News Ltd’s lazy editorial policy of making lists and pretending they’re news has caught out the Courier for its vicious and thoughtless attack on a group of innocent kids.
Heard any good redneck racist jokes lately? How about the real yuk yuk one about the wife basher? If your interested, the Courier Mail was the place to go this week.
Some quirky notes from the campaign trail … nothing serious, mind you, The ‘Pie looks on the lighter side, refusing to take this crop of arse clowns seriously. (The prank played on a Palmer billboard is a rib tickler.)
And Trump on hold – he gets a voice mail, telling him he’s an idiot whose made a grave miscalculation about mobile phones. And he’s back-tracking faster than Les Walker in a Flinders Street pub after midnight.
Yeah, yeah, you’re having a quiet Easter, but Nest creditors don’t take holidays. A bit of financial support will be as appreciated as much as it is needed. You can help out by clicking the donate button at the end of the blog. Thanks.
Seriously, What Were They Thinking?
If they were thinking at all. News Ltd papers often share around adjective-laden outraged stories about the evils of social media bullying, which can lead to youth suicide. Yet they have reached a new hypocritical low justified by the discredited biblical notion of ‘visiting the sins of the father, upon the child’ …. that a child inherits law-breaking tendencies if their fathers are criminals.
If they’re dads, then they’ve got kids, no matter what the circumstances. And there is bugger all privacy on the web. So at a stroke, the Courier Mail flouts all efforts to stop cyber bullying and discrimination on social media, because now at least half a dozen uninvolved children have been openly linked to their offending fathers. Chris Jones, this is nothing but scumbag stuff, you owe Queensland a public apology for this morally criminal publishing. And its not even news, just rehashed stuff from the archives, another of your notorious ‘lists’ masquerading as meaningful news.
Chris Jones, Editor, Courier Mail
The Courier Mail under Jones, is always ready with sharp words and judgements full of adjectives like ‘horror’, tragic’, ‘shocking’ and ‘despicable’, as they go about their daily round of outrage farming (mostly trolling the net from their offices). Add into this mix the News Ltd-wide policy of making up silly meaningless lists – The Towns Best Pizza/Hairdresser/Cutest Dying Toddler, Best Supermarket Aisles For Bend-Over Glimpses, and then passing it off as serious news.
Then there’s the daily insult to readers, like this Bulletin page 3 item (page bloody three for fuck’s sake!) …
And this was somewhere around page 7.
It’s a wonder they didn’t put it in their healthy living section.
And you really have to have a news day so slow it has almost ground to shuddering halt to print this vacuous weirdness, in which they can’t even be bothered with syntax.
And even when the info is useful, we also get our daily dose of credibility killers like this.
But all that stuff catering to the average simpleton took a nasty turn during the week. Murdoch’s men also have a convenient double-standard blind spot when it comes to DV and to racism, both on brazen show this week. We’re used to all the new Ltd Queensland rags deploring hooning and graffiti … and then showing glorifying images and videos of exactly that which they are deploring. The hoons and wall artists love the swaggering notoriety.
But the double standards don’t end there. The old tit-and-bum Truth paper in Melbourne made a speciality of giving stories groin-grinding, heavy breathing details (mostly made up) while at the very same decrying such behaviour. The tactic lived on in both the Courier and the Bulletin this week, both of a similar nature. First, News mastheads carried this story, topical because the subject is Ross MacDonald, the One Nation candidate about to lose in Herbert.
And here’s the thing: the Bulletin, The Courier, the NT News among the News sites which ran the story all carried the line ‘he refused to apologise for the deeply offensive ‘joke’ about using Aboriginal people as crocodile bait.’ Now, that is their own judgement i.e the joke is offensive, so you’d think enough said, that description means the ‘joke’ would never reach the standards of decency they require of others, let alone reprinting it.
BUT NO … THEY ALL RAN THE ‘JOKE’ IN FULL.
So the papers have outed themselves of approving of the wide circulation of a ‘joke’ that is ‘deeply offensive to aboriginal people’. On wonders if MacDonald has substituted an Asian, a baby or a battered female DV victim for his ‘aboriginal’ if things would’ve gone as well for him as he says the ‘joke’ did in his 2019 campaign, where it first surfaced.
But it seemed to be the week for this sort of double standard of printing deplorable material out of some sort of necessity to be prurient. Like this, which the Courier’s gossip columnist described as ‘vile’…
If it is vile, why print it at all? any person who thinks that is even mildly funny – or worth reprinting – needs to be watched closely. Tacky doesn’t even to start to cover this stuff. Irony is an over-used word these days, but did the Courier even once consider that amplifying a knuckle-draggers unfunny, red neck misogamy was making themselves guilty of their own exactly the prissy and prim judgements.
Complete fucking idiots.
Some Notes From The …’Yawnnnn’ … Campaign Trail
Nope, not interested in all this hokum, although the Courier will say anything for the sake their version of an’ hilarious’ headline.
Bribes, brides, geddit geddit?? Doesn’t make sense, but you know, just a bit of fun. See what we’ve done, we’ve changed the normal word ‘promises’ to ‘bribes’. Mostly because it’s shorter than promises.
Apparently, we are supposed to be shocked that all parties are trying to ‘buy’ our votes. Well, fucking DUH! What exactly does the paper think election campaigns – ALL election campaigns – are all about … ranting about the dangers of dialectical materialism to the youth of tomorrow? This is undergraduate populism at its most banal.
Notes From The Campaign Trail
Best belly laugh was appropriately involving Fatty Palmer. This exchange of ideas from comments.
OK, Nesters, help us out here.
This Clive Palmer billboard at the intersection of Woolcock St and Charters Towers Road (coming from Castletown towards OfficeWorks). So has the Fatty had second thoughts about something, and has painted over item 3 of the policy list. Or has number 3 put a bdeen in someone’s bonnet and a paintbrush in their hand
Wonder what it was? Anyone?
-
Motorist
There are scores of these TOP billboards along the road to Brisbane. Don’t recall seeing any obvious deletions as shown in the photo. Love to know how it read.
-
✔️ Number 3: Clive doing naked sit-ups.
I believe the electoral office was concerned about voters either being sick, or aroused, at the voting booths.
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The Magpie
Fatty doing any sit-ups is fantasy.
Reminds of the ‘Pie of a moment on the old American TV Game show Hollywood Squares, one of the most hilariously witty shows ever.
The questions and answers were priceless, like this one, asked at the time when hysteria about visiting aliens was at its peak.
Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.
-
OK, yukety yuk, but turns out the words, missing courtesy some public spirited individual with a droll sense of humour were ‘Freedom of speech’.
One local candidate should seek a new world title from the Guinness Book of Records – World’s Fastest Growing Beard. . Last Monday, the Bulletin got itself all atangle with the pix in this story.
The caption says the pic is of candidate Casson outside the Ingham courthouse on Thursday. Yet a few paragraphs down, we see this.
Now you might guess that in the first pic, Mr Casson had done away with his whiskers for the clean-shaven candidate look. And that the second picture was an earlier image, also outside the Ingham courthouse. But as we read on, we come across this, the very latest photograph of our man.
Confusing, but the beard is a political plus, Dazza, … without it you look a bit like a slim Alan Jones.
Then there was the eye-roll outburst from Jacinta Price warbling about making Australia great again (that would also be MAGA, as well as Make Albo Go Away) . Dutton quickly walked away from that one, but not fast enough for the Shovel to miss it.
And Just So You Know
Herbert electoral ballot paper listing:
1. Phillip Thompson – LNP
2. Martin Brewster – Trumpet of Patriots
3. Felicity Cole – People First Party
4. Edwina Andrew – Labor
5. Chris Evans – Greens
6. Felicity Roser – Family First Party
7. Ross MacDonald – One Nation
8. Darryn Casson – Katter’s Australian Party
Why Hasn’t The Bulletin Touched This Story?
Last Tuesday, the local ABC posted this.
But even by now, not a single mention in the Astonisher. Have they got the sulks because yet again, they’ve been comprehensively scooped by, of all people, the local ABC? One apologist in Nest comments said this was old news, and that’s why they’ve ignored it. But that will be news to Townsville ratepayers …. search as he might, The ‘Pie couldn’t find a mention of a million buck claim anywhere, or any amount aimed directly at two two individuals, Joe McCool McCabe and TCC legal foghorn David Sewell. In fact, the only mention remotely related was this from the Bulletin – 10 months ago.
Thompson denied this claim, but has apparently swerved to make it more personal, and added a tasty extra $900,000. The bastardy is never ending from this egregious prick..
Maybe the Astonisher stayed clear because it has been getting the same legal advice as Thompson, to wit: pull your head in, stormy weather ahead.
Has Jeff Bezos Pranked The Women Of The World?
Has one of the world’s richest scumbag employers pulled off one of the funniest and most expensive gotchas yet, a sexist joke while appearing to be the champion of ‘girlboss’ feminism by sending a female crew of mostly airheads for a brief space trip? The gushing from the crew members was idiotically embarrassing enough, and sure enough, pretentious latter day flower child Katy Perry has deservedly borne the brunt of a backlash about claims of what the few minutes of space time proved. Talk about space as a vacuum.
Believe it when The Magpie tells you, given the appalling excesses of the mega rich, it is quite possible that Bezos (whose fiancee Lauren Sanchez was a crew member and helped organise the jaunt) had a hand in this mammoth joke. One can’t help thinking he had a gleeful hand in the design of the rocket, which unmistakably resembles a popular personal ladies item designed for … ummm … ladies spaces.
The vibrations on take off must’ve been thrilling. Strange to have the climax of the encounter at the start and not the finish.
At The Very Same Time, Back On Earth ….
… there was a very different travel arrangement for a group of less fortunate people. Different because it didn’t include a return trip. This from Snopes fact checkers.
The Master Of The Universe Blows Another Hole In His Foot
Rome had Nero and his fiddle, France had Marie Antoinette’s gateau, Townsville had Jenny Hill and now the world has Trump and his 9-iton.
It is inexplicable how no one seems to have explained to the man Marina Hyde calls the ‘tariff-excreting president’ have not been able to get through the message of all economists and … well, basically, all sane people … as to how tariffs actually work.
While the inevitable steep climb of everyday prices of everything in the US starts to bite, one of the most telling example of Trump’s ignorant economic lunacy (poorly disguised as a ‘long-game beautiful deal’ ) forced the most notable back-down yet in a series of embarrassing reverses by the Chief Muggins. The biggest speed bump on Trump’s headlong rush towards dictatorship was the not-so-humble iPhone and other mobile devices. A question everyone has been asking – but Trump never did – is concisely summed up in this excellent article.
It’s one of the best self gotchas so far, and our mates at The Shovel didn’t miss this galumph.
Elsewhere In Amerika … And Elsewhere Everywhere
Talking to his daughter during the week, The ‘Pie had an alarming moment when she informed him that Donald Trump inspired hope, not just in her, but millions around the world. Now, at last report, beloved daughter still retained her share of the family marbles and this was a mighty swerve from her usual character readings of the Orange terrorist. But then she added ‘ “Every morning I wake up, I am inspired by the hope that someone finally has managed to shoot straight.’ Phew, nasty family break-up avoided.
But Trump continues to be the grift that keeps on giving – at least for the cartoonists who so brilliantly nail this dangerous buffoons rampage of self-destruction and now pen flouting of established law.o
Two From The Why Humans As A Species Are Fucked.
It’s not enough that social media will make them vegetables by their mid-teens, now we’re getting them used to the idea.
And for older people who are unable to turn on a light switch, we have this.
There is a whole video on this, but The ‘Pie decided to take mercy on you and not post it.
……………
That’s the week that was from The Magpie';s perch. Comments runall week 24/7, join in the debates. The button to help out with a donation is below.
Wow I beat Mike. Brilliant again Malcolm.
Thanks.
Solid work with the blog this week Magpie, thank you.
It would be interesting if the newspapers have backed off Twonames due to legal threats from Twonames lawyers. Media aren’t usually scared off by legal threats, but maybe Twonames has a case against them? He has certainly been told to cease and desist with his Facebook rants as his page has gone deathly quiet. Perhaps TCC have taken legal action against him? It definitely feels like there is something going on that we aren’t as yet privy to.
Courtesy of an alert reader, this was a late inclusion in the Nest this week, so just in case you missed it, here is the Bulletin’s daily credibility killer.
And just before some foamer hits the keyboard pointing out the fact that The Magpie makes enough cock-ups of his own, The Nest is a one-man band, taking more than 50 hours over seven days to put together. The ‘Pie does not have the luxury of a second or third pair of eyes (despite genuine offers to so, but that would just add an unwieldy extra layer of complexity to the weekly effort. GThe many unpublished comments pointing out factual errors are welcome and appreciated, though.)
So The Nest is not part of a multi-billion dollar profiteering conglomerate which has the resources to properly staff news sites with sub editors and oversight staff, but refuses to do so to save a dollars. Yet ups subscription prices for an increasingly substandard product.
And on a personal note to reporter Nikita McGuire, this is not a personal attack on you, it is aimed at the stingy infrastructure and unreasonable ‘multi-skilling’ codswallop under which you are required to work. Your stuff is generally solid.
Hi Everyone
Does anyone know why the old Ozone ice cream shop and others in complex on Strand been closed for approximately a month?
Permanently closed
Rents kept going up through the roof. Thats why the previous ice cream placed moved on.
Possibly, but is that fact or speculation?
I heard finding staff was the issue. However every other venue in town has backpackers working for them so this sounds like rubbish too
Martin Brewster, Palmer candidate for Herbert…Nepotism at work!?
…. and Greg Dowling having another run, this time in Leichhardt.
Yes, and this has to be a good thing.
We are all encouraged to recycle, and Clive is leading by example.
And Dowling will once again lose. His trumpet will not be heard. Someone tell him to get a job at TCC mowing lawns.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-22/pope-francis-could-be-lying-in-state-by-wednesday/105199210?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web
Trump to attend?
His record demonstrates that he would care naught for the occasion.
This is a chance for Trump to strut upon a stage bigger than any in American.
Gonna put himself up for the job. And Melania is gonna look for an Italian. Maybe they use less orange.
If 3 minutes in space makes you an astronaut, then I’m a gynecologist!
Gunna be hard to beat that one for comment of the week.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-victoria/man-dead-after-chapel-st-stabbing-attack/news-story/47837dda261bb5f907c27434de3f3cb4
Ah, the good old days in Chapel Street back in the day. Great pizzas and hamburgers and, maybe the occasional ruckus!
Remember Mr. Pie?
Unfortunate though, as the above is, it beggars the question…why wasn’t Mr. Carlson at home looking after his six children?
After all, his fiancé has been perpetually pregnant for the last 10 years or so, plus, you would have thought such as obviously upstanding citizen would have been at home playing the dutiful father!
And as the Herald Sun report states..
“His killers remained on the run on Sunday afternoon as police worked to determine whether the attack was targeted.”
Why would anyone want to target this good looking fella?
I totally understand Mr. Pie if you don’t post this comment…but those pics…had to run it past you!
Well, think you’re being a bit harsh, Flutterby, it is a fair guess that he was at work, one way or the other, making a quid to support the family. Thoughts and prayers.
$10,000 to raise a flag and $25000 for a Filipino festival on the strand? Interesting use of public money.
Link?
TCC Meeting https://townsville.civicclerk.com.au/web/UserControls/pdf/web/DocPDFWrapper.aspx?ad=8400&token=c401e433-7fc7-4989-a59c-0c8a5c2a6fea
They were no awarded the full amount requested due to the budget for community grants being finished for this financial year. I do not agree with any of the recommendations and I would like to see independent assessment of any grant. What are the negative effects of community grants?
85K to feed a bunch of hangers on in 3 meals – wow!
Are these organisations who receive these grants required to submit an auditors report justifying the expenditure to secure the donation.?
Also when the cash has been spent is their another audit to prove the expenditure was as per the original request?
A hypothetical questions; supposing an event is being funded and a raffle is being held are the winners of the raffle identified as bona fides winners. Or is their some caveat on any benefits to individuals who secured the donation?.
Achilles, lots of hoops to jump through to get the grant money, that’s for certain. But then there is little follow up, often none whatsoever, to see if the funds were used appropriately. The giving away of grant money is another council flaw and is a cheap publicity stunt that is used by council to make its councillors look good.
Grants are used to buy votes in council elections
Good for winning elections
Bad for council financing and bankrupting the community
Yep. Watch the promises from Phil Thompson. Showering the community in promises of grants prior to an election
Yeah, pure pork barrelling, it’s disgraceful.
You would think there would be some sort of accountability but no. Look at survival day numbers. Professional run events are an asset but poorly run events are an unnecessary cost. Possibly there could be some public input to the events and the funding?
Fran O’Callaghan said it all with her correct idea …. ALL community grants for community events be capped at $5000. The perpetual tide request has become an expectation, whioch in many cases, creates understandable ratepayer resentment, a far cry from creating community cohesion.
Fran was a wise old owl, R.I.P. The other issue with things like grants and ‘sponsorship’ money is that some organisations start to rely on those monies on a regular or annual basis. That is dangerous and can become a real issue if the lifeline is severed. Some councils are scared to look bad so to speak, so they keep funding the same organisations year in year out. How a council that is borderline financially broke can afford $330k for Wedgwood and other tens of thousands of dollars on community grants has me fucked.
And The ‘Pie still wants to know who camew up with the idea and what was the reasoning. Sending a valuable niche art/craft exhibition to Townsville is not exactly coals to Newcastle, is it?
Anyone heard any attendance figures yet?
Where’s Mike Douglas? I’m seriously worried.
Mike is busy taking English and grammar lessons.
Re Troy Thompson wanting $1mil. Why didn’t the new Minister for Local Gov sack him when she had the chance. Geeezzzzz.
Because, despite what we all think of him, she agreed with the former governments offer, and wasn’t going to stick her neck out and sack him.
https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/com/LGSBCSC-AACA/EPSL-20EC/Hon%20Ann%20Leahy%20MP,%20Minister%20for%20Local%20Government%20and%20Water%20and%20Minister%20for%20Fire,%20Disaster%20Recovery%20and%20Volunteers.pdf
She didn’t sack him because it is simply not that easy. It takes time. And Twonames does have himself a case, so the Government is moving slowly, ticking off boxes and trying to cover their asses. Our democratically elected conman WILL get a payment, the amount at this stage is anybody’s guess. I’m hoping it’s at the lower end of the scale, however our shyster mayor has played this game before and knows how to game the system.
She could have sacked him but chose not to – this was reported in the Bulletin a while back.
In the Bulletin, must be true…. Haha
KAP have lost their tiny little minds. Any last teensy weensy shred of credibility they may have had is gone.
https://kattersaustralianparty.org.au/media-release/working-together-for-queensland-katters-and-rennick-join-forces-for-senate/
Nails, coffin, anybody?
Could be worse, KAP could be working along with the Trumpet of Patrions and a few of Troy Thompsons cooker mates.
Rennick is one of Troy Thompson’s cooker mates. Cooker hero even
Maybe he is?
So he’s dead, a couple of days late, let’s see if he gets better
Currently tootling about the UK and there is almost no where you are not paying for parking. Staying at a hotel- that will be an extra tenner. Visiting a place of interest- two quid an hour. The “beach” (where long pants and puffer jackets are still de rigueur) that will be another two quid an hour (this mouse was definitely not visiting the beach, but hiking up the nearby headland to visit a ruined castle). Townsville residents don’t know how lucky they have it.
That’s like saying Jews in Australia bare lucky Hitler’s not in charge. And we’re lucky because we resisted the Strand move, but still copped a sharp price rise elsewhere recently.
Given the parlous state of British governance, there is still no economic equivalence between the two countries.
Well “la souris blanche” the UK is a postage stamp size with a population 69,000,000, living on a postage stamp compared to Oz; with less than half that number living on a continent +50 times larger.
Ergo no physical reason for Oz to keep people moving on all the time!
That’s good, provision of parking spaces costs money and that should be recouped on a user pays basis, as long as alternate methods of transport are available.
My mother lives in cardiff ; without any prompting about parking or being aware of my involvement she told me an interesting story about a pub in cardiff/ nearby.
There was a successful pub at the end of some jetty type roadway that led into the sea, been there for years , plenty of parking because of the long wall. It was very popular.
One day the local council introduced parking meters like Townsville council because as Townsville council freely pointed out in its strand parking manifesto – it raises revenue. The entire length of the road was covered in parking meters. After a short time people started drifting away from the pub because of the inconvenience of the paid parking. Before long the pub had closed due to lack of custom. After a few years all the parking meters were removed as they were guarding an empty road and a business they had destroyed. My mother was parked up on the road to be near the ocean whilst telling me.
Councils and other government body state / federal are able to inflict great damage to a civilisation because they aren’t accountable , their wages are secure and go up with inflation. The second piece of the puzzle is that the voter base doesn’t care which means livelihoods are destroyed without a second thought. We need to start caring or face more consequences.
I’m still hearing that story about townsville council trying to get old people out of their homes on magnetic Island ( after spending a fortune in legal fees), the council is curiously fanatical about doing this which does make me wonder if someone has taken a bribe to use Ratepayer money to do this ????????
Its the natural consequence of a stupidity crisis in townsville and across ” Australia” .
Well! Taffy maybe you should go for a visit, we all are capable of making other people happy; some as we arrive and some as we leave!!!!
Perhaps when you leave you’ll lower the stupidity level, by a generous margin!
Well to be fair, you’ll still be here so the stupidity index won’t shift much.
OUCHA!
Touche, Guy!
Has everything to do with Ma Greaney and Hill, it should have all been grandfathered, then they wait, but the own a nice parcel of land in the guts of Amaroo.. waiting for that DA to be mentioned.
Maybe you should go back to the UK for a visit. Pubs are constantly closing over there
Guy I have a question. You said in your post….” My mother lives in cardiff ; without any prompting about parking or being aware of my involvement she told me an interesting story…”
What fucking involvement is that? Tell her you’re dreamin’.
Didn’t you see me on the strand every Sunday morning / afternoon ? First with a petition then with a mandate. The mandate against the parking meters was very popular, i encouraged everyone to take some home and start printing their own copies and bring them back to me. someone mentioned to me that that a pile of these things had turned up at their workplace – nothing to do with me , there must have been untold copies floating around.
There was a guy called Trevor stood out council chambers for weeks – he’s more hardcore than me.
Loooking back on it , the parking meters debacle was a great opportunity for me to make contacts with the voting public.
Are you referring to the voters whom you insist are stupid because they don’t vote for you?
Certainly sounds like it, doesn’t it?
Don’t worry kenny , I had a long conversation with anyone who’d listen about the voting habits of the electorate.
The UK is certainly not a place to be looked up to. IMO.
We don’t need to tread the same path but here we are treading the same baby steps…
Guy said; “they aren’t accountable , their wages are secure and go up with inflation”.
So true Guy. And they get generous vehicle allowances and phone/computer/travel/credit card and other perks. They get the highest superannuation benefits, my last recollection it was 15.75% for public servants and their fatcat bosses. And get this, federal politicians have enshrined in legislation the protection of their superannuation. If there is a GFC or similar event, their super isn’t touched. The rest of us lose out and our super is decimated, but not theirs, it’s protected. It’s a fucking disgrace.
As George Carlin said; “ It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it”.
So, Albo and Dutton took a day off electioneering out of respect for the Pope?
Ya reckon?
Given the news saturation of the Popes death, Albo or Dutton today could have done the dance of the flaming arsehole on the front bar of the hotel of your choice and it would not have made the news, so, today, why bother today.
Just saw the Green Energy Forum wrap by Claudia, the rubbish continues to flow, no idea, just a mouth peace and not even a good one.
One wishes her mouth was peaceful.
I’m still waiting for an explanation of how millions of ratepayers money was spent buying parking meters for The Strand BEFORE they were approved by the full council.
Perhaps temporary mayor Greaney can enlighten us.
LOOKS INCREASINGLY LIKE DUTTON IS MUTTON.
ALP increases election-winning two-party preferred lead to 55.5% cf. 44.5% L-NP as early voting has now started
If a Federal Election were held now the ALP would be returned to Government with an increased majority with the ALP on 55.5% (up 1% point from a week ago) ahead of the L-NP Coalition on 44.5% (down 1%) on a two-party preferred basis, the latest Roy Morgan survey finds.
The Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating was unchanged at an 18-month high of 86 – although still below the neutral level of 100. Now 48% (down 0.5%) of Australians say the country is ‘going in the wrong direction’ compared to 34% (down 0.5%) say the country is ‘going in the right direction’.
This was the first week in which all candidates for the Federal Election were known and support for both major parties increased at the expense of Independents and Other Parties. Primary support for the ALP increased 2.5% to 34.5% and is now just ahead of the Coalition on 34%, up 0.5%.
Support for the Greens was unchanged at a six-month high of 14.5% (helping boost the Albanese Government’s two-party preferred result) and support for One Nation was unchanged at 6%.
NOTE: Early voting statistics released by the Australian Electoral Commission show over 540,000 Australians voted on the first day of early voting – Tuesday April 22, 2025. This is up by over 200,000 on the first day of early voting from 2022.
Naww… you know it’d be a shame to see Dutton lose his seat and the LNP have to find a credible leader from the rabble they have
The best outcome for the Coalition win or lose would be for Dutton to lose his seat. The Liberals need to get back the principles they’ve abandoned.
Morgan is very friendly towards Labor, knock 2-3% off that. It’ll probably end up around 52-48.
And I’m not surprised if this is the quality
of candidates
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/fake-reviews-a-bewildered-family-following-the-threads-of-a-candidate-s-business-empire-20250422-p5lthj.html
The LNP have had an uncharacteristically weak campaign. Dutton is also unappealing to many voters. Had the LNP not campaigned on nuclear power, and had a more likeable leader, they might have gotten this election over the line. But it’s not looking good and it would seem that we will be stuck with the lisping Labor fool for another term.
Perhaps social media stuff like this hasn’t helped.
That wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t said things like Trump being shrewd and reasonable and a big thinker after he announced his Gaza Riviera plan.
Or announced a DOGE of his own with Jacinta Price in charge. Or said public service needed cutting. Or suggested work from home should end. Or suggested schools are indoctrinating school children with woke.
If he hadn’t done any of that, the pictures on the internet would still be comparing him to Voldemort.
The first leader after a federal election loss never usually takes the party to the next election. The liberals should have had a rethink a few years ago and rolled Dutton. Hastie is the name everyone puts forward as the next leader, but to be honest none of the shadow cabinet is very strong, which is probably part of the reason why they’ve failed to do the work of developing a strong policy platform.
They all know full well that we plebs are just pawns on their chess board; Dutton was never EVER going to be electable, same for most of his female “plastic’ dumb blonds (no apologies to the feminists who abandoned females throughout the recent Moslem insurgency)
Its now (always was) so apparent that no matter who you vote for, you’re going to get a politician.
An amazing creature that can say, yes and no at the same time while agreeing and disagreeing simultaneously that black is white and vice versa.
Quantum Physics is child’s play compared to this conundrum.
I hate to say it, but I hope the ALP romps it in. I would sacrifice a LNP government for an ALP government in its own right. The thought of The Greens holding the country to ransom is just too terrifying to contemplate.
Couple of comments, sorry get behind because of other tasks.
1. Grants. The targeted groups for grants seems to be aimed at ethnic groups. It seems to be forgotten that most of them are either ratepayers or married to ratepayers. So, it’s wrong for them to get back something?
I didn’t see any criticism of the largesse doled out to adult and junior sporting clubs. Once again, why shouldn’t they receive something back. FFS, why do we give a multimillion club like the Cowboys a grant?
Finally, TCC grabs back most of what it hands out to ethnic groups when they hold their various festivals. Thank God they do, because we need the colour. Aussies can’t get past footy, booze or cricket on our cultural days. Or, is total hedonism or new culture?
If the council was in a good financial position no one would have a problem with grants. The point is that the council is fucked and should focus on essentials. So sporting clubs should also not get cash handouts.
I’m afraid ALL grants will need to be revoked, the debt created by successive councils means tough decisions. That doesn’t mean that spiteful taxes, fines, licenses and parking meters should fill the void. We no longer have the luxury of handing out any more free money over to various organisations given the parlous nature of council finances – just putting it out there.
The whole council management structure needs to take a haircut , no more CEOs on 750,000. No council manager should be earning anymore than a councillor – if they figure they won’t work for such paltry wages , find a new job. The council can’t afford any more wage increases across the board. No more waste or brilliant ideas such as “smart meters” , meters already exist , use them instead of spending millions to replace whatever already works ( smart meters are brought in to charge more for power and water eg it costs more to use water at 4pm – 8pm than 1am )
Council is not a charity, in times of plenty, sure help extraneous groups, in times of hardship the hand outs need to stop. Councillors will use Ratepayers money to prop up voter blocks in up coming elections. You’ll see councillors and wannabe councillors getting involved with various groups before elections ( volunteers/ members/ orgsnisers) all they need to do is pour honey into the ears and money into the hands of those they are “helping” and the deal is done. It doesn’t hurt to get money from developers either. I’ve seen donations for council elections coming from “businesses” titled after their address.
Yawn…Guy…Boring….zzzzzzzz
Excellent summary Jarrad, I think you’ve captured the essence of Guys comment perfectly.
You either don’t pay rates or are rich. Its that attitude that imploded the country.
The a place fornyou at MyPlace, Guy.
My money is on a Labor win. It might be close and there will be a swing towards the Independents, but Labor will win. I’m a political atheist and don’t rate neither of the mainstream parties as worth pissing on, but the raw data is what it is. Three more years of a woke, spineless Prime Minister who has done more to set this country back than any other PM that I know of. The future is not bright.
You obviously weren’t around in the Howard era. Our worst PM by a long shot … we’re still living with the aftermath.
And you obviously weren’t around for the ScoMo years.
Trumpet of Patriots Roadside Billboards
Just return home from Brisbane via the Bruce Cattle Track.
From my observations all TOP billboards except one were ammend with policy No.3 (Freedom of speech) blanked out, seemingly professionally, as in all cases, a neat black rectangle.
I would love to know the sequence clusterfucks that led to this very public screw-up, OR, is this a very cunning Clive Palmer plan to generate discussion about his circus.
YouGov now has Labor on 53.5-46.5 on two-party preferred, so either Dutton is mutton as you say or it’s going to be a polling error greater than 2019.
I think it’s a genuine result though: the Liberal Party in Canada has seen a similar turnaround in fortunes since Trump.
The Poll Bludger blog’s poll tracker chart shows how striking the turnaround is.
What’s now very disturbing is that LNP are preferencing One Nation. That shows utter desperation and a further move towards ultranationalism, and right-wing populism. Undermining the values of the LNP
It’s also stupid, they’d already get most of the preferences from one nation voters so why do a deal? If they want to win back teal seats they’ve shot themselves in the foot.
So an adult ticket to the Wedgwood display is $25.00, meanwhile down the street at the museum an adult ticket for the deep sea exploration exhibition is $16.50. I know which one sounds like better value for money.
Aside from the overall cost of hiring the display, Wedgwood is the first paid admission display that Perc Tucker has done “to bring them into line with other galleries”.
Is the gallery going to be paid admission permanently now? This is a major change in policy for a venerable local (ratepayer funded!) institution. Who made that decision? Why does the gallery need to be brought into line? This should have been as much a public discussion as parking meters on the Strand.
You bet it should.
And The ‘Pie still wants to know how the decision was reached to shell out for such an exotic, niche display. What indication of demand or success drove this weird decision? Charging $25 entry would normally suggest an overwhelming demand.
It’s pretty simple and justified question: who made this decision and why? And how are attendances so far?
They’d need 123 adult visitors a day at $25 a head to break even on the exhibition fee alone ($339,436 / 110 days / $25).
Is it confirmed if that cost is the exhibition fee or total budget?
I assume they’re not aiming to make a profit or even break even but there are a lot of cheaper displays out there, eg this is $6,500, they could have got 50 of it for the same price.
https://nga.gov.au/media/dd/documents/National_Gallery_Touring_Exhibition_-_Clarice_Beckett.pdf
The TCC would have to add into that financial equation 24/7 security. Can’t imagine the owners of this ‘priceless’ exhibition risking an unscheduled tea party by adventurous local youth.
Has the TB had a visit to this “display”? If not, why not? If yes, did they request stats on the average daily attendance?
100 per day – missed a month ????
One reason I heard for the admission fee is that we’re controlling the number of people in the gallery at one time. So when you booked you were given a time to show up.
So it’s popular? And why would you charge such a swingeing amount just to say your coming?
They could use a free ticketing system if they just want to reserve slots.
It’s very optimistic of them to think the gallery would be overrun with hordes of pottery buffs.
… with a lazy $25 burning a whole in their Zegna threads.
Surely TEL would be able to provide the data on how many people have paid to see this exciting ceramic display? After all, Gill the Dill and Claudia Bull-shit are now the go to team for all local events.
Doubt it. If things run true to form, the Perc Tucker management (aka TCC) will keep attendance numbers and income a tightly held secret (wonder if they’ll try CinC?) Or, on the other hand, instead tell us the gleaming, unvarnished, unproven truth of the record breaking numbers for the event, like they do with the V8s.
I did see one person comment on Facebook that they’d come from interstate to see it, so TEL will be tallying up the visitor nights as we speak
On one hand.
I suspect Mrs Greaney would have been behind the push for this exhibition.
Why?
I think it’s more likely to be the gallery director who initiated it, probably wanting to add a prestigious international exhibition to the roster before bailing ship for another job.
Doubt very much it would be his call, but even if it was … actually especially if it was … then a explanation of the basis for the decision is still definitely required.
Forking out money, no matter where it came from, in the current economic climate is the stuff of ‘let them eat cake … off a Wedgwood platter’.
The director is a she I believe
https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/about-council/news-and-publications/media-releases/2023/november/art-expert-takes-on-councils-galleries-gig
It is normal for public galleries to charge entry for high profile exhibits from time to time. It doesn’t mean the fees will be permanent. The costs for this exhibit and the associated programs, curators, insurance, logistics etc would have been high. What’s the problem with recouping some of the costs by charging a nominal entry fee? That is how these international travelling exhibitions work. I hope there are more and the success of this exhibit recognises Townsville as a worthwhile host for future exhibits and programs.
Haven’t the ratepayers (mostly unwillingly one imagines) already forked out over $340,000 for the pleasure? If not ratepayers, certainly taxpayers. And your comment ignores the facts oif the current financial position of the council.
The council is more focused on pots than potholes.
A nominal fee would be a gold coin donation, not $25.
Maybe they won’t charge for admission for every exhibition, but they’ll have a strong incentive to now the precedent is set.
The decision to recoup costs wouldn’t be needed if they were more thrifty with their expenditure. There are lots of quality, cheaper exhibits out there that could be hired for a fraction of the cost, and the benefit of hosting Wedgwood is highly questionable.
Someone at the council/gallery has champagne taste and a beer budget, and this episode reeks of personal or career aggrandisement instead of delivering a benefit to the community.
The precedent you fear will surely be entirely dependent on the success of this quixotic exercise. Whatever the outcome, given the dollars involved, this has been piss poor decision making in the current climate … and even if the forward planning for this puts it back in Jenny’s court, the financials were just as bad then … thanks to her mainly.
It was genius forward planning – now no one can say that the council doesn’t have a pot to piss in.
Maybe they should hire out the wedgewood exhibition for other events like a Greek wedding ?
That’s actually funny, Guy
Food Trucks was on display at the pregame Anzac Ceremony at Cowboys v Titans. She stood there with right hand on heart during the ceremony. Nobody else on the field or in shots of crowd had the hand on heart. I googled it and the only reference I could find was that the USA do it, as I thought. I stand to be corrected but does this woman have a protocol advisor.
More evidence of American cultural imperialism. Did see one bloke at the MCG do that too …quite a telling little Aussie vignette, because despite in being a solemn moment, the bloke behind him was swigging a beer.
I was at the Football. People around me were doing hand on hearts. I did my usual sit down through it all. National Anthems have no place at the football unless it is an International. Anzac Day was yesterday so a no for me on that.
The Welcome to Country was observed respectfully which was good to see.