Not that Magnis or the Bulletin are calling it that : it’s now ’a sort of two stage project’, to use the exact words of the Magnis Chairman. This new first stage is a small assembly plant, packaging products imported from New York – which itself is at least nine months away from producing anything. The proposed $3billion Lansdown factory will happen after this new stage is operating. When you read all about it here, you’ll realise Townsville is rivalling the Rockhampton Beef Week for producing piles of noisome dung. The Magpie digs in with his trusty shovel.
As a side light in ignoring the real story, the Astonisher makes its biggest blooper for the year – so far.
Is Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan close to a break down? You’d think so by his extraordinary outburst towards a Townsville newsman during the week.
PM Smirko Morrison has had a stroke – of luck. Changing attitudes on a vital issue could be pointing to an early election.
Judges behaving badly. It isn’t only prize goof Sal Vasta who is making a joke of our judicial system. Now we have the unbelievable tale of a custody case in which the another judge took seven years to hand down – and then didn’t explain her reasons – seven years is more than half the lifetime of the two children involved.
And The ‘Pie pens a reply to a secret admirer who has been pestering him with letters demanding his attention.
Plus the latest gallery from the American Circus.
But first, time for a stiff breakfast scotch and an Iced VoVo, here’s an ad break …
A reminder that your support is sorely needed to help keep The Nest going. The ‘Pie expects nothing for the time – about 50 hours – he chooses to put into this weekly effort, but he is, as Roger Miller so famously said ‘a man of means by no means’, and Telstra, Optus, NBN, various registrations (Domain Name this week) and operating requirements keep demanding their due. If you think this alternative voice for the city is worthwhile – and worth a smile – your support will help make the task easier. The Donate button is included at the end of the blog. The Magpie sincerely thanks those who have already shown their support. Thanks.
Now onward
Turns Out We’re Not All Jabseekers
There’s been some unexpected twists and turns in an issue which is likely to decide whether we are to have an early election.
While the media is having a meltdown about the vaccine rollout – something not all that many Aussies are fussed about outside the mincing politically-motivated members of various ICE (Inner City Elites) groups – it seems our PM has had a stroke of luck, with many of the population baulking at arming up. This tends to deflect away from the rollout cock-up, and downgrade the matter as a potential campaign issue.
This reluctance – dubbed vaccine hesitancy – has been fuelled greatly by media over-emphasis and under-explanation of the minuscule blood clotting incidents which could possibly be linked to one of the vaccines. One has to wonder why this blood clotting hasn’t been an issue with say, the flu jab. Statistically, probably the same or even more so, although that is pure conjecture on The ‘Pie’s behalf.
But these folk are concerned about the rush to formulate a vaccine and most appear to want to wait until all side effects and risks have been revealed and corrected. It would be very unfair to compare them with the latter day flat-earthers, the anti-vaxxers. These folk echo the anti-medical doctrines of dingbat scammers like Scientology, and largely rejects all medical intervention let alone prevention.
Bentley is a strident mood about thee anti-social tossers.
Re-shoeing the unicorn!
The shape shifting proposed battery factory at the proposed Lansdown Eco Precinct looks further from realisation this week, on two fronts.
According to the Bulletin during the week, the project … initially touted as a $3billion dollar project employing 2500 workers – has been scaled back to a never-before-mentioned importing and assembly project employing maybe 100 people.
Frank Poullas, Magnis chairman
And even that won’t be at the Lansdown precinct, according to Magnis technology chairman Frank Poullas, it will be at ‘an existing building at one of Townsville’s existing industrial sites.’ This is a dramatic down-grading of this greatly ballyhooed project, which Jenny Hill used as one of her several vote-winning myths.
Not that you’d know this from the story in the Bulletin, which began and ended with the standard ‘rainbows out of your arse, nearly-there’ fairy-floss, and this major swerve was more a throwaway in the middle of the yarn. And even then, the language from the Sydney-based Poullas was less than convincing.
“Speaking on behalf of international venture Imperium3 Townsville who were driving the project, Magnis Energy Technology chairman Frank Poullas said they planned to establish a battery assembly plant at one of Townsville’s existing industrial sites. Receiving batteries produced by their New York factory (which opens in nine months), the Townsville plant would employ 100 workers who would assemble the batteries with software into a battery pack before selling them throughout Australia.
“We’re looking at it being sort of like a two stage process, one getting into production with assembling these battery packs in Townsville, and then concurrently going developing our project in Lansdowne that will produce these lithium ion batteries down the track,” Dr Poullas said.
“We’re looking at how can we get into production as soon as possible and start creating jobs in Townsville as quick as possible.”
He said they were working closely with the Queensland Government, Townsville City Council and a number of private enterprises towards securing enough battery sales contracts
“We’ve got major interest from financiers, and we’ve had chats with the top four banks – there’s a lot of interest there,” he said.”
If ever anything sounded like hokum from a huckster being made on the run when caught off-guard by a reporter’s call, this would be a text book example. ‘…being sort of like’ and ‘… down the track’ is language which would get a knuckle rap in high school English class (do they still have them?) And ‘major interest from financiers’ and ‘…chats with the top four banks – there’s a lot of interest there’. The vaguery is a pea-souper. Putting aside the ironic unintended joke about banks and interest, it’s been what, 4 -5 years now, (and two council elections) that this twaddle has been peddled around the business world, so we’re asked to believe in a different sort of ‘long term interest’. And although the Astonisher is eager to paint him as some sort of industrial Caped Crusader saving Townsville, you can take it from The Magpie, Frank Poullas has exactly ZERO interest in creating jobs in Townsville, his only interest – quite rightly – is the bottom line of his 30 cents a share company. The fortunes of which right now seems to be some what lower than the bottom of Mariana Trench.
But full points to the Bulletin’s cheery outlook aimed at lifting our spirits. This is how they greeted the news that the 2500 promised manufacturing jobs had suddenly become 100 for unskilled assembly line workers of an imported product.
Poullas has also admitted that this great steaming load of insulting crap is a ‘build it and they will come’ leap of faith, because rather than secure customers BEFORE making such a racket about this racket, he is ONLY NOW seeking them.
And a final kicker – if it doesn’t come about, it will be our fault. Quote: He said they were working closely with the Queensland government, Townsville City Council and a number of private enterprises towards securing enough battery sales contracts.’
Enough to justify your boast of a $3 billion project? Wouldn’t you normally get that interest BEFORE whacking on about anything.
So if TCC, the Qld Government and local businesses don’t pony up for take-off contracts, the whole thing folds – and we will be to blame. This interpretation is confirmed by the pathetic little free kick ad at the end from the Bulletin article.
BUT Look Closely At That Email Address – Classic Townsville Bulletin.
IT’S THE WRONG DUCKING EMAIL ADDRESS!! It isn’t MagNUS it’s MagNIS.
But despite that cock-up, reporter Leighton Smith was so affronted by The Magpie’s ‘scorn’, he sent in this hilarious refutation to the blog.
Leighton
May 19, 2021 at 1:23 pm (Edit)
The 100 jobs at the assembly plant would be in addition to the 2000 promised for the battery factory. Apparently the “ad” worked with “major players” making contact about the project. You can all try and talk it down but a project that could hire four times the number of workers that were laid off by QNI is hardly deserving of this scorn.
NB Around 800 people were laid off at QNI, so your Bulletin maths would have 3200 jobs at the battery factory, eh?
Hmmm, so let’s see. A story appears in a small circulation regional newspaper in north Queensland about the substantial changes to the battery project, and around noon that very day, ‘major players’ had made contact with Magnis about the project, despite the wrong email address. Just getting us to believe that ‘major players’ read the Astonisher is pulling the leg to point of disjointing it, so The ‘Pie contacted reporter Smith directly, who said they must’ve contacted Mr Poullas by googling the correct address. Hmmm, OK, but how do you know people contacted Magnis because of the article? Mr Smith said ‘Frank Poullas told me, and he has no reason to lie to me.’
Well, silly old ‘Pie, wasn’t thinking straight, of course the chairman of a highly speculative 30-cents-a-share company would have absolutely NO reason to lie to a reporter. And that’s just the sort of corporation in which ‘major players’ are queuing up to ‘express interest.’
As for Mr Smith’s virtue-signalling puffery about talking down the project, The ‘Pie posted this in comments.
The ‘Pie is not ‘talking down’ a project that ‘could’ hire all those workers, he would love to see such a positive development come to Townsville – he is talking down the hidden agendas of grifters and self-centred politicians seeking a benefit for themselves out of flimsy, unsubstantiated and very-light-on-detail projects that on all available evidence have fuck-all chance of. That’s kinda what reporters do … or are supposed to, but your journalistic curiosity apparently has short boundaries, seems you get to a point where you just say ‘Ah, fukkit, that’s good enough for a story’. For instance, you allowed Jenny Hill to give her stock standard booster-waffle that said precisely nothing new and nothing about this sudden new development. Why didn’t you ask for any specifics which may be of interests to your readers, e.g. how long have you known about this two-stage idea, did you know this massive downgrading when you tried to bullying the Feds into giving you $50M towards Lansdown? Perhaps you might have asked her where was the assembly plant likely to be – Webb’s Bohle precinct or perhaps even the SDA near the Port – and what would the jobs actually entail, what skills will be sought for the 100 lucky ones? What is the council doing to facilitate this new venture? Even if, as is almost certain, Jenny declined to go into specifics, that worth a line ‘The Mayor declined to go into specifics.’
You must get some brownie points for digging up the fact of the now ‘two stage development’ but you clearly didn’t know the story you had got. Leighton, if you were a miner, you’d throw away the gold and keep the rocks.
Here’s a bit of uninvited advice, mate, which you might like to share with your battery hen colleagues. The sage words were from a Fleet Street chief of staff: ‘DOUBT EVERYTHING YOU HEAR OR READ – THEN GO OUT AND TRY TO PROVE YOURSELF WRONG.
Is Our Emergency Minister Having A Personal Emergency?
Bizzaro!!
Calling someone the Minister For Emergency Services has the same doom-laden ring to it as calling Jenny Hill Townsville Disaster Coordinator, but doubling up on that irony is that Mark Ryan is also the Police Minister.
And you’d kinda like someone with those titles and power to be … well, sorta mentally acute, you know, have the kangaroos in the top paddock watered, fed and docile. Compos mentis. So even if this is Queensland, a few folks were alarmed when Ryan, in town for a media moment about drones for the SES, was heading for a media conference where he knew (sharp lad) that crime might be on the journalists agenda as well his wonderful largesse for the SES.
He suddenly peeled off while heading for the presser, and approached an ABC cameraman, who had been busy being – well, an ABC cameraman. And this exchange, according to the Bulletin, took place.
“You seem to be wanting to film me all the time.”
“I was just getting shots of you at the parade and all that stuff,” the cameraman responded.
“Oh well even just then, you know like it’s almost getting a bit creepy.
“I might have to get a restraining order out hey.”
Unexplained, unhinged, unbelievable.
But Mr Ryan is a tad selective in his humours, he seemed happy enough for a photographer to take this snap (Quiz: Can you spot the two drones in this picture? Clue: the bloke on the right isn’t one of them.)
So now we have a minister of state who flies to Townsville for some publicity, and then tells a cameraman he is creepy and might face a restraining order for filming him. This is on top of a mayor who threatens to ‘cut’ anybody who opposes a pet project, and an MP who is a barroom brawler.
Happy days, Townsville
Judges Are People, So The Question Now Is … What’s Wrong With These Bloody People?
We are well used to that old staple page filler, the Horror Ruling Of An American Court, especially the three strikes and your out rule which has seen people get 20 years in jail for stealing a pencil. Or the woman in Texas given 5 years for voting illegally (she didn’t know and wasn’t advised that because she was on probation from jail, she wasn’t allowed to vote. She appealing the 2018 sentence.)
But before we tut-tut those Yanks, smugly thinking never happen here, think again.
Last week, we reported about goof-off judge Sal Vasta being sued by a man he sentence to 12 months jail for failing to provide a document in a divorce matter. But it now has emerged that that wasn’t his only schoolyard bully performance.
This is the full Guardian story. And yet, Sal Vasta remains on the bench protected by self-serving laws EVEN when it has now been revealed that he is a serial offender in this area of judicial bastardy.
But now, he’s not on his own in the judicial naughty corner. During the week, this turned up, as irresponsible as it is as dumb-foundingly stupid as it is cruel.
Full story here. 7 years!!! What happened to the children – both special needs kids – during the most formative years of their lives … disruption, uncertainty, anxiety and depression would all be good bets.
Several states and the Feds are have been called on to create an independent oversight and disciplinary body with powers to remove judges who behave in the manner of these two clearly incompetent judges. And some states are pushing the peas around on the plate while they think about it … in the meantime, will there be people jailed on a whim or left to start their first few years of life deprived of judicial certainty?
A PS To The Above
If states are happy with such oversight bodies being created, how could they argue about not creating one for police disciplinary matters. Police investigating police is one of the most farcical, dangerous and undemocratic practices throughout Australia.
An Open Letter To A Magpie Admirer
To Anthony Douglas – solicitor
Emanate Legal
Townsville branch office
Dear Mr Douglas,
The Magpie had a sudden ‘Sally Field’ moment when he received your most recent hand delivered letter this week. You do remember Ms Field’s famous 1985 Oscar speech ‘“I haven’t had an orthodox career, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. This time I feel it. And I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”
Well, that’s how the old bird felt last Tuesday, I mean, THREE letters in one week !!! Admittedly, the first impression was of stalking and harassment, but with long media experience, The ‘Pie is an expert at reading between the lines. So there is a more than sneaking suspicion that you kind of like the moulting old bird, Mr Douglas – actually may I call you Anthony?
Your enclosures of four of The Magpie’s Nest blogs, all highlights with the bits you were particularly taken with, was indeed a thoughtful gesture, and the courteous and civil tone was a wonderful change from some of the comments I have to edit or delete on the blog. Really, Tony … you don’t mind if I call you Tony, do you? … some of The Nest readers really need some ‘strict discipline’ for their language, especially on subjects like the mayor, or scumbag solicitors like … well, we know who, don’t we, Ton? (You don’t mind if I call you, Ton, do you?) I don’t expect you to talk down your boss to me in a letter on file, but just keep up those private sessions at your BBQ, crooning voodoo spells over a leaden figure you slowly melt in the flames.
The ‘Pie will admit to a little frission, a tingling shiver of expectation when you mentioned ‘punishment’, and the excitement grew when I read that if I didn’t obey your commands and submit to your wishes: quote” we will commence proceedings seeking that you punished’ for contempt of court.’
We? Oh, Ton, I thought it was going to be just you and me and a bottle of Villa Maria Pinot Gris, but hey, OK, the old bird has always been game for a new experience. Are wigs and robes involved?
Anyway, enough of your repressed ardour, the passages you have pointed out will be sent to delete heaven at my earliest opportunity i.e today Sunday (and The ‘Pie must admit he didn’t consider the comments area, back reading of comments of this blog is only ever done by scumbag lawyers looking for business – unsuccessfully as often as not – ask your boss).
Alas, when I do that, I fear our brief tumultuous relationship will also be deleted, but we will both remember the bad times and the glorious moment, eh, Goofy … you don’t mind if I call you Goofy, do you?
Always keep the old bird in your thoughts, rest assured The ‘Pie most certainly will keep you in his.
Your Ever Lovin’ ‘Pie
The American Rehabilitation Continues
Can normalcy return to the USA? It’s going to be a struggle, as the Republicans adopt a ‘move along, nothing to see here’ attitude about the riot and invasion of the Capitol Building on January 6th, and the law closes in on the Mobster President. That is just one of the dominate themes in this week’s gallery, but Joe Biden is getting the odd touch up, too.
Finally …
Even Publishing Houses Make Typos
It seems the Townsville City Library is encouraging young people’s awareness of the sterling work The ‘Pie does with this blog.
Or are they? 
It seems there has been an error by the publishers of this latest book being promoted by the TCC library.
It is actually titled How To Draw And Quarter A Magpie. Forward by Jenny Hill.
……………
That’s yer lot for now, don’t miss out on having your say in comments, where you get a lot of news you won’t get elsewhere, along with a lot of laughs. If your of a mind to materially support The Magpie’s Nest, the donate button is below.
Another great blog Pie . Re Lansdown , Scott Stewart is spruiking 9,000 jobs and the Townsville Bulletin dont think it’s important to ask the question “ can you explain how the 9,000 jobs will be created “ ? . Let’s not forget Lansdown came from the same Mayors business mind that predicted “ financial calamity “ for the City when jobkeeper finished . Did I miss it or is it still coming like most of Mayor Hills promises ? .
As long as Mayor Mullet ios around, financial calamity is always on the cards.
Our saviour premier Anna fullashit has committed to a visit to Mornington island because of the chronic disease that has plagued the island for decades. The call comes after the island “MAYOR” asked for direct help to fix the problems they have. Let’s repeat what I just said and change a couple of things.
Premier Anna fullashit has committed to visit Townsville because of the chronic disease that has plagued the city for decades, CRIME!!! The call comes from “RESIDENTS” asking for direct help to fix the problems they have.
So where the fuck is our mayor??? The one on Mornington island gets a visit after talking about a state issue with health but ours couldn’t be fucked asking about a state issue that’s now killing people as well with crime. Magpie please please let the NO MORE DICK. (NMD) and his deputy secondary name sake “Steve giggles miles of Belgian garden cemetery” there right of reply. I can’t wait for the cut and paste job from no more dick and it’s answer. While we are at it where the fuck is the LNP???? If they were serious they’ed have a preselected candidate in every seat now talking about the crime every day until the bulletin have no choice but to drop labor in this town.
It’s called RIGHT of reply for a reason … that right entails that the reply 1. makes a point of interest to other readers, 2. is legally benign and 3. if The Magpie feels it isn’t too overloaded with bullshit.
Commenters sniping at each other is fine within certain – and one would’ve thought obvious – boundaries, but some (morning Steve, tropical) always go too far to find out how far they can go.
I still can’t wait to see what all 3 of the same person says and how they defend mullet and use the state issue not local council excuse. Maybe mullet needs to go blackface to get the premier here? I mean mullet can fix this crime problem overnight. Remember her story a while back about punishing parents and bringing back corporal punishment. She can add herself in the mix by driving around at night chasing stolen cars in an unmarked black commodore. She’s got a 100% success rate so far
Why the fuck would the LNP be piling resources into this joint, so soon after being resoundingly rejected at the last election. The LNP don’t have any members north of the Burdekin, they can’t be part of the solution, so don’t be part of the problem, stay silent and let the govt dig it’s own grave. The play here is to let the ignorant dickheads of this town suffer with their own stupid decision, let the anger ferment, then go hard in the election year. Every time I see Dale Last on the TV I think to myself what the fuck is he doing, just shut up Dale and spend your days running around visiting your electorate visiting farmers and businesses, CWA meetings and an afternoon snooze, otherwise you look like you are part of the problem, amateurs.
Tell you what, if The Kid chose the right time so as not to be gazumped and came out that if elected there’d be a police chopper in Townsville within his first two months of office, all three labor sorry arses could kiss their cheeks goodbye.
“The play here is to let the ignorant dickheads of this town suffer with their own stupid decision, let the anger ferment, then go hard in the election year. ”
Cantankerous, isn’t that pretty much exactly what happened after the 2017 election? Isn’t it the case that in fact the ignorant dickheads of the state LNP were in such disarray that they couldn’t organise a chook raffle let alone get behind their leadership candidate, what’shername Deb Frecklington?
Wally, let’s repeat what you just said without changing anything. You would like our mayor to invite Premier Palaszczuk to Townsville. Again. One more time. You just can’t get enough of Premier Palaszczuk. You can’t believe the incompetence of the LNP and the Bulletin doesn’t publish enough stuff about crime in Townsville – so, bring back Annastacia. You must be nuts!
Does anyone else understand what the point is here in this comment?
Mr Magpie
Greetings from Bundy. I have been thinking that the case of Mayor Hill involving her car accident has gone very quiet. Are the police still looking for the alcohol test results?
Of course you’re not Barry Taylor, he wouldn’t be seen within cooee of a place like Bundaberg .,.. unless there was a mega quid in it.
They do have a rum distillery you know !
Does anyone know the current status of her case and when and where it is going to be held?
One day hearing (trial) in Brisbane Magistrates Court June 17.
Crits, don’t you have Google? That took literally 20 seconds to look up.
Unlikely to happen
Apparently solicitors will be asking for a stay and two months adjournment. Issues regarding availability of witnesses
We just have to go with what we are told.
The statistics regarding the Astra Zeneca jab are only true if the I’ll effects are reported.
I spoke to someone who had the jab about 3 weeks ago three days ago – they had ended up in ED at the hospital with many of the classic signs of the ill effects. The person told me they had done many tests on him – “did you tell them you’ve had the jab a few weeks ago?” Long silence, ” they didn’t ask….”. They were released with ED scratching their heads over glaringly obvious signs and symptoms – it was a mystery. I told him that they needs to see his GP quickly and tell them to get a second opinion.
Astra zeneca has been suspended in many countries for the same problem. They don’t want to panic people.
Vaccination has always been problematic but it’s RARE for the volume of reactions. ( I know another person hospitalised for WEEKS after getting a flu shot for example) but that doesn’t stop me from getting vaccinated on a regular basis ( I have to go back and get another one soon). As I said the reactions are rare, if someone has had a previous reaction to vaccines the nurse normally sets up an adrenaline shot so it can be given straight away. I myself have never had a reaction , as I said – reactions are RARE and more over mild.
Not all vaccines are equal, the government has obviously put AZ on the backburner and is buying lots of other , safer products.
You seem to know a lot of people … dumb people.
If you define hospitalised people as dumb – that’s your call. I’ll be sure to let them know.
Ah, Guy, so you’re Supermax.
To put into context the pure shit and spin coming from the Mullet and her newspaper, the Bulletin, 100 jobs for this battery plant is less than a Woolworths or Coles supermarket, it’s just more bullshit for the gullible wankers of this town.
And remember, 100 jobs is one sixth of the number sacked by the council in favour of contractors, and one third the number sacked by the Bulletin in favour of dumbing down the news pages.
Hey Magpie. It’s called the Nous Report. You and sorry bunch of acolytes remember that one don’t you. You know….. the one the pissweak Townsville First Councillors shelved and refused to let Ray Burton implement. Granted the impaler implemented it poorly but it WAS a post amalgamation requirement
The Nous report was NOT a post amalgamation requirement. Paring down the council work force was, but it did not have to be done in the callous manner Nous recommended and was eventually implemented, that’s why it was shelved … that doesn’t mean TF weren’t talking about it, but you can bet part of that talk was about leaving until after the next election, ‘so maybe it won’t be our problem’.
Wasn’t the Nous report a creation of a friend of former hatchet girl former CEO Adele Young. Correct me if I’m wrong but all this happened post Townsville First when the Mullet was cut loose without anyone prepared to oversee her actions. The report was used to clear out everyone who had stood up to her and her stupidity.
Good old Labor tactic. When you smell like a rat just aim the blame anywhere but yourself.
No Nous… Pris Ralston, the current CEO at TCC is directly responsible for the Nous Report. He fucking wrote it. I don’t care who hired the useless twat to write it, he wrote it. And now, he has come to TCC as CEO and has started creating jobs for the boys and new departments, which specifically conflict with the recommendations of his stupid report.
Dear Occam’s Comb, the post-amalgamation plan called for a progressive rationalisation based on natural attrition and progressive review of each department. The NOUS report was a cluster-bomb thrown into the organsiation which saw the Impaler institute wholesale gutting of structure and culling of talent without thought to operational sustainability and corporate knowledge was one of the best examples of a bad strategy implemented by bad people for a bad result.
The two councils were quite efficient and provided well for their ratepayers – now we have all this supposed efficiency and we cant even keep the weeds down on the fucking median strips (even the astroturf ones).
Occam’s Very Blunt Razor.. Nous Report 27 October 2016
https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/23193/Organisation-Review-Report.pdf
Ray Burton Resigned in April 2016.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/council-ceo-resigns/news-story/7f5944e06eaf87f49852e1a7e0880923
Ray Burton proposed a very different rationalisation plan that was rejected by senior staff. I don’t know details of it but my understanding is it reduced senior not lower level staff. This is why it was rejected.
Agreed Plannit – Ray Burton was the last of a line of competent and caring TCC CEOs who have been replaced by incompetent psychos more at home running a WWII concentration camp than anything else.
Jenny Hill did her best to shaft because he stood up to various idiocies during his tenure. She ended upo with the S Steggles award for egg-on-face when she referred him down south seeking censure for one matter.
There has been a monumental amount of PR spin/bullshit about the battery plant and I’m very dubious as to whether it will ever proceed in its promised form. I think full transparency from TCC and the consortium involved is needed. However, I will welcome 100 jobs into our city – if they do in fact arrive
Perhaps those 2500 jobs apply to the NY operation (“due to start up in 9 months”)
So we paid 3 million for Magnis to find out the best way to go is to start a packing business in an already existing shed.
You’ve got to hand it to Jenny, when it comes to wasting money she’s a professional.
Perhaps Miniscule Ryan was all uppity because the cameraman is identifying himself as a ‘man’, as in ‘cameraman’. Perhaps that word should be changed to ‘cameraperson’ and the job should go to a female. That way all the politically correct fucktards will be very very happy. Yes indeed I can see why Mr Ryan was so cranky. What a digbat.
What the fuck is a digbat??? I like learning new insults….
A ‘digbat’, according to the Shorter Imprecise Magpie Dickshunary, is a person who spells ‘dingbat’ incorrectly.
The TCC CEO’s Prince Ralston is very quiet in regards to the Handsdown project. Was he even Townsville last week for his 1 day or work? Perhaps he will get an update from Mayor Shrill on Tuesday afternoon when he flies in? It’s amazing how someone can be the CEO yet as quiet as a church mouse when it comes to a major project. Fools.
I read today that for Statistical purposes, Australia counts a ‘one hour per week’ job as employment. If, on Census Day, that ‘one hour per week’ job person says they would like more hours of work, then it goes into an underemployment statistic. Maybe this is how the 9,000 jobs will be created – casual jobs of one hour per week?
Good evening Magpie. In case you and your readers missed it, I just thought I would bring to your attention the Saturday cartoon in the Astonisher. Hiding at the back of the queue of patrons at a Flinders Street venue is our very own Memory Blank Walker. Wearing a cheeky grin he looks like he is rolling up his sleeves to get ready for another stoush. I tried to include a picture / image but had no luck. You- with your superior IT skills may be able to add a picture to your blog.
I wonder why an Americian company would want to establish an American made battery assembly plant in Townsville to sell batteries through out Australia.
A “Made in Oz” sticker perhaps.
Why not get them assembled in Mexico it would be a lot cheaper. Or even made in America using Mexican labour, a lot of them live there.
This entire Lansdown project of our mayor’s desire has a terrible smell about it.
Terry, I thought part of the original plan was to attract that nickel refinery onto the Lansdown site so that a few of the essential components of the batteries would be available next door and there’d be that whole ‘value-adding’ thing happening. I imagine there’s a few hiccups getting the necessary Tanzanian mining operation to start up at the same time (their president’s just died) and quite likely a huge number of environmental hurdles at both Lansdown and the State Development Area so there’s quite a few balls to keep in the air. But also quite a few Canberra and Brisbane dollars floating about. Serious roadworks happening there right now and of course there’s a potential bottomless water supply waiting at the end of the Haughton pipeline.
Hmmm, re Tanzania … that country is now a province of the People’s Republic of China, courtesy of the Belt and Road campaign. And have a guess who is aiming to dominate the ion battery market, and who hates Australia? And who has the government’s ear in Tanzania about just about anything – including mining?
All right I’ll have a guess. Is it TUVALU?
To be honest I always thought the location of the battery plant as weird.
Having a factory closer to town is probably a better bet ( assuming it ever happens?).
Please please please Mr Magpie I beg you not to allow this weeks blog to become the COVID-19 blog. Supermax’s comment will be followed up by the misguided and scaredy-pants fellow supporters who will espouse the vaccines performance ‘during these difficult times’. Fark, COVID discussions are polluting every walk of life, please please no more. There are other issues affecting mankind too.
I am sure the 3.5 Million dead people who drowned in their own mucus will share your distaste.
That is correct.
Not sure if you’ve mention this before Magpie.
But that when Magnis ‘major interest from financiers’ and ‘…chats with the top four banks – it s all crap.
To finance their battery plant in NY they’ve borrowed 50 Million US secured loan at 12.5% interest, which is insane it the current low interest environment.
Shows how desperate they are for funds, and how bad their business cases must be if the can’t get a low interest secured low with any of the major institutions.
Not to also mention in the last month they had a Director ‘resign’ and the whole company survives on continually raising equity on the stock market. As they have no income or profit, which will make it very hard to pay back that US 6.25 million every year.
These guys will be bankrupt in 24 months and never build anything in Townsville.
Your kinda right but overlook that Magnis solely didn’t borrow that $50million, it was the IMP3 consortium of various oily characters, of which Frank Poullis is just one.
The idea that Magnis could raise $50million on the US market is a hell of a stretch, either Magnis is mad, or the market is.
The Townsville Bulletin’s pathetic attempt to paint the battery factory downgrade as a “bonanza” got me thinking of what came first – the ruination of Townsville or the demise of our once great newspaper.
It’s a classic case of “chicken-or-the-egg”, but if you look at the facts, it is the downgrading of the Townsville Bulletin’s reporting staff, combined with a failure to report facts and ask questions, that has seen Townsville go down the gurgler.
A lack of experienced journalists has led to a situation where the current generation of reporters believe the job entails nothing more than publishing press releases.
This, combined with a policy of allowing big advertisers to get away with almost anything, has seen corruption grow to the point where millions of dollars are handed out or spent without any questions being asked.
Sadly, I can’t see that changing in the future. In fact, it’s bound to get worse.
Thanks Unkle Rupert.
Take heart … it actually opens the door to new start-ups combining on-line and limited print runs of new mastheads. There are green shoots of these independents springing up around the place – Scott Morrison’s venture in Ayr and the one in Cairns – Tropic Now is it? – are just two examples.
And The ‘Pie knows a cashed up group are eyeing Townsville very closely.
In Cairns there are two local online newspapers – Tropic Now https://www.tropicnow.com.au/
Cairns Local News https://www.cairnslocalnews.com.au/ Port Douglas has Newsport https://www.newsport.com.au/ and let’s not forget InQueensland News which has a broader geographical base. https://inqld.com.au/ There’s probably more online news publications around.
Bring on more of these publications.
Townsville can’t be too far away. Modern start-up costs, even with an on-line and print version, are nowhere near where they used to be, and there are so many permutations to choose from in the mix. The Magpie has long believed the ideal and -in part – proven model in Townsville is a 24/7 news site (something like the blog, but with staff, where content can be controlled and is FREE) and a once week print run THAT BECOMES A THROW-OVER like the wildly successful previous throw-overs – the stories were brightly but professionally written and the THE ADS WORKED. Unlike the Bulletin. You ask if they were so successful, why did they fold? They didn’t fold, both were bought by News Corpse to stifle competition (typical and openly espoused Murdoch doctrine), one was killed immediately, and the other limped along for a while until it too was killed off. In that case, one of the minor of many reasons was that although it was a weekly, it started to scoop the Bulletin. Journalist Lydia Kelliher broke several stories which enraged the Bulletin management and embarrassed what was then a fairly professional but sometimes complacent troupe of journos.
It would work again, especially with the addition of a 24/7 news and information site on-line. And The ‘Pie’s back-of-the-betting-slip calculations, very quickly be profitable if the right money is behind it.
It’s not just the Bulletin that is a pathetic joke these days, TV news is a disgrace with those lazy reporters wandering down to the Mullets office for a daily dose of worthless shit for the news that night, most of the time nothing to do with local Govt but get her to drivel shit about it anyway, channel seven is just a disgrace. Years ago we had commercial radio and the ABC with local news and events, now nothing but drivel from commercial radio and the ABC radio is just as pathetic these days, so don’t blame it all on the Astonisher, others are just as bad.
The Magpie loves a good headline (The Magpie was first with Not A Nation Of Jabseekers).
So here’s a Magpie Special you saw here first.
Phil Mickelson’s win in this morning’s PGA makes him at 50 the oldest player to win a major .
THE OLD MAN AND THE TEE
If we don’t lift our game very soon, the next wave of Covid has the potential to be devastating. Sporting fixtures and other large gatherings appear to be back to normal, the limits in lifts largely ignored, and last week’s airports IT interruption appeared to be a signal to discard masks. TV footage showed approximately half the travelers wearing them. Just when I thought it was safe to fly!
Never fear – in Victoria public transport users are going to be hit with $200 fines if they don’t wear a mask. I’m sure Nana Anna is looking on and wondering if she can somehow justify the same in Qld.
Work this one out, if you sit down in a Cafe or restaurant and you must register yourself on the Check-In Queensland app but I’m told that if you eat in a food court, you do not have to register on the Check-In Queensland app.
If this is correct, then this system is 100% up the creek.
Looks like the books are closed and no more bets will be taken on Sh*t Towns of Australia awards for 2021.
The facebook pages Sh*t Towns of Australia who publishes a guide to the shittest towns in Australia, from dusty desert shitholes to free-range bogan breeding grounds, to methamphetamine wastelands sees Townsville taking the number 1 spot every week.
Finally Mayor Mullet and our other fine local representatives will get their hands on an award reflecting the true character of the city.
Meanwhile anyone with half a brain is going – “Fuck this shit, I am out of here”.
The ‘Pie usually ignores tedious dross like Shittiest Towns, but the latest entry was actually factual with barely any exaggeration, highlighting the crime and the poonarmi of Wulguru fighting against raw sewage in their backyards.
We’re in the Northern Territory at the moment and everywhere we go there are hordes of tourists from all over Australia.
In Darwin my hotel was booked out for 3 straight weeks and Kakadu is even more popular. We had to pay alomst $300 a night for a motel room, and we booked more than 6 months in advance. The only way you can get a room at short notice is if they get a late cancellation.
A Kakadu tour operator told me today he has never had it so good. He said even the wet season just finished was the busiest in his memory.
As far as covid is concerned, everyone was required to wear a mask on the plane and when passing through Darwin airport (when boarding the Air North flight from Townsville everyone was warned: no mask-no fly.
Then when you arrive at Darwin airport you are put through a rigorous entry procedure. Everyone has to fill out an arrival form, declaring whether they have been in a covid area in the past 14 days along with a string of other covid related questions. Before you collect your bags to have to pass though a barrier manned by rows of officials who check your details. The one who checked me out said if there are any doubts you go into quarantine for 2 weeks.
Same can’t be said for Townsville or Brisbane. On a recent trip south and return there were no forms to fill out, no questions asked, and not a single official to be seen.
At Townsville airport several people were not wearing masks but were not pulled up until they were about to board their flight.
So it appears Townsville has become complacent.
With a bit of luck we won’t get a covid outbreak but it looks like it is going to come down to just that – luck.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that, BUT could you get a taxi home from the airport?
If you have been curious, as The Magpie has, about how crypto-currency works, here’s an easy to understand explanation.
A businessman announced to villagers that he wanted to buy monkeys and would pay $10 for each one.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The businessman bought thousands at $10. As supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The businessman then further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so few that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The businessman now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city for a few days, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.” The villagers rolled up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how the cryptocurrency market works.
The markets are rigged, the whole stinking lot is – shares, metals, crypto, you name it. If the white shoe brigade on Wall Street can fuck you over for a quick buck, they will. Do you remember how many Banksters went to jail in 2008 when the ‘ too big to fail’ Banksters actually failed? Correct, none. And when a bunch of Mums and Dads try shorting the market by targeting one company as they did recently, there is an uproar and the criminal Banksters and Federal Reserve want the rules changed! Ha. You couldn’t make this shit up! The battery con is just that, a con. Nothing beneficial will eventuate for Townsville out of this hocus pocus. Watch this space.
That would be the best analogy.
And in the same territory … this is quite long but well worth contemplation. Is this where crypitical currency leads us? The ‘Pie tends to think so.
The ‘monkey’ story is missing the bit where Elon Musk tweeted that he would allow the monkeys to be used as currencies to allow people to purchase Tesla’s. It drove the value of monkeys to $1,000 each whereby he then sold off his monkey stocks. Afterwards he tweeted Tesla’s could no longer be used as currency because African monkeys he deemed were ‘conflict monkeys’. The value plummeted to 0.01c a monkey whereby he purchased 4,000,000,0000,000,000 monkeys before once again tweeting monkeys were ok as currency to purchase Tesla’s ……..
In a couple words, a Ponzi variation.
Alan Kohler was very insightful in the New Daily this morning.
While we’re in this territory, here’s something worth contemplating … it’s a bit long, a bit scary, and it is where cryptical currency leads.
A cashless society means no cash. Zero.
It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘wee bit of cash here and there’.
Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled.
I think those who support a cashless society aren’t fully aware of what they are asking for.
A cashless society means:
No more tuck-away cash for those preparing to leave domestic violence.
No more purchases off marketplace unless you want to risk bank transfer fraud.
No more garage sales.
No more cash slipped into the hands of a child from their grandparent.
No more money in birthday cards.
No more piggy banks or tooth fairy for your child.
No more selling bits and pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash in return.
Less choices of where you purchase based on affordability.
What a cashless society does guarantee:
Banks have full control of every single cent you own.
Every transaction you make is recorded.
All your movements and actions are traceable.
Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which could take weeks, a hundred questions answered and five hundred passwords.
If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.
And before anybody slams this post … don’t go shooting the messenger.!!
I’m sharing it because maybe we all need to take off our blinkers.
Forget about cash being dirty. Cash has been around for a very, very long time and it gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence.
If you are a customer, pay with cash. ✅ If you are a shop owner, remove those ridiculous signs that ask people to pay by card.
Cash is a legal tender, it is our right to pay with cash.
Banks are making it increasingly difficult to lodge cash and that has nothing to do with a virus.
Please stop believing everything you hear on the TV.
Almost every single topic in today’s world is tainted with corruption & hidden agendas.
Politics and greed is what is wrong with the world; not those who are trying to alert you to the reality.
Please pay with cash and please say no to a cashless society while you still have a choice.
You might not be aware Pie, but a while back the government made it illegal for businesses to accept cash payments of greater than $10,000 – thin end of the wedge on the road to cashless society and done in the name of closing tax loopholes (cash in hand jobs avoiding GST).
https://www.austrac.gov.au/business/how-comply-guidance-and-resources/reporting/cash-transactions-over-10000-ttr
Don’t think that is correct …. The ‘Pie’s understanding, and your link, suggest vthat anything over $10,000 must be reported within 10 days … but it can still be transacted.
think this is right. Anyone?
Ah, apologies Pie looks like the bill got caught up in the Senate and is now on hold.
The intention was to ban cash transactions over 10,000 from 1 January 2020.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6418
Sir, that article is worth a subscription to this great blog. Go you
A subscriptions toThe Nest are certainly worth – nothing. It’s free … but under duress, the old bird will accept a voluntary donation. See how on the blog site.
And may I add one point; digital money is exactly that, a digital footprint. It’s not even visible apart from some numbers on a screen. It is ‘thin air’. Printed on nothing and backed by nothing. Paper money, paper bonds, paper gold certificates and digital money, it’s actually all crap and it’s been devalued by fractional banking. It’s all a con.
– If you think that paper receipt that for all that gold of yours sitting in the Perth Mint means you will get your gold if ever there is a run on the mint, keep dreaming.
– If you think those paper (now plastic) notes will be worth anything during a hyperinflation event, well you are correct as it will make great fire starting material.
Solid physical assets like gold and silver (not paper certificates) will be your only likely saviour and bartering chip when the global Ponzi scheme finally collapses, and it will. In the meantime if you invest in agriculture and the correct real estate you may also have something to fall back on.
Says it all.
Bitcoin et all are scams, it has no intrinsic value, bitcoin is really a method of moving drug/ arms/ illegal money in and out of countries without taxes or control being in effect.
Australian currency is backed up by food, minerals, mortgages being bought in Australian dollars one way or the other. A mortgage is normally taken out in Australian dollars – the bank HAS to accept Australian dollars.
More lies and deceit unfolding for Scomo and E. T lookalike Pedro Dutton. The Australian Federal Police have revealed for the first time that Peter Dutton’s office was tipped off about an alleged sexual assault in Parliament House in October, 2019, a date years earlier than previously disclosed.
Keneally is gunning for Dutton and the LNP. The faith healer Scotty from Marketing will have no choice but to go early on the election as the Governments position becomes more unstable every day, the wankers.
All that, then you’re gunna luv this, released by Crikey with much fanfare today. And PROPERLY RESEARCHED AND DOCUMENTED WITHOUT COMMENTS OR ADJECTIVES.
https://www.crikey.com.au/dossier-of-lies-and-falsehoods/
Magpie, you want to know the worst bit? The Australian public are stupid and gullible enough to believe every word this putz has to say about COVID-19. This tosser is a lying imbecile who couldn’t lay straight in a coffin. Lies lies fucking lies. He just makes shit up as he moves along. And he has the nerve to call himself a Christian. What is it with these parasites??
The ‘Pie has generally found that Christians in powerful positions are invariably parasites and leeches.
I doubt Peter Dutton would lose much sleep about Keneally gunning for him. She has failed at everything else she has been connected with.
Edify Energy are building a $100 mil battery plant in south west NSW which will support a $3.2 bil contract by Shell and Edify to power schools , hospitals , and State Government buildings for 10 yrs . Is that the same Edify that were looking at Lansdown ? . Speaking of Lansdown , If the Queensland State Government think the Feds will fund $40 mil for Well camp quarantine facility Toowoomba by supplying 8 pages mostly photos , no budgets or details what chance has our Mayor getting $25 mil with a one colour page brochure from Phil Thompson ? .
Mike, it begs the question; how many pages of words and pictures did Phil O’Herbert hand up the chain in order to score $195 million from the federal government? Surely nothing like this has happened in any other electorate in Australia? I haven’t noticed a clamour for explanation in this forum. Double standards?
Don’t think he actually asked, he was told. Disregard the mouthing of ‘fighting for Townsville’ etc, the member for Herbert has one of the best back room managements in the business, and is killing it bat every turn. The ‘Pie has further proof that Mayor Mullet is almost incandescent with rage at the political success Thompson’s game players have repeatedly pulled on her, especially to the point where the Bulletin seems in two minds (two more than is available to it) about unalloyed lips glueing to the mayoral arse. No way Thompson is politically experienced nor even smart enough to mastermind all this.
But Canberra may undo all the clever work being done on the ground up here if there aren’t any announcements soon about which projects will get the cash. Hope they that in their prick teasing will he or won’t election games they remember the wise words: ‘We always go to far finding out how far we can go.’
I thought Phil O’Herbert was ready to make announcements, but the State government decided to play games and cancelled the meeting at the last moment?
Frankly, I think he should just do it and then dare the treasurer to not support them.
NMD , a bit more understanding on your behalf on the process would be a start . The $195 mil fits into the future cities criteria which means Council / State / Federal sign off . A meeting was planned to finalise the spend but deputy Premier Steven Miles pulled out last minute so its the State Government holding up the process . Of course Mayor Hill , who attended the PM,s morning tea but left early due to previous commitments ? had a opportunity to talk to the PM or delegate to her deputy or Prins but didnt so more lost opportunities for the City . Lets not forget the $195 mil wasnt wanted for the State Government but at least Phil Thompson secured it .
So tweedle dee and tweedle dumber, Young and Palaszczuk, have both quickly had their vaccinations (publicly of course), and no doubt in response to getting outed for not having their ‘very urgent and important shots’. This panicked move is all because of the exposing of their hypocrisy. I mean, they did say they were waiting until the end of the year to get their shots, so why the change? Absolute disgrace. Fucking closing borders and wrecking our State because COVID is just so dangerous, yet these two tuckshop ladies hadn’t taken the vaccine. How can Queenslanders stomach these two Covidiots, how??
“Go team girl power”. Yeah right.
Queenslanders stomach it because the alternative was hopeless.
No, they had their flu vaccinations
Pay attention to the details! The Girly Team Of Two got their flu shots. It will, apparently, be another fortnight before they front up for their Covid innoculations.
Puddleduck is hanging out for the Phizer shot.
Or that could be fizzes.
Good to see that 500000 people in the south east corner are without power, due to a meltdown at the Callide power station, I wonder at what time those solar panels and wind turbines will kick in tonight?
OT,
The full moon tomorrow night will help.
After the best part of 35 years of experiencing this bend in the river, The ‘Pie believes a scientific study will show that there is a full moon EVERY NIGHT in Townsville. Or at least it seems that way.
OT, why was it “good to see”? What’s so funny about a blackout? And anyway, do you realise that hundreds of thousands in NQ were also blacked out for a while. You seem to have an unpleasantly vindictive streak.
HEY!! Isn’t against political correctness to be blacked out? Racist?
We’re looking at 100% renewable by the 2030s, and it can’t come soon enough with outdated, unreliable coal power causing such turmoil.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/we-need-grid-ready-for-100-pct-renewables-now-not-in-a-few-decades-aemo/
STOP IT, STEVE … making The ‘Pie agree with you is making the old bird’s head hurt.
Never fear Mr Pie, Steve as always is a lefty zealot looking for the most convenient weblink to support is warped views. Couldn’t find a peer reviewed paper if his life depended on it.
He didn’t read this point did he – …”rapid “ramping rates”, which describe sudden changes in demand or supply that require a response from the grid. He pointed specifically to an un-forecast 500MW leap in demand when unexpected clouds passed over Adelaide, reducing output from the city’s vast rooftop solar resources.”….
Yes there are sun and wind droughts that will hinder power grids being 100% renewable. It is about using carbon based energy as the base or firming load.
One things Australian’s are is price conscious. We will never pay the prices for 100% renewables, nor the right renewable technology. That’s why solar farms in Australia do not use “concentrator photovoltaics” they are just too damn expensive. So when the Solar Snake Oil salesmen ride off, we will be left with dud solar farms in 15 years.
Good luck Steve living in your 100% renewable hut with your Magnis batteries.
We can power Australia with a limitless supply of cheap, renewable PV energy if you keep projecting like that, Nickster.
That site simply reported comments by “AEMO chief systems design officer Alex Wonhas”, who would know what he’s talking about. If you can find a peer-reviewed paper suggesting that the ISP is flawed in some way, please post it.
The fact is that we’ve known for years that we’ll easily hit 50% renewables this decade and 90% by 2040, and this update is in line with that (and a pattern of over-conservative estimates of how fast renewable prices would fall).
If you had read past the one point about ramping rates that you cherry-picked, you’d have noticed that the solutions listed below it didn’t mention carbon-based strategies.
Why? Because they’re too expensive to be worthwhile. You’re correct to state that Australians are price conscious, and renewable energy being the cheapest source in history make it the lowest-cost option going forward.
Steve, you are full of shit.
With my electric 4×4 with the van hooked up, fully loaded with perishables in the all electric fridge and freezer, where along the road from Urandangi, Alpurrurulam, Arawerr, down to the Stuart, and out to Kintore, are you going to locate these electric car, or truck in this case, charging stations, how are you going to get the electricity to the charging stations, and how long will a full recharge take.
Steve, with your inner city coffee sipping mind set you would not know where these places are and the local conditions they endure. You need to spend time in the red dust with real people, you twerp.
What is this I hear you say, “There are other types of renewables.”
Humm? Sails on the truck, no. A windmill drive to the gearbox? Doubtful.
Thinks really hard……………………*
Yep, that has to be the solution for remote area travel.
Nuclear powered vehicles!
Steve, 100% renewables? Your full of sh… misguided dangerous impractical claptrap, you twerp.
Try to keep up with the conversation (and the century we’re in), Dave, we’re talking about the power grid, not vehicles.
Having said that, the difference between Australia becoming 99% and 100% EV isn’t much worry if that’s what’s needed to service remote communities. Which it probably won’t be. There are charging stations all over the country even with 1% of sales currently electric, and solar microgrids are being installed in communities like the ones you mentioned.
By the time we’re approaching a 100% renewable power grid in the mid-2030s, you’ll be hard pressed finding a ICE vehicle for sale in Australia, because barely anyone will be making them anymore. Especially right hand drive with the UK banning petrol car sales in 2030 and Japan in 2035.
Having worked in a coal fired powerstation i’ve seen first hand coal is complicated to use.
millions of moving parts, heat, steam, water, electricity, hot gas, coal dust and coal ash encourages break downs
you’d be better off going small modular nuclear for power than coal because its cleaner, coal in Australia is 2ppm uranium and the radioactive ash gets blown around
Then there’s issues with a unionised workforce which can in some ways be helpful and in many ways be bad and corrupted from original purpose.
Coal is better being used to make steel, fertiliser/ diesel, plastics and exotic materials than be wasted to make power.
Some pumped hydro would come in mighty handy right now.
Amazing! Another entry for “Ironyman Award”.
This “opinion” is all over the internet today- it has got to be robots. Are you a robot, Ancient Steam Powered Electrician?
A coal power station crashes, and it is the renewables fault.
I suspect the wind and solar will just keep reliably supplying their share of the load, like they did yesterday and will do tomorrow.
Where are the other coal generators (70% of total generation)? Doing the same no doubt.
This is manipulation by the State Government.
We are connected to the National Energy Grid – https://www.aemc.gov.au/energy-system/electricity/electricity-system/NEM so as a result we should only have blackouts when the whole national grid is out of power, which it wasn’t, or the transmission lines are at capacity which they weren’t.
The blackouts happened because the Queensland Government Controlled Energy Companies did not want to buy electricity on the National Market, instead were happy to see Queenslanders go without power, suckers.
The Queensland Government makes a shitload out of selling power and the simple truth is they did not want to buy any at a high price to service Queenslanders.
Unfortunately for the dodgy Palacechook Government they forgot that all the data is transparent – https://visualisations.aemo.com.au/aemo/nemweb/index.html
Data does not lie, politicians do.
Just look at the table and you will see all state systems carry reserves, and this does not include power stations that can run 24/7 but don’t like the 2 in Townsville. This “blackout” was caused by a +400mw outage, you will see the system carries more than this everyday, much more. https://aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem
New flights for Townsville from Virgin and Qantas, great news but now the big question, what will the locals do to leverage this, what plans are being put in place. I am sure they will all come out with grand schemes and promotions to make themselves look relevant but what about the stuff that really matters, like people waiting hours at the airport for a taxi and half the places in town closed on a Sunday because businesses are too pathetic to pay penalty rates. Most people are now looking for a long weekend away for holidays these days, these flights are perfect for that, Townsville needs to lift its game, or another opportunity given to the town will be wasted as usual.
The Ironyman Award of the Month goes to …. a university.
Hi Pie,
On another note, is everyone aware of just how much our fellow citizens are paying when they buy a house property in Queensland?
Apart from stamp duties, which literally is money paid to the Qld Govt for absolutely nothing (they don’t even bother affixing a stamp any more – lawyers have to process each transaction on line and complete and sign the details) registration fees have really got out of hand as the fees go up each year according to the CPI but the base price for calculations doesn’t budge.
Titles Registry Fees – effective 1 July 2021:
2. Lodging— (a) an instrument that changes ownership of a lot or an interest in a lot— (A) for 1 lot: $197.00
3. Additional fee for lodging a transfer if the consideration is more than $180,000— (a) for a transfer of a fee simple—for each $10,000 or part of $10,000 more than $180,000: $37.00
The additional fee used to be a ‘wealth’ tax, ie if a person can afford to buy a really expensive property, they were deemed to be able to afford to make an additional contribution to the govt coffers.
Is it even possible to buy a property in the SE Cnr for $180,000 any more? So just about everyone is paying the ‘wealth tax’.
If a person buys a house to live in for a now very modest $300,000, they are giving the Qld Govt: $197 + $444 = $641 for registration fees and $3,000 for stamp duties. In return, the Govt records their name as owning the title and gives their details to the local authority so their rates can be delivered. So, two computer entries for $3,641.00. How nice!
Don’t even think about how much it is costing investors, buying property in the $500,000+ range and renting that property to those Qlders who need somewhere to live.
Seems bracket creep has a lot to do with this tax by government creeps.
The solution is to buy as little as possible in Qld, you are essentially just giving money to parasites in the Labor party and their union mates to waste on worthless shit if you do. Mate of mine just bought a new car from NSW, shit all over the prices in Qld too, landed at his front door by way of a car carrier, rolled it off the truck and drove it straight into his garage, how good is that.
Sounds like our mayor when first elected … bought her top-line vehicle from Brisbane, as get-square with Tony Ireland over his refusal years before to make a repair job an illegal insurance claim.
Actually, Cajun, you need to get onto the OSR calculators for NSW, ACT and Vic before you complain about Qld property taxes. I finance properties all over Australia and Qld is actually one of the most reasonable, except for non resident buyers.
Awww …. just check out this exciting Queensland Government offering to local JPs:
Officers from the Justices of the Peace Branch will be visiting Townsville very soon and you are invited to attend some free professional development opportunities. Hopefully you can come along to the Queensland Country Bank Stadium (49 Saunders Street, Railway Estate QLD 4810) on Tuesday, 15 June 2021 and Wednesday, 16 May 2021.
Oh all you doubters! I hope you are ashamed of yourselves – our stadium is attracting all the BIG events!
BTW that isn’t my typing error with the dates – that is literally what the Dept of Justice & Attorney-General has sent out.
They got it right in one part of the email and then flubbed it on the second.
Alas I won’t be able to attend. I am in that small number if JPs who aren’t in the retirement age bracket.
You’re a JP and read this blog … where there’s precious little justice and fuckall peace (for The Magpie anyway).
Has Mike ‘Captain Snooze’ Reynolds taken up flying?
Happens all the time with Air India.
Air Traffic Control tried to message him, but all they got was a blank.
I don’t usually post YouTube clips but the link attached is nauseating. It’s Scotty from Faith Healing, preaching from his Can’tberra pulpit about how his hard working Government has kept us safe! Utter toss. Disgraceful lying dirtbag.
No link sent.
Mr. Pie, the Townsville “giggle paper” has put us on the map again, highlighting a business venture that would have been very popular in Berlin in 1936.
Not just a lunatic business venture, but a shameful ploy to make money from Townsville locals’ worries and fears.
“A MILITARY-style security unit similar to the heavily armoured private guards in crime-ravaged South Africa will soon be patrolling the streets of Townsville.
Experienced guards with a background in defence and prison work will “look like a SWAT team” as they patrol the streets under the new idea created by Townsville Titan Security and Electrical.
Owner Amedeo Dinardo said something had to be done after a relentless spate of violent crime, including many incidents involving knives and weapons.
His security business has been inundated with requests for quotes on how people can make their home more secure.”
I cringe to download further details…but here’s the “kicker”.
Mr. Amedeo Dinardo (now there’s a name), only wants…
“Mr Dinardo needs about 3000 members to kick start the new side of his business which would charge people $20 a month for the 24/7 security service.”
That’s roughly four per cent of Townsville homes and Mr. Dinardo will only benefit to the tune of around about $2000 a day!
Un-fucking-believable!
In fact, the idea is so outrageous, it featured on that Sky News load of crap program…I know, pick one…Credlin, tonight!
Well done Editor Warhust and staff, you’ve painted an even worse picture of Townsville than the Mayor and the three Labor stooges have created!!
The Bulletin Blows Its Foot Off Again
It’s the Daily Astonisher’s usual MO – set up a story with tough talk headlines and opening paragraphs, then actually CONTRADICT themselves in the details – which turns out to be a free ad for a half-smart businessman.
From a front page that makes it sound like police will be augmented by ‘a military style security unit’ , the paper claims these civilian mercenaries’ will soon be patrolling the streets of Townsville’.
“Experienced guards with a background in defence and prison work will “look like a SWAT team” as they patrol the streets under the new idea.”
BUT HERE’S THE THING:
They will not be doing any such street patrolling … and that is even spelt out in the story by the security firm’s owner Amedeo Dinardo.
“The proposed security service would work on a membership model in which subscribing residents could call for help at any time, day or night. The guards, who would be covered in protective armour, won’t be armed with guns, and will instead use other “tactics” to remove the prowlers.
We won’t be chasing stolen cars, we will respond immediately and use tactics to remove the prowlers when we arrive.”
Ah, ‘cuse moi, Mr D, but what fucking prowlers ‘when you arrive’ – whenever that may be? You mean the prowlers that will have pissed off with your client’s car and by the time some neckless rejected nightclub bouncer lumbers in, said ‘prowlers’ will be doing wheelies outside the nearest police station?
Despite Mr Dinardo’s claim that this subscriber-style security arrangement has ‘never been done before in Australia’, that is pure hokum – just pick up the big city yellow pages. There are outfits in Sydney and Melbourne that respond to press button silent alarms coming into their central control room, alarms that they have been especially installed in households and businesses. That gives them a fighting chance to get to the problem swiftly.
This time, it was reporter Shayla Bulloch who committed the Sin of the Unasked Questions, like exactly how will this work, how many jobs will it create (usually a favourite). AND WHY DIDN’T YOU ASK THE POLICE WHAT THEY THOUGHT OF THE IDEA? Your own paper has been blaring constantly – and even has featured an iditoprial – about ‘leave policing to the police.’
If Mr Dinardo wants to flex his imagination to steroid level to disguise a grab at a quick buck with virtue signalling to fearful residents, that’s his affair, but it is an entirely different and unhelpful matter for the Bulletin to print this puffed-up tripe as something it clearly isn’t … and what’s more, would be of little use (3000 home subscribers across Townsville? How many security guards and vehicles will that take? How many times do you reckon these play cops will actually get to a subscriber’s home quickly enough for ‘prowlers’ to still be around to be coshed? )
This is a barely disguised cynical beat-up which is nothing more than warmed over codswallop amounting to a free ad for a doubtful service.
Well done, Bully and Bulloch. Get those Walkley noms ready.
This from the document “ THE LEGAL POWERS OF PRIVATE SECURITY PERSONNEL: SOME POLICY CONSIDERATIONS
AND LEGISLATIVE OPTIONS”
In contrast, public police have coercive and intrusive powers that are delineated ‘in more or less clearly defined circumstances.’13 These delineations reveal distinct differences between the powers of public and private officers and agents. For example, public police are given statutory immunity from civil suit in circumstances where their beliefs and acts are ‘reasonable.’ Private personnel are afforded no such luxury. Indeed, private security remain vulnerable and constantly run the risk of being sued in the torts of assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of mental distress, defamation, nuisance and trespass to land and to the person. This is not to say that police do not run these risks, but because they have immunities in place, the police are far less likely to find themselves on the losing end of a civil suit brought by an aggrieved person.
I wonder how this will sit with both potential customers and employed personnel when considering this kind of engagement?
I’m already doing my own style of security work, but where do I join up?
So Jenny has a plan to clean up the little crims, the main reason they are here is due to the fact that they come from the NT as they have alcohol management plans and cashless welfare cards in there and thus the migration to Mt Isa, Cairns and Townsville. Well Jenny if that is the case why don’t we implement those here? It is also of note that the Federal government got a mention for a handout no doubt as her hapless friends in the Labor state government are a disgrace.
Think you’ll find that this is a late-in-the-day wallpapering job of measures over which the council has no control, but they like the optics of a faux get-tough stance. But this-day-late-and-a-dollar-short announcement (which essentially means nothing except acknowledge the problem and preferred remedies only others can legislate) loudly begs the question, why has the council and Mayor Mullet waited so long, this situation has been noteworthy for at least four years.
Well, Jenny’s latest populist and shallow foray into youth crime is indeed good and original. However, those parts that are good are not original and those parts that are original are not good.
Classic … and oh so true. The ‘Pie is watching closely the Bulletin’s ‘rehabilitation’ of the mayor, the ‘dynamic’ public profile will greatly go to her credit when she faces the court next month.
It’s also unfortunate that none of it aligns with the new supercalafragalisticexpialidocious Corporate Plan released this week. No surprises as none of it really means anything in a circular economy. It just goes round and round.
Seems like buying, harassment and so on might be a common trait between TCC and CRC
https://www.tropicnow.com.au/2021/may/27/council-staff-exodus-as-claims-of-bullying-assault-emerge
Well, you ain’t going to like TCC’s latest recruit Scott Mason, soon to be ex CEO of Central Highlands Regional Council. Many many top level and mid-tier managers have bailed out under his bully style leadership over the past few years. Old mate has pissed off everybody. Little stability under his leadership as he jumps around like a kangaroo loose in the top paddock. As we shall all find out next month, he is a very ‘odd’ individual. Mind you, it’s hard to believe he could be weirder than the Mullet and the stinky Prince.
I’m sick of hearing the word ‘blackout’. That is so insulting. We of the #metoo movement would like to suggest the terms ‘power out’ or ‘electricity out’ or something like that. Plus, all of the power station workers at Callie that are not female should be sacked and replaced by women only.
Bit browned off, are we, Akka Dakka?
AC DC, should be “sacked” by whom? Who is this “we” you speak of?
It was said ‘tongue in cheek’. I’m trying to lighten our life with a little humour.
ACC DC,
What about the blokes who identify as shelias, can they stay?
Kelso, yes they can stay because a man who identifies as a Sheila most certainly fits the ‘diversity’ methodology.
Bolloks, in the Philippines its called a brown out, no reflection on the indigenous including the LBFM contingent.
Sucked in!! … it’s not like you, Aching Feet, to miss parody or humour. Both terms have nothing to do with race, it is appropriate use of language to indicate the gradient of power.
From Wiki.
A brownout is an intentional or unintentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system. Intentional brownouts are used for load reduction in an emergency.[1] The term brownout comes from the dimming of incandescent lighting when the voltage reduces. A voltage reduction may be an effect of disruption of an electrical grid, or may occasionally be imposed in an effort to reduce load and prevent a power outage, known as a blackout.[2]
In some countries, the term brownout refers not to a drop in voltage but to an intentional or unintentional power outage (or blackout)
If was said ‘tongue in cheek’. Clown
So the Mullet doesn’t support a moderate development for the Strand, why the fuck would any developer bother trying to do anything in this backward shithole.
but isn’t the Strand already moderately developed ? and why add more development when there are so many vacant buildings a couple of blocks away
Moderately developed, are you blind, the place is a seaside ghetto, half of the buildings in the area would be condemned and demolished in most towns, greatest waste of prime real estate you could ever find.
A classic piece of “I do not like it but my hands are tied by those disruptive staff”. This from a mayor and council who ride roughshod over the separation of exec and ops on a daily basis.
If it goes ahead it is because Jenz and Frothy want it or were compensated somehow for their vote.
CbH
You are anything BUT happy. Every time I read one of your posts it makes me depressed.
It must be really terrible to have to live in a place that you hate so much. Why don’t you do us all a favour and fuck off? Then it wouldn’t be quite as much of a shithole.
SenoKot , the best contribution you can make is CBH should leave town ? . Lancini , Carmichael x2 , Ireland , Pickerings and others have left along with their $ and whats left is a begging bowl with our Mayor and State reps with their hands out for Feds $ . At least CBH can read a balance sheet , understands planning and projects and sees a train wreck coming and provides reality + facts to the bog . If T.C.C. paid $10 mil of its debt it would be 40 yrs + to get into the black . Central Coast Council NSW was tipped into administration for an eight of T.C.C,s debt and the administrators increased rates by 15 % . Mayor Hill won’t meet with developers blaming Belcarra whilst her Council competes with them developing Lansdown . Go figure .
Mike,
Thanks for your insightful comparison of TCC and some council in NSW. I could research it but I couldn’t be fucked going to the effort. Did the tin pot Council in NSW have a commercial water business? If so what was the debt carried by that part of the organisation? Did they fund renewals and new infrastructure through borrowings? If they did, did they then recover the borrowings through a utility charge and in so doing spread the cost of the asset across the current and future users?
Most of the debt carried by TCC is in the water business (including sewerage). Mega bucks to build and maintain. TCC is unusual in having a water business. If it was cut from TCC and made a separate statutory entity then the TCC balance sheet would look a lot different.
I’m happy to hear from CbH but IMHO you should stick to your opinions in a deep crevice where the sun rarely shines.
Thought about it Senekot, but with a bad case of Schadenfreude where am I too go? With borders closed other equivalent places like North Korea or the Gaza Strip are out of reach, Townsville is the next best thing and will have to do for the time being.
Palm Island?
Thought about Rattlesnake Island?
I reckon it would suit you down to the ground.
Have you sought the opinion of the rattle snakes?
Try a bigger brown paper bag!
I’m confused, well more than normally.
Jenny Hill is the only councilor who voted against the Strand development, so doesn’t that mean it is approved?
Or in Jenny’s twisted world of democracy, does she have the right to overturn any decision made by council if she doesn’t like it?
Yes, it does mean it’s approved. Depressingly, this is just a bit of well-planned show-boating by the mayor, who knew full well that since the project complied with the legislated requirements, it had to be passed by council or the TCC would probably be facing a costly legal battle. She no doubt hammered this home to her aerobics class, and once she was assured of the count of hands, she said nay, the Astonisher iditor went into moist meltdown to avoid copping her chic Steel Blues in the goolies – and voila! there was yet another ‘positive’ our-tough-mayor story. She had nothing to lose by doing this, and figures she might gain some North Ward cred for her stance (although Clr Geaney voted for it presumably).
The astonisher are at it again. Looking for the best tattoo parlours, FFS.
Also the lift out from the Courier Mail espousing Brisbane projects like CCR and airport upgrades etc etc. We are not fucking interested about the SEQ.
What a great idea, upgrade Brisbane airport. What the fuck for!!!! The international terminal already has dust and tumbleweeds blowing through the place. Planes, what planes? The fuckhead politicians are only going to keep locking the world down.
You old silly, it’s for the Olympics, innit?
But actually, you are more than a bit silly with this … do we put the next decades needs on hold because of what is historically speaking a global health glitch? This is a forward looking government … after all, it gave Townsville a stadium that won’t be regularly filled to capacity (apart from pop star gigs) for at least a decade … and even that depends on the Centre of Excellence kicking in on a regular basis.
Ok Nesters, maybe the old bird has fucked this up, so help The ‘Pie in the possible error of his ways.
Crissafulli has called for signatures for a petition to bring back the former bail breach laws, reported in both the Courier and Astonisher, and both give this address on their on line sites
http://is.gd/tsvcrime
but it is not a link-through, it’s a copy and paste job into a search engine … and it doesn’t work for The Magpie.
Thoughts, anyone?
Ok cancel that … once the link was transferred into WordPress, it became a clickable link.
Start signing up …. except Steve of Belgian Gardens, he thinks the government is doing a hell of a job with Townsville kiddy crime … and he’s right, but not the way he means it.
To be fair, this is the response from Cairns Regional Council regarding the toxic culture claims published a couple of days ago.
https://www.tropicnow.com.au/2021/may/28/cairns-regional-council-responds-to-toxic-workplace-claims
Christ, not much future for this woman in the public service ranks … she speaks plain English, answers appropriate questions and clearly outlines her approach to staff in her new role.
Don’t bother applying for any jobs down here, Ms Mica, you’d be out on your ear before you could say stunned mullet.
Any chance of Jenny starting up an ‘Our Townsville’. survey.. I bet she wouldn’t get a 95% approval.