Yep, The Townsville Bulletin has made it official … everything from life expectancy, smoking rates to being fat or becoming a crim, God knows, having an ingrown toenail is SOMEBODY ELSE’S FAULT. But there’s something else afoot for the paper to be whipping up this inane hysteria. The Magpie beaks around.
Also, going through the motions … it looks like Townsville Enterprise’s has adopted a pretend tender process … or else they really do think we’re all dopey.
And proof why an entertainment/convention center is more urgent than a stadium … the neglect of the current entertainment center is reaching the stage where it is rapidly becoming an accident waiting to happen.
And looking after your own … News Corpse’s vain attempt to protect a Maiden’s honour.
But first …
Bentley’s all bent out of shape this week over the continuing problem of our youth crime. And he recognizes the fact that the wallopers face double trouble when the little snots team up to outwit the bluebags.
But as the Bulletin so kindly let’s the youngsters know, IT ISN’T THEIR FAULT. The paper has joined all other News Corpse regionals around the country in a campaign to get a better financial deal for the regions … and until they do, we should have a massive fit of the sulks.
But that’s fair enough, as far as it goes, there is inequity there, and there needs to be sane, reasoned and compelling arguments put forward to rectify the situation. Indeed,Tony Raggatt has had a stab at that approach, but his method has been all but drowned out in complete nonsense from the likes of ‘economist’ Colin Dwyer and a raft of other irrelevant and unhelpful oncers spouting twaddle about an unattainable new North Queensland state, which, even if the wheels were set in motion, would not contribute one iota to the immediate and very real problems of the region.
And Iditor Ben Bogan, who thought up this idea to start with, quickly went for the familiar overkill. The campaign with lower life expectancy figures for people in the regions as versus the city. It ignored the fact that most indigenous people live outside the main cities, and it is well known that for a variety of factors, their life expectancy is many years lower than the rest of us. And that makes that statistic lopsided, for a start, and as a good example of the selective interpretation of this farrago of half-information.
The iditor then (shudder) invited people to get in touch and have a moan about their pet peeves.
That has now ramped up into this, today’s wrap-round extra front page.
This is no more than a glorified vox pop … an elevated Text The Iditor … which encourages people to whinge about how it just isn’t fair.
On the other side is a deeply pointless questionnaire.
Ramping up the volts on adopting victimhood, often based on fallacious arguments, we are told all our woes are not of our making … those southern devils made us do it, be it get sick, drag on the fags too much, pig out on fast food, hit the bottle, become criminals. Whatever we are, WE are not to blame. No personal responsibility required. The questionnaire is slanted to back up that view.
Then on Tuesday came this piece of prize wankery.
Talk about up themselves!
In a classic bit of bureaucracy bashing, The Bulletin credited it’s call to Queensland Health with forcing that organization to immediately schedule an operation for a bloke with a bad back who had been ‘waiting’ for six years. But then we learn that the bloke had moved addresses several times between Townsville and Cairns, and letters seeking his attendance for surgery never reached him. And guess what? This unfortunate turkey admitted he hadn’t advised them of any of his changes of addresses. The fact is they wrote several letters to him for an operation, but he can’t of thought it serious enough to TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY of staying in touch.
In fact, what QH did was gratefully accept the information of his whereabouts, and caught up with him to make the necessary arrangements. But the bloke in question STILL refused to accept any responsibility for what was basically a plight of his own making, arguing that the letters should’ve been sent to his treating physician, although (and The ‘Pie knows this himself) they are sent directly to the patient who has been seen by surgeons.
So no responsibility there, which the paper not only applauded, but it freed it’s clapping hands long enough to give itself a spurious pat on the back. Sends a great message to our kids and other slack-arses and doesn’t do anything for those who genuinely try to make their own way in difficult times.but you can';t stop the Astonisher … there have been at least fikve mentions that a stand-alone stadium would go a long way towards fixing things.
They have no shame.
But There’s A Method In Their Self-Interested Madness
Those filling out that survey all provide their contact details … now, we’ve been here before, and yet again herein lies the real reason for this silliness. It is the push for digital subscribers to the paper.
Because no matter what the paper glibly mentions about use of the information and privacy blah blah , you agree to the rules under which data farming is conducted, which means News builds up a massive (they hope … ha!) database, to pepper people on the list with offers and requests to sign up.
So this Fair Go For The North , instituted by a deeply committed and caring, transplanted southern citizen of three months standing, is no more than a cynical effort to bring back the thousands of disillusioned ex-readers who long ago gave up on the trivialized stories and unfunny punning headlines of this poor man’s Sydney Telegraph.
Good luck folks … latest circ figures are out in a couple of weeks or so.
He Swore Them In, And They Promptly Swore Him Out.
Award winning TCC CEO Ray Burton has bitten the dust … the official story is that he resigned just after he had sworn in the new council, but the odds are that what we’ve seen is the first taste of Mayor Mullet’s rubber stamp council.
As The Magpie has said for the last few weeks, Mayor Mullet has been dusting of her Ray-gun to settle an old score … her initial attempts a few years ago to divest herself of a pragmatic, non-political Ray Burton ended with egg all over her face, when authorities called her accusations against him for what they were … lies. But now, with Townsville First but a memory, she had the ammunition for her Ray-gun, in the form of 10 rounds of dum-dum and hollowheads (at least on this issue).
Mayor Mullet is consistent and faithful to her Labor roots … she is a great example of the ALP’s central tenet … never forget and never forgive. Little doubt, one or other the mayor’s faithful carny barkers will hotfoot it to the MagpieFone, to tell the old bird ‘Oh, dearie me, know you silly old coot, Ray resigned, it was his decision alone’. Right, of course … and I’m the Queen of Romania, as Dorothy Parker once famously said.
The ‘Pie has known for sure for weeks, that Burton was on the way out if The Mullet got a majority, and of course he knew it, too. But it was confirmed on the best authority it was more a matter of how he would go, and he wanted it on his own terms.
So can there be any doubt that the faced with a fait accompli, Burton did a deal to go quietly by being allowed to resign rather than forced out by a vote.
It was probably in the Mayor’s own interests that she agreed to this form of a cold dish of revenge, otherwise she would appear spiteful, vindictive and petty … and we can’t have that in our community leader, now can we.
But it seems she couldn’t resist a little nipple twist in the end … Burton’s contract isn’t up until July, but as of his resignation, he’s was instantly ‘on holidays’ until then, so he’s out of as now. And that little detail tends to confirm he was given the bum’s rush.
So welcome to Jennifer Hill’s Walker Street Aerobics Club ‘hands up, vote, down, nod and again …’
Quote of the Year (so far).
Who said this:
‘Ray (Burton) led the council organisation over two terms and oversaw many major projects. There have been many highlights, including the Flinders Street and Jezzine Barracks redevelopments, construction of the mount St. John treatment plant, Blakey’s and Dalrymple Road crossing upgrades and development of a new city plan.’
Was it:
1.Vern Veitch
2. Editor of the Townsville Bulletin
3. Chamber of Commerce spokesperson.
Answer: None of the above. It was Jenny Hill in today’s Astonisher, reviewing Ray Burton’s tenure. But hang on … although a long way incomplete of the achievements of the Burton years at the helm, that’s a pretty good record over the time for a ‘disruptive, split council’ with a CEO who ‘withheld information’ from the mayor (she lied) and blocked her at every turn.
Goodness, you don’t mean to say that the mayor and the Daily Astonisher have been telling porkies all along about the state of affairs in Walker Street.
Nah, couldn’t be. Could it?
Not So Entertaining News
The ‘Pie has said it before, and now has proof. The argument for the stadium/entertainment/convention center in the CBD has been arse up and about face from the start. A new entertainment center would make money, and so would a convention center, whereas a stadium won’t … according to a KPMG report, a stadium would lose $2.4m annually, and employ just 31 people. But yes, a three-in-one project is the ideal way to go if the finance is viable and available.
But now, it seems while a new stadium can be argued for a few years yet, that is not the case for the current entertainment center.
It seems to be a ‘thing of rags and tatters’ in the G&s phrase. The ‘Pie is told that there was significant roof damage in the recent rains, and that repairs have only been jury rigged, with no permanent repairs decided for the moment.
One of the projected reasons behind this is the reluctance of new casino owner Chris Morris to have anything to with upgrading or even maintaining the facility, of which he own s a third (it came with the casino and hotel, with the TCC owning the other two thirds).
The Ville’s Chris Morris
The ‘Pie hears that Mr Morris is reluctant to even cough up what is required under the sale agreement, and certainly won’t go any further than that. That is going to pose some interesting questions for Mayor Mullet and her new aerobics class in Walker Street, but Ewen Jumbo Dumbo Jones might make some mileage out of, since he is on record as saying ‘his’ government doesn’t finance sports stadia, but could stump for an entertainment and convention center.
Whatever, it sounds that very soon the entertainment centre will be living up to its name The Swamp.
Cardwell Capers (Chapter 2)
Seems that things are getting nasty up in Cardwell over the wrangling about ownership the Yasi-devastated resort. And exiled grub Craig Gore is still watching and waiting from afar.
Once again, the learn of this, we have to turn to the Curious Snail’s Anthony Marx for the low jinx (didn’t see anything in the Astonisher about it).
Saving A Maiden’s ‘Honour’
From time to time, journalists themselves become the news, like the ABC Four Corners team banged up briefly in Malayasia recently, and in the past couple of days, reporter Tara Brown and her Sixty Minutes crew in Lebanon, said to have been caught organizing and filming an abduction grab-back of two Australian kids off the streets of Beirut. The kids’ Lebanese father had taken them on holidays and had then refused to return them to Australia and their mother.
But then there are those in the media who like to keep their errant staff out of the limelight. Occasionally, a high ptofile journo who commits an offence which would be a front page screamer if it were anyone else, suddenly becomes a protected species as their management goes into damage control. Because the sad fact is that journos everywhere enjoy a touch of the old schadenfreude, that pleasure derived from others misfortune. There is no doubt an element ‘there but for the grace etc’ in this traditional response, especially to their professional colleagues.
And such is the case of a very silly Samantha Maiden, the chief political correspondent in Canberra for News Corpse’ Sunday Telegraph.
After a night on the turps (Sunday March 20) at a party laden with notables, Ms Maidens decided on a midnight ramble in her car between Canberra and Goulburn. Her weaving way drew the attention of patrolling wallopers, who eventually cornered her in a cul-de-sac and subsequently loaded her up with a raft of quite serious charges, including failing to stop for police and dangerous driving, let alone driving while on the fizz.
A Goulburn magistrate subsequently told Maiden that she was in very real danger of spending time in the chokey, when the matter comes back before him.
But here’s the double standards department. The Sunday telegraph’s sister publication, The Daily Telegraph ran a small mention on page 6 the following day, and the incident did not appear on any News website. And that was the end of that … for a while.
What makes this interesting is that Maiden has a touch of malice, and has never been shy of laying in the slipper when others transgress, including getting inappropriately pissed leading to inappropriate behavior ( in Jamie Brigg’s case, in a Hong Kong bar). (As Mongrel the Barrister put it so delicately ‘ Getting arse-faced and then behaving like one’.)
The rivalry between Fairfax and News is fierce and legendary, and the mutual loathing very real, so Joe Aston gleefully and cruelly went to town in the (Fairfax) Australian Financial Review.
It would be a double punishment if, as Crikey.com so colourfully put it … Maiden should ‘go to the Big House’. It means she will probably miss the federal election, seen as one of the more entertaining ones of past years … but then, what use is a journo who can’t drive?
Not much … believe it, The ‘Pie knows.
Tender Feelings
This from a commenter a couple days ago, which set alarm bells ringing.
Hee – Haw
April 7, 2016 at 2:11 pm (Edit)
I see our mates at TEL are tendering for a contractor to bring events into Townsville, funny I thought that was TEL’s job in the first place but to send out tender documents on the 6th of April with a closing deadline of the 11th April effectively giving 3 working days (yes I know some of us work weekends too) to put it together and submit it is ridiculous and its only a 4 month gig. To think major events are scheduled and planned within 4 months tells me something and apparently has an April start date go figure. I think this lack of planning for a tender would say its past time some people tender their resignation and we put people into place who can do the job.
That invited this response from someone who knows.
Sandgroper
April 7, 2016 at 5:44 pm (Edit)
The whole exercise smells of either panic, rodent or both, Hee-Haw. I urge all readers to Google ‘Tenders — Townsville Enterprise’ to see what I mean. The eight-page invitation to tender is clumsily worded and it would be near-impossible for any individual or organisation to prepare a credible submission addressing all the criteria in the time available.
As a person who has organised and promoted scores of major events, I can only think that TEL wants to make it appear the process has been thrown open to public tender but is making sure nobody accepts the invitation.
So The ‘Pie had a beak around and replied thus.
The Magpie April 7, 2016 at 6:53 pm (Edit)
An amazingly stacked document with timelines that invite a close analysis of the eventual appointees. Have a look if you have time but skip to the end bits about criteria for applicants. In both cases, they want people with national connections, but say ‘Townsville Enterprise member preferable’. Here’s a tip … on the digital consultancy, keep an eye out for either a Townsville Bulletin staff member ‘seconded’ (allowed special leave), and same goes for the other role, with [possibly someone already designated) from the Townsville City Council … Jeff Jimmeson has been getting some public exposure lately. Then of course, there’s Dolan Hayes, Mayor Mullet’s bright-spark campaign manager … Mayor Mullet of course being deputy chair of the TEL board … wonder if she’ll be on the selection committee. The totally unrealistic timeframe and the carefully worded criteria reeks to high heaven of a stitch up. But don’t expect to see anything in the Bulletin … given the low level of the use of language, it wouldn’t be surprising if they wrote it(as a favour to Lozza, no doubt). Anyway, if you have the time, the criteria stuff is towards the end of the document.
One to watch.
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