her new position in the overall community.
A passing thought and answers from those in the know appreciated….
With companies around the world insisting on drug tests on their employees, are politicians required to go through regulation drug tests ?
Based on the recent after hours activities we’re being given an insight to from this lot, I would think it’s time to say stick ya’ tongue out to them.
… but not to do a Dali Lama on them.
She needs to be thorpedoed out of the Senate, a total disgrace, but hang on, it might give people an insight into the machinations of the Voice, that only appear to favour one side at the moment.
I just want to know who is looking after the trailer while she is out partying!
This short clip really goes to the heart of what many indigenous people actually are themselves – RACIST. Lidia’s father paints a truthful picture of his daughter.
She is a disgusting foul mouthed grub. It’s a crime for the title of ‘Honourable’ to be put before her name. She is just a boozing bikies bitch who somehow became a politician, obviously being a female and (partially) indigenous were the only criteria she needed.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KW5nSGphpNA
Not sure you can use Lidia Thorpe as an example of what most indigenous people are. In the same way you can’t use Malcolm Roberts or former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon as an example of what most white people are like.
The ‘Pie agrees entirely. Using the specific to characterise the general is never helpful and often wrong. It would be like holding up Ducks Nuts and Tropical as indicative of the overall intelligence of Nest commenters.
Well that would certainly be raising the IQ around here significantly.
… says the person who equates neglect and verbal abuse of kids (bad enough) with violent terrorising physical rape of children.
On can be risen above, the other can’t.
Sentinel, I think the Price is right https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLOM9LvAE_U
At the moment we are being told to buy an EV, just say we live in a unit complex of say 50 units, each unit wants an electric car, all get home at 5 o’clock the power demand will be horrendous, it means changing the mains to each unit, replacing the main switchboard and possibly the supply authority sub station, the body corporate funds will get pretty stretched, Blackout Bowen will turn this into a bigger disaster than the NBN another Labor disaster, then we have Bob the Mad Katter wanting ethanol from sugar cane what is the use when all these cars are electric trying to be charged at night time using solar power as Albo told us, Buckle your seat belts.
Not saying it won’t be expensive to do the whole lot but the complex can manage demand across the charging stations to make sure it’s spread out and and not overwhelming. You also could begin with five to ten shared charging stations instead of trying to do the whole lot. There’s no avoiding the switch to electric vehicles so it’s actually good that planning for it is underway.
While Tradie’s point was an extreme example (at least in the near future) The ‘Pie has always questioned the wisdom of the headlong rush on the two horns of the bull of progress – the drive for renewables to replace fossil fuels in a country that contributes buggerall to emissions, and at the same time, the push for electric vehicles, which will put demand for electricity through the roof.
(What? ‘two horns on the bull of progress’??? Forgive The ‘Pie, it’s early and his first foray into the world of words today.)
Charger, heres’ some stats to chew on. Townsville LGA has 84,000 individual residences as of 2021. 68% of these have one or two vehicles and those with no or more vechicles are pretty evenly balanced so we can ignore them. Lets split the difference and say that there are about 59,000 vehicles coming home to roost every day in Townsville. Stats from AGL Energy say it takes 35-50kwh to charge every EV. To be charitable and say they only need the minimum we can add 2million kwh (2,000Mwh) to the daily energy load for this city alone and the bulk of that needed at the afternoon peak period. Daily household consumption of power in Townsville is currently less than 20kwh per day so we need to see a complete upgrade of the network and generation capacity to more than double to see this change happen. That is a lot of wind turbines or solar cells.
That is a microcosm of what is happening around the world. Australia’s virtue signalling rush is the very definition of indecent haste that offers unnecessary hardship to a country fighting economic battles on several fronts. The zealots say we must all suffer the ‘;necessary’ pain, The Magpie bis no climate crisis denier, (when Thailand hits 45C – 113F FFS – hard to argue), but a more measured rather than cynical political responses to mildly hysterical Chicken Little forecasts would be a responsible balance. A more considered phase-out transitionary period would be a more responsible policy.
Australia is hardly rushing.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/world-s-rejected-cars-heading-our-way-if-poor-fuel-standards-remain-20230413-p5d04i.html
Not for some zealots. Good outcome.
Ducks is right – it’s hardly a rush with 6% of new car sales currently being EVs, and is part of a global shift we can’t avoid. It will be gradual and easily managed.
Engineer, two observations. Your calculations don’t seem to consider that thousands of TSV houses have solar panels and batteries and can easily and cheaply recharge their cars off grid.
Secondly, it would be interesting to use the same set of vehicle use assumptions to roughly calculate the current fossil fuel consumption in TSV – to compare assumed use with actual.
Go for gold Sunshine. Show us your maths rather than your dogma. Weekend Wanker this debate needs more than schoolboy rhetoric.
Engineer, don’t be so sensitive. I’m merely asking to compare an assumed 35kwh average to recharge an EV with some sort of average daily purchase of petrol to ‘recharge’ an average car. Using your set of assumptions, which I’m not questioning, what would you think is a reasonable assumed daily use of petrol/diesel by one of those 59,000 cars on the road in Townsville?
Not being sensitive Wanker, just not going to do your homework. If you want to play in the big sandpit try to keep up.
Christ Magpie, you reckon you can pick ‘em. Is this one the barely, the civil or some FIFO engineer?
Australia will need to invest in many, many more charging stations before I get tempted to switch to an EV.
https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/driving-interstate-in-an-electric-vehicle/
We should be pissed off more by the fact that the Qld Govt will be effectively giving China a $6,000 tariff reduction for each vehicle as the VAST majority that qualify will be built there.
Pollies are just too stupid to think this through. Musk will drop the price of the base Tesla – built in China -to qualify. It’s currently $62k. No infrastructure available to keep them on the road. Anyone seen a public, working, charger in TSV?
Correction … EVs up to $68k qualify. The Gold Coast retirement brigade will fill their garages with Tesla Model 3s. They won’t actually drive them anywhere so the carbon savings will be minuscule, but Chinese hardware partly funded by us, Qld taxpayers. As if we didn’t have enough debt to pay off with the olympics.
That is a deeply stupid comment.
They do exist but you know you can charge at home right?
Do not use real names as monikers, please. This nme was altered by The Magpie who added the not.
NEWSFLASH:
SMH reporting Lachlan Murdoch has dropped defamation action against Crikey.
If confirmed, a great win for fearless journalism.
IT’S CONFIRMED. YOU BEAUT.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/21/lachlan-murdoch-drops-defamation-proceedings-against-independent-australian-publisher-crikey?CMP=share_btn_tw
But Lachy sees it as a noble gesture and good business sense although “I would’ve still won’.
From the Guardian story.
Murdoch said he is confident he would have won but he “does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits”.
Pull the other one,Lachy, it yodels.
AND THE MAGPIE EATS HUMBLE PIE (no relation) … and acknowledges that Tropical was right all along.
What’s the go with Lachlan Murcock’s life jacket he is wearing? He looks like he has come straight out of the Mork and Mindy film set!!
Just a precaution should he meet James Packer in the street.
Good to see our home city get a mention on Crikey ????????https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/04/21/spectator-australia-right-wing-media-far-right-white-supremacist-neo-nazi/
Bet Tropical know this bloke … oh, hang on a sec, maybe he … nah, couldn’t be, could it?
Barely Civil comes up with some real figures (scary ones at that) and Ducks Nuts comes up with shit . . . . .again.
Sometimes you just have to just shake your head at the verbal babbling.
Apparently Elon Musk’s SpaceX gigantic rocket didn’t explode after takeoff this morning….rather it “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly”.
I am working on a chip that can be implanted in the brain to give sad cases like you a sense of humor.
Central Land Council has called out Jacinta Price. These are fighting words as these people rarely venture into issues of national politics and are much more focused on their communities.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-21/central-land-council-condemns-jacinta-price-in-joint-statement/102250660
No surprises there.
Exactly. Jacinta has a documented history of making up stories, being opportunistic to the detriment of the people she says she represents and bailing when she gets called out. Her role as a shadow minister will be interesting.
What do you mean ‘exactly’? The bio is simply that, and there does not appear to be any fabrication there. And your inference is no one else in this debate – especially your hallowed Yes pushers – don’t avoid questions. Which is a laugh in itself..
Ducky – that’s fucking nonsense. The CLC has issued ten national press releases already this year. It is a highly politicised body – just like you, Comrade
And they know they’ll have membership of the Voice … nothing like a seat at the table to light up the eyes, eh?
A seat at the table how presumptuous of them don’t they know their place?!
At the moment, the CABINET table, to make the full reference clear, only has elected representatives sitting around it. Known as democracy.
And none are chosen on a racial basis per se.
But your Ok with that, eh? So will you be calling for the same ‘seat at the table’ based on ethnicity for, say, Italians, Chinese, and/or the Irish? Their representatives elected amongst themselves, with the general population having no say?
Yes there’s nothing wrong with giving First Nations a mechanism to make representations to cabinet.
So you say … but how do you know, all the rules will be made up after the referendum? And why in particular is it, as you apparently think, deserved? Again, you sum up the problem. Why vote for a small minority group, unelected by the general public, the membership of which is determined by race and closed off to those who are not indigenous, whose ambitions have already been flagged as going well beyond having the occasional chat with the cabinet, a privilege no other group is afforded? What is the rationale for your anodyne bleat ‘there’s nothing wrong with’?
You are clearly a self-interested party in this. Either that or you’re an uncaring idiot about your own country. The Voice under the present circumstances is divisive, it is racist, it will without a shadow of doubt just by its very existence foment racial unrest, up to and including violence – by both sides – and has been designed by an untrustworthy resentful inner urban academic elite for mischievous intent of the highest order.
It is just simply wrong and will end badly for the whole country.
The rules set up after the election will be simple and unexciting, and you’ll wonder why you ever made a fuss about them. The Voice is deserved because of the unique status of Indigenous Australians. Far from being a position of privilege, it will bring them from a marginalised position to a more equal one.
It will do nothing of the sort, and btw, how the hell do you know the outcome will be simple and unexciting …. isn’t the outcome to be debated and decided at a later date?
You’re full of it, BCC.
I believe specific members will have an opportunity to hold representative positions. Elected by the aboriginal community. So the CLC as a whole won’t have a seat. And it won’t be a seat at the cabinet tale. Just a seat on a consultative committee.
Are you jealous Magpie? Would you like a seat?
Oh, sweetie, it is so charming how your childish innocence makes us smile indulgently, little one. It is so cute to hear a little one ask such innocent questions, and it’s good that you do, because even if the questions might seem silly, seeking answers from people who know a little more about the big old real world than you can help you grow up and understand things. Let uncle ‘Pie explain a couple of things to you.
‘Seat at the table’ is how we grown ups say someone will be able to discuss an issue with other involved people. It not a real table, you little silly, just a figure of speech. And a ‘seat at the table’ can give someone an unfair voice over others who aren’t allowed at the ‘table’, despite having equal claim to equal treatment. That’s because they’re not the right colour.
And you cheeky little monkey, you want to know (really so sweet of you to ask) is Uncle ‘Pie jealous he hasn’t got a seat at the table? No, dearie, he doesn’t want one, he, like every other Australian, already has one. They are people elected by the community to represent their interests … it happens at something called an election when
everyone
who are Australians vote for candidates. That’s the fair system we’ve come up with over the years, and it works pretty well.
So no, The Magpie isn’t jealous, but he is teensyweensy bit stroppy – and on your behalf too – that he wouldn’t be allowed at the table as an unelected person because he is – possibly unlike you, my dusky little cherub – he is WHITE. That’s something we call racism, and it a very naughty thing that shouldn’t be allowed. Understand now?
Ducky, your desperate juvenile witterings are becoming embarrassing, you poor loon.
Grumpy on average the CLC release 20 media releases per year. In comparison to say, TEL, who release on average 65 media releases per year, I’d say the CLC rarely venture into politics.
Pointless comparison.
Yes. It is pointless. TEL doesn’t face issues of intersectionality.
… and therefore, no comparison to be made … so … pointless. Thank you for confirming.
Ah, yes, and as for intersectionality, The ‘Pie remains completely indignant about all those transgender black women with disabilities which intersectionality completely shuts out of the luxury yacht market.
Your obtuse interpretation of everything is petty.
Is that best you’ve got? Really? That’s it? But it is petty representative of the reply you folks give to anyone who has the temerity to ask questions about the ramification of what they are being asked to vote for.
We obviously have a different interpretation of what “rarely” means. A press release every three weeks or so to me suggests some frequency.
I think we’ve already established its not on the same frequency of some rather more useless organisations.
In the debate about EVs nobody seems to want to mention that EV owners are getting free fuel/power compliments of the taxpayer.
Yes, that’s right, they don’t pay for the power they are using to charge their car.
Had a blue with a bloke in my North Ward apartment’s parking area this week about him using power paid for by the body corporate (ie all the other residents) to charge his car.
I suggested he should be paying for it himself, but he was adamant. “I get it free everywhere else so why should I pay for it here,” he said.
Apparently EV cars come with a Free Fuel For Life guarantee
If we start getting power blackouts there are going to be a lot of cranky locals who don’t drive EVs.
Which raises a question The ‘Pie hasn’t got around to sking but has often wondered about. Nothing is free, as you say PR, but what is the actual Qld $ cost for the amount of power it takes to charge an EV? Anyone know.
From the net
An electric vehicle’s fuel efficiency can be measured in kilowatt-hours per 100 miles. For example, if electricity costs 10.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, charging a 200-mile range 54-kWh battery would cost about $6
Our rate is about 23c per KWH, maths anyone?
most EV chargers require a credit card to activate and costs are around 30 cents per kWh
Thank you.
The Electric Vehicle Council estimates that the average cost of fuel for an internal-combustion engine vehicle is $1.50 per litre, compared to electric cars, which cost the equivalent of 0.33c per litre.
With the average Australian driving 15,000km per year, this equates to a cost of $0.14 per km for petrol cars and 0.04c per km for EVs (or an electric car cost per 100km of $4).
For those with solar panels at home who are able to store their own electricity, the real cost of powering an EV can effectively come down to zero.
That still doesn’t answer a pretty clear question.
And please note previous Magpie comment about your pseudonym.
Not all EV chargers are free. And EV cars do not come with a free fuel for life, old mate in your apartment block is winding you up.
https://electricvehiclehub.com.au/information-centre/who-pays-for-public-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/
https://www.choice.com.au/transport/cars/eco-friendly/articles/charging-electric-cars
Power Ranger, from my fairly limited understanding of most Body Corp rules, old mate using common property power to charge his car is not only illegal, its bloody disrespectful to every owner in the complex who pay annual BC fees.
BC power outlets are for cleaning etc of common areas ie car parking.
This bloke needs a good kick in the landing gear and a sharply worded letter from BC reminding him that his usage contrevenes the BC rules regardless of wether he’s a lot owner or a renting tenant.
I’d wait until he got home, hooked up his car to BC power then go down 10 minutes later and unhook it. But then, I can be a bit of a bastard sometimes !!
We now have our 6th fatal police shooting since October. Police shot the man 5 times in the chest when he advanced on them with knives.
The day before police attended the same address because the man was in the street with a weapon. That time he was disarmed, and taken away.
He is said to have substance abuse and mental health issues.
This appears to have been avoidable. Why was he not taken to a secure mental health facility for assessment and held until he was treated appropriately. He was obviously a danger to himself and others.
https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/news/2023/04/21/police-shooting-kirwan/
Good question, which will be answered in due course i.e months if not years, because the Police’s police are on it, as the last line of the release says.
Circumstances surrounding the incident will be investigated by the Ethical Standards Command on behalf of the State Coroner, and the investigation is subject to oversight by the Crime and Corruption Commission.
And another army veteran.
At least this time the police had their body cam on. But this doesn’t help the bloke who was shot. We have systemic failure of our health, mental health and social services. They just aren’t adequately supporting those who need it.
When a threat presents itself you aim at the largest part, i.e. the body mass, otherwise you may end up as the victim.
The cops did their job, well done
If thems the rules, slight variation if its a politician, you’d aim at the head.
But yes, the cops do their job and suddenly they’re the baddies. Not around this Nest.
However, from what we’ve been told, this was a classic SBC … suicide by cop, a coward’s way out.
How fucking dare you say that suicide in any form is a cowards way out. When people suicide they usually choose that because they believe they have np other options left in life. This guy clearly needed help he didn’t get it.
And now those other humans – the police officers – whom he forced into shooting him will clearly need help. They didn’t sign up to be manoeuvred into the role of executioner. The Magpie makes no comment on suicide in general … very much an attitude of your life, your choice … and certainly drug abuse and depression need urgent attention, but to deliberately involve others – strangers – to do what you’re not willing to do yourself IS cowardly, no matter what your state of mind.
And as usual, your reading comprehension is lacking or deliberately insulting … nowhere did The Magpie ever make a blanket statement that suicide is a coward’s way out, it is not The ‘Pie’s view and never has been. Just in the above scenario.
Dear ‘Pie,
If he was a combat veteran please do not judge the vet too soon. And yes, the police did a good job. They, the police, and everybody else for that matter deserve to go home at the end of the working day in good health. Remember 12th June 1996.
Understand what you’re trying to say, Dave, but someone, anyone, who commits suicide by cop is being selfish and cowardly because they leave behind traumas and psychological upheavals for others. Others who are unconnected with whatever their problem is. Coppers are actual people behind their uniforms and guns, and unless screening has failed, they are not eager to become executioners for any reason.