If You Think Maggie Is. Is Getting A Sludge Dump Pineapple, Wait Until You Hear About Paluma

The problem is similar but for Paluma, the effects are immediate and on-going –  virtually isolated for months after recent floods – all because of the nanny state lunacy of competing government departments.

And another after-the-event insult to Magnetic Island residents, as the TCC seems to want to justify its dump actions as not their fault.

The Bulletin follies of the week (as usual) …

… and further proof that when you go to court, even if acquitted, you never get full justice.

Bit of a short Nest this week, minor medical matters have kept The ‘Pie off his game for a few days,  but all good now. Of course, a helping hand donation to assist with nest costs would add some extra cheers to the old bird’s recovery. The appropriate button is at the bottom of the blog.

 Hope The SWAT Team Has been Alerted

This will be interesting.

File under Bolted, Horses Dept of.

You will note the word ‘information’.  The council has been exposed here in the Nest in their lie about ‘community consultation’,  which was a straight-out, devious lie, because the Kelly Street project had been pre-decided between the council and Brisbane before such a meeting was organised.

Two hours seems overly long time to simply tell whoever shows up that ‘We will do what we want and don’t care what you think,  Clr Greaney went to a lot of trouble to get the government permissions organised secretly behind your backs to approve the Kelly St dump,  so if you don’t like it, you can always go fuck yourselves.’

But there was an interesting development during the week, where a regular Nest commenter calling herself/himself (who knows nowadays?) Jenny Kennet outed themselves as a Townsville Council apologist – paid or unpaid but definitely a plant, evidenced by the lightning fast access to official information and documents. Jenny’s latest post was full of detailed and apparently correct info, but the underlying message was clear: this ain’t the council’s fault, they are being bullied into approving the Kelly St dump disaster as a precursor to further unpopular management moves.

Jenny Kennett 60 approved email hidden; JavaScript is required 211.30.133.141

Submitted on 2025/03/06 at 12:36 pm | In reply to The Magpie. What happens ‘down the track’ is what ratepayers are being softened up for. The Nelly Bay harbour is under two jurisdictions. The main harbour with ferry and barge landings and boat ramp is state government Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and remains part of the federal GBR Marine Park. The internal (‘keyhole’) marina and Gustav Creek ‘canal estate’ with pontoons extending into the water is outside the Marine Park and is Council responsibility. Council states on its website that “recent hydrographic surveys show maintenance dredging is required to restore the canal sections to their original design depths”. Hence the dredging plan. But the issue of sedimentation extends into the main harbour as well – not only from outflows from the two creeks that feed into the harbour and the migration of beach sand under the breakwater access bridge, but from the massive erosion that has taken place during cyclone events over the past twenty years as waves overtopped the breakwater displacing armour rock, lifting sections of concrete footpaths and shifting large areas of exposed spoil material off the back of the breakwater into the harbour basin. In due course this state-controlled area will need to be dredged to “restore the original design depths” in the approaches to the boat ramp and around the ferry and barge swing basin. How convenient will it be for the state government to have elbowed TCC into establishing a permanent dredge spoil processing facility on community land in Nelly Bay so that when it comes time to dredge the main harbour, a much larger undertaking than the present one, the state can make use of the cheap and nasty dump site at Kelly Street. Where is the state member for Townsville on this issue and will he bring news of his government’s response to the Community Information Session on the 15th? After all, the Port of Townsville has established a dredge spoil reclamation area for this exact purpose on the mainland but it also maintains a sea-dumping site in Cleveland Bay which, apparently, could be used for disposal of Nelly Bay spoil.

Landslides and rock falls have blocked the main links to Paluma, but now, one angry resident claims there are bureaucratic inter-departmental squabbles  that means that the principal road to Paluma will likely remain blocked for months.  The best re-opening estimate is late April – and that is totally unacceptable.. But, unlike MI, no one but no one has visited Paluma to spell out a situation that will see wrong headed nanny state rules – formulated in Brisbane of course – and ultra woke regulations keep the road closed in the coming months.

The core problem, according to The ‘Pie’s trusted informant,  is the competing requirements of three government departments, the Wet Tropics, wankers the Heritage galahs and the one group ready and willing to get on with things, Dept of Transport and Main Roads.  Full points to the DMR fr doing their best to keep the residents informed.  (Note the idiotic instruction these blokes have to follow, to break up large rocks into small transportable ones FFS).It has eventuated that here is a circle jerk of public servants contradicting and over-riding the rules regarding restoration of the road and the famed Little Crystal Creek Bridge, one of the main tourist attractions in the area.

One instance of this over-protective, over-woke callousness is the fact that for five weeks now, the TMR has been overseeing the trucking out of slip material, transporting it down to God knows where in an expensive and protracted exercise in bureaucratic bumbling. The road would have been open long ago if common sense had prevailed and the slip material had just been bulldozed over the side.  The emotional dwarves 1400kms south have described such a solution as ‘against the order of nature’. No really, they have said that. It has not been suggested at any stage that the road itself actually caused any slippage, and such falls do occur naturally in hilly bushland … are these fuckwits going to go out and lecture hillsides that they are acting ‘against the force of nature’.

Nothing would surprise.

Newsflash, you over-lettered drongos: The Australian bush is resilient enough to spring back quickly when there is movement of natural environmental components like rock and mud. But you shadow flinchers have said no, and tough titty for people in Paluma and surrounds – and any local Townsville and Ingham folks planning traditional Easter camping treks,  a key time for businesses up there. Which is just well in one way, because should a medical emergency occur, the nearest helipad is more than 20kms away and pretty dicey at that, by allk eports. And not accessible at night. The only road in and out now is the dangerous Laroona Station Road, which is in part a challenging surface but the whole length is subject to roaming cattle, feral pigs, roos and deer … hitting Bambi in the middle of nowhere would not have a happy Disney ending.

But if that’s making you seethe, here’s another example that’ll really snap your elastic.

The TCC road to the Paluma Dam, this city’s second biggest water supply storage,  remains closed while the council waits for instructions from the Wet Tropics whackos on how to remove and appropriately ‘place’ fallen trees off the roads and into the adjacent forest, in a manner that will not disorientate the local wild life.  For fuck’s fucking sake.  This means that dam staff have not been on site of this vital part of Townsville infrastructure for five weeks at the time of writing – but no probs, this utter idiocy is excused because the dam is ‘monitored remotely’.  And The ‘Pie has been given to understand that the Wet Tropics mincers are all based in Cairns.

No one has travelled to the village to advise residents of Paluma and surrounds what is going on, but they have been sternly told by social media of the dire consequences and swingeing fines should anyone be tempted to use common sense and do a little road clearing off their own bat.

If the worse happens, and there is serious injury or death that could have been prevented by sensible and realistic action for access, will someone be held accountable?

No not one one single fucking person.  It’ll be the old Nazi excuse updated ‘I wuz jus followin’ orders, nuthing to do with me.’

Raped By Justice? The Loaded Law That Condemns Innocent Men

The word ‘men’ here is pivotal because it is simple fact penile penetration is only committed by men, either on women or on other men.  (We will leave the more heinous crimes of paedophilia aside from this argument for the sake of clear argument.)

A new report by the Australian Law reform Commission recommends  further  measures than all go to towards skewing the justice system further in favour of complainants.  The details of the changes do not concern us here today,  except for the extraordinary possibility, if the reforms are acted on, of the government funding third party lawyers for the defence … which would have them opposing government funded Crown prosecutors. But that’s not the issue being addressed here. What prompted The Magpie to bring up the subject was this in the Weekend Bulletin.

This bloke’s name and photograph are in the Bulletin,  the latest of several times since this matter has been going through the judicial system  He has been named at the outset, while the complainant has not, because the law forbids it.

And now he has been found not guilty, after days of doubt in the public mind.

That is right and fair that complainants should not be identified, because rape is a debilitating and scarring experience … but so is being falsely accused of a crime for which society holds perpetrators in   high and lingering contempt. But human nature being what it is, there is ALWAYS a unproven background suggestion that ‘he’s good for it’. All rapes, actual and alleged, revolve around their own unique set of lead-up circumstances, but they can never be justified.

But they can’t always be proven, either.

So why does the law insist on differentiating that a rape accused can be identified after being remanded (except where it would identify the alleged victim.) but the accuser cannot?

The Magpie again asks why either party should be named at all in these reputationaly dangerous circumstances. Those who argue that we need to know if a ‘sexual predator’ walks amongst us ignore the fact that a charge and allegation must be proved  in a court of law. And despite misguided claims that no woman would claim such a thing if it weren’t true is soporific nonsense .. that suggests we don’t need courts, just Star Chambers. And as been seen in this case, and in other more high profile instances, women DO lie about sexual encounters for a variety of reasons (ask Jarryd Haynes).

So surely the answer is simple, The ‘Pie has never heard a sensible counter to it … NO ONE should be named when a rape charge is brought, in fact there is absolutely no reason why the fact that an accusation has been made needs to be publicly announced. The media can foam on as much as it likes about a spurious, self-interested ‘public’s right to know’ but there is no such right, morally or actually.  And during a trial, the names of either parties should again be the rule. And remain the rule if there is an acquittal. For all parties. To reveal the identities of either party should be made a contempt of court.

BUT if a guilty verdict is the result, the perpetrator should be named and identified.

All the rules about non-confrontation between accused and accuser are reasonably covered already, and all other aspects of the unique protections already in place balance up the scales for a fair trial.

But leaving an innocent person open to a ruined professional and personal life is simply not acceptable in a civilised society.

Strewth!! Anyone Want To Argue? 

This annual marketing exercise for the paper is standard fare for unserious publications like the Bulletin … it all started a few years ago with a memo from Holt St HQ in Sydney, recommending regionals make up highly contentious power lists on an annual basis, along with cutest baby comps and polls on the city’s best pie/fish’n’chips/pizza/plumbers bum cracks/hoon video.  Eat ya heart out, Sydney Morning Herald/Age. Washington Post, where are ya?

Recognising … or at least in many cases just acknowledging … the worthwhile roles many gals play in Townsville’s day-to-day existence is a good but meaningless space filler.  But the Bulletin even manages to fuck that up in the name of stirring controversy. Here’s why.

A little history: way back when then editor Mick Carroll introduced the first ‘ Townsville’s most influential list’ ,  The Magpie asked him how the rankings were reached, who decided them, and using what criteria. ‘Editor’s call’ was the reply, although it later turned out, even back then with a good-ish editor, the advertising manager had a big say.  So basically, these lists are simply the opinion of one or two people with vested interests. So it seems in this case

Uh oh, where’s Bettina?

But here is the question The Magpie has always asked:

Why number in order those chosen 1 to 50?

How can these women’s’ worth to the community be so ranked, what criteria has been used to quantify this false hierarchy? And to what purpose except to stir up spurious, pointless empty argument (the paper hopes)? Pretty insulting, too, giving such wide broadcast of the biased opinion of one or two people whose own  contribution to this community is highly negligible.

There can be no mimsy mumbled excuses that that isn’t a ranking of worth, because that is the way such bullshit lists have always  been seen … and that’s in the paper’s interests to see the gals as well as the readers get their claws out. Here’s what we mean.

How can a mediocre former low level and ineffective public servant, who has politically elbowed and back stabbed her way into a position she does not deserve, even be on the same page with these two others,  one who actually employs many people as an innovative businesswoman, and the other a hard grind high achiever in the Armed Forces of Australia?  This really is insulting stuff.

And The ‘Pie is also wondering how various councillors from Hinchinbrook, Ayr and Charters Towers ‘influence’ Townsville, but if the paper says they do, well, they must, mustn’t they?

But with The ‘Pie’s knowledge of this town’s recent history, there are nice moments in this twaddle.

So good to see that a former leading drug dealer, understood to be the go-to gal for early Cowboys players wanting to ‘take the edge of’, is featured for her fine rehabilitation into doing good works.  And arch-racist Gracelyn Smallwood gets a guernsey in there somewhere , seems no list would be complete without her.

Maybe This Initiative Could Help The Reporter With English

Perhaps a program to ‘educational’ reporters in grammar.

And while we’re on the subject.

The Reason Alfred Dithered Off The Coast

A reader suggested the cyclone, due to do several hundreds of millions dollars of improvements to the SE corner,  dallied around off the coast waiting for a Welcome To Country.  Seems it got one and is now wearing out its welcome. But in lead-up media frenzy, when everyone was floundering around looking to fill space caused by the unexpected  delay,  the Courier came up with what can only be called ‘sheer desperation’.

Amerika – The Week.

“America is great because America is good,” de Tocqueville is supposed to have said; but added, “if America ever stops being good, it will stop being great”.

Seems that moment has arrived, because America also used to be sane.  This potentially catastrophic shit show continues it’s unbelievable spiral. And the Democrats are also under increasing attack for the seemingly total emasculation of their party and their moral courage.

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C

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Should Townsville Have It’s Own Oscars?

With the departure of Jenny Hill, we have all been wondering who will provide the glitz and glamour we so used to and still desperately crave. So why not invent our own version of the Oscars,  called The Mullets. And to get the idea rolling, a community minded figure has stepped right up.

Wow, what a body-hugging outfit!!

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Bit of a short Nest this week, minor medical matters intervened, but The ‘Pie is as crusty as ever and fully back on deck now, so comments will continue apace, do join in.  If you can offer a much needed helping hand with Nest finances,  the donate button is below.