In a classic, text book case of turning adversity to advantage, Mayor Mullet’s minders (its way too clever for her alone) have come up with a doozy – the new Belcarra laws as a re-election campaign weapon. The Magpie dives in behind the scenes to explain the creation of the Belcarra Bludgeon.
But while all that’s going on, the question so oft asked around this bend in the river … what the hell is our beloved mayor up to now with the on-again, off-again and apparently on-again Council Development Corporation?
… Astonisher iditor Jenna Cairney makes an honest woman of herself … sort of. And is there a subtle message in a hdurieeadline betraying the paper’s council election stance?
…and why Clive Palmer isn’t the only villain in the Yabulu job losses saga.
(Bentley’s on another break, lucky bugger)
State Legislation Trash Is Mayor Mullet Treasure
Queensland’s half-arsed new rules on developers political donations in Queensland … known as the Belcarra laws after the inquiry in the issue … has suddenly presented our embattled mayor with an unexpected weapon in her panicked efforts to remain in her cushy job.
Jenny Hill has launched a scare campaign about the laws putting councillors … and herself … in jeopardy of transgressing the legislation.
She has been featured in several blame-shifting stories pushing this line, hinting at the personal risk that councillors may face if they ‘inadvertently’ break the new conflict of interest laws.
Let us put aside for the moment the fact that the basis for the laws is sensible but incomplete, and should include other businesses besides developers if the logic of influence is to be followed.
At first it seemed Mayor Mullet was up to her usual tricks of declining to make decisions demanded of her council in case they were electorally unpopular, and giving potential electorally dangerous decisions to the CEO. But maybe not, perhaps the motive was a little more cynical (yes, hard to believe I know, but there ya go …).
It seems Jenny had a light bulb moment, recognising the value of making the job of a councillor appear financially perilous personally, subject to dastardly ruinous entrapment by hazy new rules in the this area …’there so easily goes the house, the car and next year’s European holiday’ was the unspoken suggestion. But this strategy wasn’t to boost the heroic status of Team Hill … it was an ideal way to scare off ordinary decent people who may have been contemplating a run for Walker Street, to replace her and her tired arm-lifting aerobics class of councillors.
The greater the risk from ill-defined laws, the greater the chance potential candidates would not be game to risk it.
That latest tissue thin example of those ‘dangers’ was the ‘potential conflict of interest’ withdrawal by the entire council on the matter of a Strand development.
Although a developer seeking approval for a project on The Strand was not a political donor to Team Hill, an uninvolved third party (Craig Stack) who made a submission simply saying the project was a good idea, was a donor, having donated the princely sum of $900 or so to Team Hill last election. On this one ground alone, Jenny Hill said she received legal advice that there could be a conflict of interest problem, and hand-balled the decision to CEO Mike Chiodo. She and civic bus conductor and deputy mayor Les Walker moaned on and on about the hazards they faced from Belcarra.
The ‘ville’s idiot, Les Messagebank Walker
In fact, Les Walker, being the ‘ville’s idiot, gave the game away by being as subtle as a grenade in a bowl of porridge when we read in the Astonisher:
Cr Walker said the law reforms, which has imposed strict rules on councillors tied to harsh penalties, would make the landscape difficult for new entrants. “It shouldn’t be an issue, anybody and everybody should be able to nominate without having to think of any potential handicaps or conflicts of because of where they used to work or what they’re interested in or what their family might be involved in,” he said.
Even Jenny probably shook her head at that smack-forehead effort, but was glad that it was Les who said and not her. Plausible on the face of it but that seemed all way too convenient, until The Magpie realised the real intent was to create what we shall call the Belcarra Bludgeon, a handy political weapon to scare off any potential opposition by making public office a perilous, undesirable occupation. It’s one of her more clever cons, so much so that one wonders if occasional Mullet whisperer Dolan Hayes is back on board, such is the artful and subtle Belcarra scare campaign.
Too far fetched? She’s done worse, and if this conspiracy theory by The Magpie is incorrect, he will eat his hat … the tin foil one he borrowed from Peter Newey to write this piece.
That Unicorn Battery Factory Is Looking Rarer By The Day
It was inevitable really. No, not the regulation typo in the headline … don’t they know it’s spelt lie it’s said … it’s ‘gumminint’.
Consider this … tiny wannabee big company Magnis Energy Technologies, a private company, asked the gullible galoots in George Street for $3.1million of Queensland taxpayers money for a feasibility study to see if this battery factory project is a goer. A rare way for a private company to finance the feasibility of a blue sky venture, a weird blend of socialism and capitalism, but damnation, would you believe it, they’ve done the $3.1million worth of numbers and, according to the latest in a long line of Magnis snake oil salesmen, MD Marc Vogts, ‘ …our feasibility study indicated the project is financially sound.’ Well, to quote a gay expression of surprise, I’ll be buttered on both sides. Whodda thort?
But wait, Mr Vogts told the paper he had some more voltage with which to shock the taxpayers hip pockets. He is looking at a Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan to kick start the venture, because as he told the Astonisher that sucke … sorry … investors are hard to come by in these times.
Mr Vogts said the next major stage of getting the battery plant started was securing finance. “There’s a couple of challenges for us, and probably the most significant one is raising the finance,” he said. “But we’ve put ourselves in the best position to do that.”
So we’re only three construction stages and $3billion away from happy days being here again. And we wonder if this staged project will be like others in struggling vainly towards fruition … such as the stage two of the stadium/entertainment/convention centre.
And What The Hell Is This, Pray Tell, Madam Mayor?
This little snippet turned up this week, which makes one wonder if there are dots to be joined.
There is still not explanation of why the original council Development Company EA2 is being wound up without having done a thing, but it is even stranger that a new council company suddenly pops up, without explanation or any publicly announced purpose. Something to do with the battery factory maybe? Or the council’s Lansdown Industrial Park at Woodstock, where The ‘Pie has noticed something else that hasn’t been mentioned but may cost further council funds. Have a look at this map.
Note the bottom right hand corner, a 15km or so blue line labelled ‘planned water pipe’, which clearly is to service the Industrial Precinct.
The question is whether have funds already been allocated for this multi-million bit of infrastructure and who pays for it, and when? Under normal circumstances, it would be the industrial park tenants, one way or the other, but Mayor Mullet has gone to great lengths to plead, beg, wheedle and flog the idea to various groups (the unicorn battery factory is on a promise of free land), some of the other businesses water intensive operations (like the proposed hydrogen gas idea). So is she going to chuck in gratis multi-million dollar branch pipeline? If so, where’s the dough coming from? There doesn’t apear to be a mention of this anywhere The ‘Pie can find. Happy to be enlightened.
These are only questions but rather interesting ones, to which we folks ultimately footing the bill deserve transparent answers – hahahah, oh, The Pie does crack himself up sometimes. Possibly all sorted, all thought through, all above board, and The ‘Pie is being an old silly.
The Adani Airstrip Deal: Mystifying Many More.
An interesting observation from a Magpie chum who knows about these things sent in this view of the secrecy surrounding the deal around the proposed Adani airstrip to be built by the Townsville and Rockhampton councils. Adani is currently in court opposing the Right To Information Commissioner’s ruling that details of the deal must be released to the public.
Magpie mate wrote:
I’ve just been reading your coverage of the airport debacle. That OIC ruling is a good find – and the language is very strong. It’s odd the ABC hasn’t reported it, but I’m not completely surprised, given the political sensitivity.
The thing that really puzzles me is what could possibly be in that document that is worth this fight – particularly given the airport seems to not be part of Adani’s immediate plans now. You’ll notice that one of the parties to application to oppose the Term Sheet release is Wagners, who were supposed to be building the airport. That tells me that the term sheet would have mentioned them in some way. And by extension, the terms sheet would have awarded them the construction contract.
Now check out s226 of the local government regulation. Note “large sized contractual arrangement” is defined as anything worth more than $200,000…
226Large-sized contractual arrangement—tenders needed first
(1)A local government cannot enter into a large-sized contractual arrangement unless the local government first invites written tenders for the contract under section 228.
(2)This section is subject to division 3.
There are some exceptions, but none seems applicable here. I see that Mayor Hill has claimed that since the council(s) would not own the airport, no tender process was necessary. That statement, if true, opens up a whole new set of questions about responsibility, accountability and possible corrupt behaviour.
This is clearly a unique situation – the law probably didn’t envisage a council handing $15m to a private company, outside its area, to build a private piece of infrastructure which, to boot, it would not own and apparently have to lease back! But at the very least I think signing a term sheet to hand over $15m to Adani to pay Wagners would be argued a way of dodging a local government’s procurement responsibilities. It’s the sort of arrangement that local government could use for corrupt purposes, to funnel money / work to favoured businesses.
So, what are they hiding? Perhaps we’ll never know until and if a Supreme Court judge tells them to comply.
The Astonisher Goes Rogue … And Not Before Time
It seems reality has descended in a rush upon the Townsville Bulletin. All of a sudden, after nibbling around the edges of issues that should’ve have long ago been filed under ‘The Bleedin’ Obvious, Dept of:’ , the paper has gone full frontal on some of the issues The ‘Pie has been predicting all these years. This weekend, it was virtual blitzkrieg.
But there are some major problems with reality for some folk featured in the Bulletin, like this bloke …
… politician turned acadil and boofademic Paul Williams.
Talking about next March’s election and the current lack of opposition to Mayor Mullet, his prize goof quote:
‘It is possible there isn’t a “burning desire” to get rid of the Mayor. Cr Hill had emerged from difficult circumstances like the floods and an economic downturn as an “enhanced leader”.
Do me a bloody favour FCS! As the saying has it, not all the nuts are in Brazil.
Why Palmer Isn’t The Only Villain For Townsville Jobs
The ill-thought out, incomplete Belcarra legislation fits in neatly with the history of this Queensland’s government. The following needs not only to be told, but remembered.
Among The Palaszczuk government’s list of damning legacies will be its uncanny ability to draft legislation that are so poorly thought through that it ends up being totally counter productive. And massively damaging for the employment prospects of hundreds of Queenslanders.
Go back a few brief years and take the last minute ramming through of laws that related directly to Palaszczuk’s headlong chase to nail arch political opponent Clive Palmer. After exhaustive months of negotiations, a deal was just a signature away between all parties for Palmer to sell his Queensland Nickel interests to a giant Japanese industrial concern. and thus keep the staff at Yabulu in their jobs.
Then this bumbling, spite-driven government stepped in at the eleventh hour. Although advised that the deal to save more than 800 Townsville jobs could be put in jeopardy by some controversial clauses in planned land remedial laws, a vindictive Palaszczuk government barged ahead heedless and although their target was clearly aimed at punishing Palmer, the framing of the laws was an instant deal killer, by putting an open-ended financial burden on any buyer.
And that was that. The Japanese suddenly had no yen to be involved, took their bat and ball and went home, and more than 800 jobs in Townsville couldn’t be rescued.
What do Palmer and Palaszczuk have in common? Both put self-interest and personal spite ahead of the public good. And what’s the difference between Palmer and Palaszczuk? One’s smart, the other as dumb as a post. You choose.
HEALTH WARNING: This Item Includes An Image That May Be Harmful To Peter Newey’s Stability And Well-being.
Why wouldn’t she be smiling?
TEL had its AGM the other day, with some interesting little factoids emerging. It would seem PT Barnum’s dictum about suckers born very day is just as true today as ever, with Little Patty O’Callaghan assertion that ‘membership has increased’.
And the Annual Report made some more ponderable points, given that revenue was down 20%. It tells us that ‘executive remuneration’ (sounds better than ‘those with both front trotters in the trough’) for the four main management positions went up from $697k to $718k – seems no winds of recession buffet them down there at the new Wishing Well House –but as a percentage of total staffing costs, this self generosity went from 39% to 42%, so it would seem the troops below didn’t fare too well. And just to add a sour cherry on top, one of the four executives has been sacked and is under police investigation, and another has now left. On that investigation, surely one would’ve expected the auditors to make mention about the potential or real theft by McMillan on the bottom line. But not a word.
And are we to assume that TEL got the Bulletin to sub and proofread the report… it state’s that the auditors charged $17,500 for their services … up from $500 last year. An auditor for a tangled organisation like TEL charging $500 for an annual audit? … purleeese.
And now the disturbing bit for Pete Newey … a colourful and very positive pamphlet was printed out and placed on all the chairs at before the meeting started. The fact that the positive message was a project with which TEL has not had one iota of original or useful input is besides the point.
Get the heart pills out, Pete, and stay calm until help arrives.
Wank Of The Week
Shit, not those old guanciale furls again. So passe, dahling. From the Good Food Guide Annual Awards just announced.
Clearly not a Hasty Tasty.
Hah! That Nuthin Next To The Trump Chump
The Agent Orange prez has increased his wrestle with language and logic now that impeachment proceedings are underway (which, as a fearless Magpie prediction, will end up nowhere and Trump will not leave office until he is defeated by Elizabeth Warren in next year’s election).
Silver tongue he is not, but thank heavens he isn’t a doctor.
But it was his slow disintegration caused by the impeachment issues that dominated the week in America.
And The ‘Pie is well aware that there are those of you think the old bird is a bit insistent with his reporting on Trump, and that its all a dastardly plot by evil forces. Well, perhaps your right, he’s just a loving family man, making a crust to keep his nearest and dearest from the cold, cold world.
And when was the last time you EVER heard a President of the United States use this kind of language publicly? A president incidentally, who got more than three million votes less than his opponent, but got home because of the loopy electoral college rules. This bloke just makes things up.
And Finally, …
… a visual depiction of how The Magpie feels every Saturday night, when he has just finished this weekly missive. Like about right now.
……….
That’s yer lot for this week, there were many items that didn’t make it into the blog, but they’ll be posted for discussion, derision or congratulations in comments soon, where you’re invited to join in the general merriment. And merriment will be The ‘Pie’s mood if you would consider a helping hand with blog and general costs, the donate button is below.
TEL, a tool and a trough since it’s inception.
The Astonishers focus on stalled projects around the stadium aims directly at the incompetence of team Hill and their inability to achieve timelines on small projects .What could you expect when the Mullet is multi skilling as a director of LGAQ, deputy chair Tel , running her 2020 re-election campaign , overseas excursions and blocking f.o.i requests , legal action from developers and laying smokescreens like Jamie Durie $800k . It’s simple to see why cbd landlords have no confidence in T.C.C . . It’s a dogs breakfast over at trrash with the editor so anxious thinking he found another conspiracy theory on Council he posted about a new development at Jensen with possible gate excluding residents to be advised by the owner it was an old development and please remove the post as it was “false news “ . Yesterday’s Trrash post was suggesting that donations for team Hill in the 2020 election could come from an Oriental flavoured background . I gather from Traash xenophobic posts in the past they don’t support the $2.5 bil Singapore defence deal or the $100 mil abbatoir in Hughenden as well as Korean Zinc etc . It’s embarrassing traash fb page think they represent the interests of Townsville residents and ratepayers .
This is unexamined, populist and plain ignorant journalism from the Astonisher (surprise, surprise!) So much for investigative journalism.
The plight of Townsville’s CBD is not much different from downtowns across regional Australia and the world for that matter. It’s been propped up by dubious rates holidays, developer charges subsidies and various marketing schemes. Despite all this, over at least 2 decades, commercial vacancy rates continue to hover around 30%. Headline rents don’t drop, which leaves many lay observers scratching their heads. So-called market forces should see rents drop until the vacancies are filled.
One of the main reasons why rents haven’t dropped is because the value of the commercial properties is tied to rent levels, and a whole range of corporate loans are leveraged against headline asset values. A drop in rent will drive down valuations, and cause all sorts of concerns in the loan-to-Value front. This runs the risk of cascading effects on corporate balance sheets as lenders get nervous and call in loans. That’s what happened in the GFC, incidentally, but mainly (though not exclusively) in the residential market.
The hope has always been that through some miracle of one concession after another, or one public boondoggle after another, the CBD will experience a turnaround without a major impairment event. This doesn’t seem remotely likely. How much has been poured into the CBD in the last 20-odd year’s? Flinders St East $40m. Ripping up the Mall $70m. Poor old Palmer St who knows. The stadium $250-300m. The Ergon and State Government-tenanted buildings …. tens of millions of public sector-underwritten construction. The list goes on.
High quality spaces will always win out, which is why the best buildings remain occupied while the B grade space can’t find a tenant. Robbing Peter to pay Paul has been the order of the day. That’s what happened with the Ergon and State Government Officer buildings. Deckchairs were shuffled.
There are no easy fixes. Sadly one suspects that only a major and protracted impairment event can catalyse the emergence of a new set of uses. Phoenixes only ride from the ash, so to speak. For the Bully to now plea for landlords to do something is just too cute. The Bulletin’s own downsizing of office needs should tell itself what the underlying problems are.
Looks like there has been some serious thought put into the interaction of that country club project with the community/industry by that diagram, Magpie.
I don’t know heaps about it, but a quick check at the Co-Ordinator Generals website just showed it’s terms of reference for its EIS have been recently announced (something missed there TB? No need of a positive news story that week???). I hear there is a lot of support for it tourist operator wise though, many of whom are TEL members. I see it has also turned up here under TEL’s banner too in this month’s Success Magazine: https://lnkd.in/f6vGmsm.
Maybe rather than alleging secrets deals and drama, all we are seeing is a developer just quietly getting on with the process needed to get approval for a good idea, without the front page pretty picture BS, master plans and promises, demanding handouts and help from one and all. Shocking. How could they? What type of (smart) people are they running it???
All in the face of wild and wandering xenophobic racist slurs from one person who takes the name of the Townsville resident and ratepayers name in vain …. and has the potential to damage the economic well-being and image of this city. It is all being manipulated by a small time big dreaming little real estate urger, who has turned on those who rebuffed his toadying up to them. At the moment, fortunately though, everyone is having a laugh about the poor deluded mutt’s foaming and spittle-flecked outbursts, and his pissant little handler.
I’m struggling with the idea that a publicly listed company not only got $3.5m from the public purse to do a battery factory feasibility, but now has its hand out for more public money on the basis that the business case says “all good to go”. If the case is so good, why not raise the $ on the market?
Precisely. Why not indeed? This crowd knows a sucker when they see one, a common enough ability clearly not shared by the Townsville electorate last time around.
Yep, another first class loser lured to Townsville by the Mullet, no money , just his hand out for taxpayers money to try and bolster their shrinking share price so he doesn’t do his arse on upcoming share options, it’s just a con job.
Hot tip, Pie. Saw a van parked on Flinders St yesterday painted up like a tourist van. Claimed to have started on a 7 continent Guinness book of records thing back in 2013, from Shanghai. I Reckon it’s a dastardly clever trick. It’s actually a highly sophisticated Trojan horse, masquerading as an innocent traveller, but is really beaming back to some Bunker in Beijing. No doubt it’s casing the joint for nefarious purposes. Hush, hush. Now you see it, now you don’t. The yellows aren’t coming, they’re here already. Where’s Old Mate Pete when you need him? Maybe Pete’s onto them already.
Has any level of government learnt from the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars into the car industry, all for naught? It is time to get rid of the local level of government, they seem to just indulge in self promotion and self interest. They have forgotten their role is to put their employers, the rate payers first. Rate payers can’t afford their poor decisions any more. Ratepayers are sick of paying for Team Hill’s re-election campaign. How do we stop the rot?
Reckon a visit from the Workplace health Safety wallahs along with the Health Inspector might be due for the chef of the year. Mr Hastie seems to have a bit of a problem with cleanliness in the kitchen, and open fires are generally regarded with great caution by the rest of the industry. But then, that might not be grime or worse he’s smearing on himself, maybe one of those squid took great exception to being ‘barely cooked and reassembled’ and had a natural reaction of revenge. Well, that’s what I ink, anyway.
Think Mr. Hastie should be more worried about a visit from the PC Nazis rather than the Health department. “Blackface’ is not very popular these days. Just ask that Canadian fellow.
The question that I ask myself and the community should be asking is “If Mullet and her councillors were legally and ethically governing this city before the Belcarra legislation, why are they reacting to Belcarra the way they currently are?”
A very reasonable point … up to a point. All local government councillors and mayors have been saddled with these laws after the fact and in mid-term, any donations covered by the Belcarra laws were made when they were legal. As said in the blog, this busted arse government couldn’t competently draft a request for a cup of coffee without fucking it up. When legislation raises more questions than provide answers for guidance, it should stay on the drawing board until they get their act (literally, their Act) together.
Which reminds us of the stadium move to the CBD.
One can only hope the stadium will result in a major boost to Palmer St businesses. But why would it? The stadium will have its own eatery and various food outlets. A day out at the football won’t be cheap, so can’t see how people will suddenly open their wallets in numbers that will work any meaningful magic. Palmer St is close to 650m+ from the stadium. City Lane is 550m. In any case, 12 games a year + say 2 concerts. That’s 14 events, with say a bump-in / bump-out of 2 hours either side … we are talking 4 x 14 = 56 hours of dining / drinking time … barely a drop in the ocean, I’m afraid.
Peddling totally unexamined or investigated false hope is misguided at best, cruel at worst, but when it is done in venal self-interest, as the Bulletin does, it is hateful. But at least this report shows people are starting to suspect they’ve been massively conned.
And of course, any gain at Palmer Street will be balanced by a loss to the eateries at Cannon Park.
Boy-oh-boy, you can’t fault the Daily Astonisher iditor Jenna Cairney for chutzpah … she’s got more front than Clive Palmer doing a belly flop.
Ms Cairney has the ingenuous gall to prissily ask in another addled iditorial ‘ … one has to wonder what has the council been doing for the two years the stadium has been under construction?’
A much more pertinent question for the Townsville community is where the hell has the Townsville Bulletin been – NOT JUST during the construction phase but during the prior bulldozing manipulations to foist this white elephant on both Townsville and the state taxpayers.
Unalloyed and totally unexamined praise and stifled debate is EXACTLY where this busted-arse uncaring and irresponsible Murdoch rag has been.
To the greatest degree, you and the Holt Street counting house masters wanted The Bulletin to be a player, rather than a responsible observer leading community debate, so you consistently filled your pages with bum kissing the likes of Lancini and Mayor Mullet in the cowardly interests of trying to back a winning horse for your advertising department.
Well, Jenna, you and your immediate predecessors have backed Fine Cotton, a donkey painted up to look like a winner.
And now, as ever a day late and a dollar short, you trot out sanctimonious drivel about the council not doing anything about the parlous state of Palmer Street (and the CBD). There’s not much they could’ve done in actual legal by-laws, which aren’t the doddle to enact you stupidly suggest they are.
BUT THERE SURE IS A LOT YOU COULD’VE BEEN FUCKING WELL DOING IN THE INTERESTS OF THE COMMUNITY WHICH YOU CONSISTENTLY LIE ABOUT ‘BEING ALL FOR.’
First the Bulletin claimed that the stadium would catalyse all manner of miracles. It hasn’t and won’t, but that’s besides the point. In this nonsensical editorial it ponders what council has been doing for the past 2 years, during Stadium constriction, while Palmer St faded away ….
It’s fading away in large part because households are under financial stress, and aren’t spending like they used to. Total disposal income in Townsville is way below what it was during the city’s last boom (2011), add to which is high household debt (and probably a relatively large proportion of negative equity), and you’ve got a situation where people just aren’t spending on restaurants.
Councils can’t really do much for Palmer St. The decades of failure on the cbd is a case in point.
The editorial also paints an unrealistically rosy picture of Palmer St’s past, suggesting that until recent times it was a restaurant and boutique Mecca. Nonsense. Restaurants never really went past the first roundabout, and only had to be adequate to survive – none were or are ‘amazing’, what tosh – and while a little more vibrant than today’s sad case, Palmer vStreet’s woes have been caused because households in the past were living it up on credit-fuelled good times.
Yep, easy to make money when lots of $$ floating around, but Townsville has a very low level of business talent so doesn’t take long for that to show when things change. Council have done nothing but most of the businesses themselves were piss poor operators with no fundamentals in business, they merely leveraged equity in real estate to fund a poorly run business and lost the lot when things get tough. Even now I don’t think many in the city area would have worked out how to leverage the stadium patronage through their front door, they simply don’t have the talent, what a wasted opportunity.
‘Pie, I read in Crikey today some economic and unemployment numbers which make the stadium seem like an even bigger elephant:
“Our rate is much higher than economies like Germany, the US, UK and New Zealand, where sub-5% and even sub-4% unemployment is the norm.
Worse, our jobs growth is now being driven entirely by the public sector, fuelled by government spending in education, health and social care: in the three months to August, ABS data shows, the economy put on a net 64,000 jobs — including 64,600 health and social care jobs and 82,000 education jobs. Major private sector employers like retail and construction are shrinking, and manufacturing is in freefall. It lost 37,000 jobs in the August quarter alone, seasonally adjusted, despite a bipartisan revival of Australia’s traditional protectionism in areas like anti-dumping and defence manufacturing.”
And yet, the tourism sector in Townsville is a little bright spot with Magnetic Island businesses, including the ferries and barges, so busy they don’t have time to count their money – if the TBully is to be believed.
Always a question, that last one.
Did you see the estimation on the number of people that will use the bus service to the stadium?
450 to 900 people. Out of a crowd of 25,000 – WOW!
No, where was that? Not doubting, just asking.
I think that was in Saturday’s Astonisher tucked away in small piece. I went looking for you, but I had thrown the rag out.
Can anybody help the Pie on here?
Hi Pie,
Re TCC Workplace Health and Safety. As an oldie whose legs are getting a touch rusty, I was visited by two very active teenage granddaughters from Down South recently. To accompany them on one of their usual forays around the city, I had to follow them around the “goat track” which winds around the top peak of Castle Hill, at night.
What a scary event. There is no direct lighting, the concrete steps, where there are any, are of differing heights and widths, there is quite a lot of track over exposed rocks, etc which are difficult to negotiate. But the worst is the fence, which in some cases is just a single pipe with nothing at the lower levels to stop any kids from falling through.
If someone in authority was to conduct a risk analysis, my guess is that it would be immediately shut down pending upgrading.
In the meantime, would be advising people with teenage granddaughters to not go near the track … and at night! What were you thinking?
But your points on safety are valid, although a strong measure of personal responsibility and risk aversion should be expected from sensible folk..
How times have changed, my granddaughters should be able to access any location in TSV, without fear nor apprehension.
I used to not lock my doors; and now new police to capture and lock up the vermin parading as victims, wont be here for another year.
Yep there health and safety department are not very smart or really care about there staff either. My comment last week about the TCC employee from 2020 vision department who whinged enough to change the rubbish collection in Ogden st because she wants her sleep, didn’t even go to a risk assessment. Now trucks have to block the whole street off to empty bins at heron st. Only after 7am when it’s peak time for the busses and people going to work in that bottle neck street. Can’t wait for sunbus to get revenge for mayors comments early this year and wanting to get rid of them.
Signs throughout WA national parks:
“Your safety is our concern, but YOUR responsibility. ”
I think that is the correct approach.
For some strange reason “they” or someone has consistently tried getting the goat track shut for years for at least 10 years. It’s part of operation “shut down australia” , if it’s not trying to actively shut down local places its trying and successfully shutting international destinations such as ayers rock or mount warning in NSW.
They successfully shut the road across Townsville common recently so that was a massive victory against the tourism industry , huzzah! Castle hill is a major tourist destination in Townsville, why is there this consistent push to close it ?????? No doubt there will be calls to shut the strand to the public for ” safety concerns “.
First we’ve heard of calls for Castle Hill to be shut down. Vaping the wrong stuff again, Guy?
Some time ago, 5 years maybe, in a fit of righteousness, the cyclists and walkers actually called for cars to be banned on the Castle Hill road, mornings and evenings when these lycra clad Bolsheviks would take their exercise.
It was in the Asstoisher.
Lycra clad bolsheviks, Mr Kelso? Please explain!
Dear Pauline,
I regret that the phrase ‘lycra clad Bolsheviks’ has nothing to do with those who frequently Hernando’s Hideaway, and the excitement that may follow.
It refers to those pricks on their pushbikes, who expect all to keep well clear of them while they cycle in the middle of the carriageway or thereabouts. These pricks have no concept of, “keep left .”
Enough of that Pauline, now back to Hernando’s and the things that excite………..right now it is Tom Lehrer’s The Masochism Tango.
Well the Strand has been shut due to shark sightings, goat track must be next…
Due to goat sightings I presume.
Rumour has it that TCC currently has no one dedicated in the crucial roles of chief procurement officer and chief safety officer. Both are being done by others with different substantive roles.
Are you stating fact or rumour … your second sentence is a statement.
If its a fact, stop being cute, leave the tired old literary conceits to The ‘Pie.
And I’m told that the City Safe Officer position in the beleaguered Community Development section is vacant also, not that this probably matters as the City isn’t any safer after a person was appointed to this position. Another one of Mullet’s 2016 election commitment which doesn’t seem to have had any viable outcomes except spending ratepayers money.
Just on Mullet’s 2016 election commitments, has anyone looked at them to see how many have been kept and what their outcomes on the City have been.
Wow wonder how much tcc spent on advertising that stupid hard rubbish collection in the very first ad break in play of grand final tonight. Let’s advertise at a premium rate to tell everyone to make your kerbside your own rubbish dump. Wonder if Jamie durie will be in next set of ads???
Full disclosure, I think Jenny Hill will win the next council election. But is any serious challenger going to step forward? Assuming most of December and January are viewed as a write off, that leaves the rest of October and November or February, which seems too late. Anyone have some educated guesses or even insight?
I have it on (good?) authority that a local business operator backed by some very well heeled non party aligned chaps will be making an announcement very shortly. This local business identity is extremely well known and I was surprised to hear that they would even contemplate the hassle of being a Mayor considering what this person is worth. Would be nice to have a option to vote for someone who knows what they are doing and doesn’t have any skeletons in the cupboard.
And why won’t you share?
Could someone please explain why with all this striking for climate change by the young looking for a holiday, do we still have carbon emissions producing Fire in the Sky and Townsville must take the crown for the most unsynchronised traffic lights in Australia.
Well, that seems to cover everything.
Good old Rugby League, proving itself to be the amateur hour, chicken shit run game many think that it is, what an embarrassment.
Well they did hire Peter Beattie, NRL may never recover from his stupidity.
Duckie, Peter Beattie is chairman of the ARL. I don’t think the NRL had anything to do with his selection.
Although I agree with you on his qualifications.
He is a ‘post turtle’
Al, this is what I was on about. Biography:
Mr Peter Beattie was appointed Chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission in February 2018.
Pretty obvious isn’t it?
It’s MONTY.
That’d be the Full Monty of course.
What ever happened to the money owed by Jamie Durie’s Company, JPD Media and Design, after going into Voluntary Administration? Before Townsville rate payers hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to him shouldn’t we do our due diligence and make sure he is a fit and proper person for the job?
Belcarra (Irish: Baile na Cora, meaning “town of the confluence”) is a village in County Mayo, Ireland about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south-east of the county Town of Castlebar. Confluence; means an act or process of merging, or ‘the junction of two rivers’. So, could the term Belcarra actually mean two rivers of shit (State and Local Government) that meet at the one junction, in Brisbane? Who knows, but at least it is fun watching the shonky Councillors and Mayors running around shitting themselves, and rightly so. Most of these grubs have had it too good for to long and many have become very rich by rorting the system. Hopefully some of their wings have been clipped.
When Jenny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah,
When Jenny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah,
There’s many a man wakes up at night
And thinks to himself in a terrible fright,
Is his name in the book or will he be all right?
When Jenny comes marching home.
When Jenny first sat in the mayor’s chair, hurrah, hurrah,
When Jenny first sat in the mayor’s chair, hurrah, hurrah,
When Jenny first tried out the mayor’s chair,
She never seemed to really care
But her eyes and her ears were everywhere
Now Jenny’s come marching home.
Now when Jenny finds all the money’s spent, hurrah, hurrah
Jenny looks after her friends even if they’re bent, hurrah, hurrah
When Jenny finds all the money’s spent,
She’ll wonder where all the people went,
It’s a hell of a life for a president
When the people go marching home.
Went to Cairns over the long weekend and made a point of walking around its CBD and eating street (esplanade) to see how it compares to Townsville. Could find only one vacant shop, the restaurants were doing a roaring trade, and there was construction and redevelopment going on everywhere. Cairns is booming while Townsville slides further into the mire. And to think, they haven’t got Jamie Drurie to help them spruce up the place. Up there trees the council plants are actually watered regularly and cared for, unlike Townsville where the council plants trees, then leaves them to die, before planting new ones. Our rates at work.
Did you see the flying fox colony outside the old Cairns City Council chambers on Lake St.
No, not a single fox in sight.
If that’s the case, then TCC & CTRC better ring CRC and find out how the got rid of them. I was there first week of September and there was a whole colony with signs warning the public not to pick any up that fall out of the fig trees that they roost in.
Well we made it in the top 10.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/motoring-news/the-australian-suburbs-where-your-car-is-more-likely-to-be-stolen/news-story/788fe26a3b438128c8871481fd220f51
Good to see that Federal initiatives with defence are creating jobs, jobs, jobs especially in relation to the Singapore Deal in the Townsville region, all we get from our local and state reps is more crime and artistic impressions of things like unfunded battery factories.
Spluttered through my cornflakes at Mayor Mullet being widely interviewed and commenting on the ASMTI facility, along with the corresponding images of fellow Council types and all the QG hangers-on.
This project is a federally-administered one, using Singaporean cash and has absolutely nothing to do with TCC and only peripherally (due to a few minor approvals) within the remit of the State.
It’s hard enough to have Jenny pretending that the stadium and Haughton pipeline are in some way TCC projects – admittedly the State and Federal $ for the pipeline are sloshing through Council and a vast amount is sticking to the walls before the remainder washes out to the poor bastards who actually have to deliver it – but she and the local QG MPs have reduced themselves to mongrel camp dogs chasing after anything tasty.
If we stop for a moment and look at what TCC has actually paid for and delivered it is an incredibly short list. There’s the fantabulous CBD bus stop, some tacky and already dying gardens on Nathan Street, and not much else.
Would it be too much to ask the Chamber of Commerce, TEL or the Bullsheet to start a full list?
That is what makes me think the stench in this town is much much deeper than any of us realise.
Why is the Mullet at this event, who was the grovelling organiser that invited her to what is a federal Govt project and why did the LNP allow her to attend, rank amateurs, wake up Phillip Thomson, you are in Govt, start acting like it.
Did you see her Radiance on the news bleeting ‘the reason there is no TSV-SIN flights is due to a lack of aircraft’ ? Really???
Simple word dyslexia – she meant passengers. And Her Radiance? Don’t think so, not by a long shot.
One up for the Townsville City Council. One down for Bazza Taylor’s Enema … sorry … Emanate Legal.
The Mater Hospital has failed in its attempt to overturn Townsville City Council’s approval for a new 22 bed private hospital and health facilty on the site of the old state school on the corner of Ingham Road and Sturt Street.
Delivering her decision in Cairns today, Planning and Environment Court Judge Tracy Fantin was emphatic that the project by developer Lautaret Pty Ltd should proceed on a number of grounds, which means The Mater will no longer have a monopoly on private overnight hospital care in Townsville if the plans go ahead.
Here is how Judge Fantin summarised her decision, which comes after almost a year’s deliberation.
. “In conclusion, there are a number of “relevant matters” pursuant to s 45(5)(b) that support approval of the proposed development:
1. There is a need for the proposed development;
2. It facilitates the protection of a place of cultural heritage, in the form of conservation and re-use of the magnificent heritage building which has been vacant and unused for many years;
3. It facilitates and encourages investment into new health facilities and provides for anticipated growth in health and professional services;
4. It encourages economic resilience and economic diversity;
5. It improves the relationship between buildings and the street, and provides an improved visual amenity along Ingham Road and Sturt Street; and
6. It provides more intensified development close to the principal centre (CBD) and supplies health infrastructure in a coordinated, efficient and orderly way.
. [ In doing so, it also advances the purposes of the Act. Conclusion
. [407] The proposal has substantial merit. It is for a well designed building to accommodate a development of a kind and at a location which is generally consistent with the relevant planning provisions. It would facilitate the restoration and adaptive reuse of a significant heritage building. It would deliver greater access to health services to the people of regional Queensland. It would result in increased competition, choice and convenience, in the provision of hospital services for the Townsville region. It would provide a needed, state of the art medical facility in an appropriate location.
. [408] There are no relevant matters which warrant refusal. There are a number of relevant matters that strongly support approval. Indeed, the public interest would be considerably advanced by approval of the proposed development.
. [409] The proposed development should be approved subject to conditions. I will hear from the parties as to orders effecting these reasons and conditions of approval.”
And The ‘Pie found it interesting the perennial proce gouger Bazza Taylor’s Emanate Legal (Enema Legal to all his friends on the Magpie blog) represented the Mater. The determination of costs, which which will be eye-watering since the Mater’s appeal against the Council and Lauteret has involved six barristers including three QCs, will be of added interest. Looks like Bazza’s losing streak continues.
.
What a great decision, and a great outcome, except for Bazzz of course.
I’m still baffled as to why the Mater with 200 odd beds, wanted to shut down a facility that will have 22 beds!
Speaking of medical facilities, wasn’t there one slated for the Stuart Drive/Bruce Highway corner some time ago? Given the amount of water that was flowing through there in February, it was wise that it didn’t proceed.
Frequent flyer one major difference between Cairns and Townsville is that the Cairns Region Council actually has a difined Parks and Gardens Section which has the responsibility of maintaining all of the Councils parks, gardens and open spaces from Mirriwinni in the south to Ellis Beach in the north and this section is staffed by fully qualified horticulturalists and trained gardeners with a dedicated budget.
A number of years ago under Mullet’s rein, the TCC Parks and Gardens Section was merged with the Infrastructure Services. Most horticulturalists and gardeners left council in disguist as untrained Infrastructure Services staff who basically maintained infrastructure, roads etc were suddenly also maintaining gardens, parks and open spaces etc. Since this occurrence and the maintenance of a large section of the cities parks, gardens and open spaces being contracted out, the cities parks etc have steadily died and become one bloody great mess.
I’ve been told that the private contract isn’t even overseen by a council officer so it’s a matter if the grass is mown, it’s OK and payments continue. If the contract was supervised then why are the gardens at the end of Victoria Bridge dead, Central Park garden beds and lawns barely surviving, median strips on Bowen Rd, Charters Towers Rd (outside Carmichael Ford and Railway Station) and Railway Avenue dead or near to.
All major entries to the City and CBD, oh what welcome to visitors.
I’m certain that Councillors must drive around the City with massive blinkers on and if not, then they just don’t bloody care about the cities appearance but more about the oversized salary cheques.
Recently my car got showered in stones when one idiot was mowing the weeds poking through the edges of the artificial grass on a traffic island on Charters Towers Rd. No idea.
Yes! And Parks staff were not allowed to use the term ‘black & green” when referring to people within the new department.
Critical, thank you, that explains a lot of the lamentable changes in Anderson Gardens I have seen in the last few years. The garden people seem obsessed with trimming all low branches up to knee height so the poor bower birds have no low growth to shield their bowers and the little birds no where to hide. The water levels in the ponds are sometimes much too low or else the water runs all weekend. For some reason they are not refilling the lake in the Palmetum either.
When newly planted mango and citrus trees started showing signs of disease nothing was done, a gardener of any type would have been in there cutting out the bad branches to stop it spreading.
Street plantings seem to be left to die without watering, what a waste. Then there are the contract mowers running around in Mindham Park floodway mowing the dust.
As for artificial grass full of cigarette buts, don’t get me started. The whole town looks so shabby it is heart breaking.
Jenny Wren, we are now in the third 5yr cycle of private contractors replacing the Parks Dept doing the ground maintenance in Annandale. It started with Spotless (P&O group) then Citiwide (a division of Melbourne City Council). Now we have Fulton Hogan (a road construction company). If you walk around the bikeways and see the quality of their work, it just reflects what the rest of the town is like.
Don’t start me on the potholes.
Didn’t see any in Cairns.
Mullet should get her group of stooges back to what council is supposed to do rather than spending our rates on entertainment events and celebrity tv gardners.
The Townsville Eats events are a good example. Staged in the CBD, these pop-up feasts are popular with the public but take business away from the CBD and Palmer St eateries. Then there’s the Jazz (and seafood) festival. It used to be staged along a closed section of Palmer Street (where the few remaining restaurants are situated) allowing diners to enjoy the music. But this year it moved to the dead end of Palmer St, providing little or no benefit to the permanent eateries on the eat street.
Is council he’ll bent on driving the existing restaurants out of business?
Another TCC fail, in my opinion, is the long gone Riverfest. Over time the festival had less and less to do with the Ross River, and what might be possible, and finally ditched to make way for the V8 Super Pests.
My I remind you all that today is John Lennon’s birthday – he would have been 79.
You may not.
Was outside the Dakota building in NY 2 years ago, saw the laneway and looked up at Yoko and his apartment (she’s still there) and wondered what other songs he’d have made had he survived. Didnt think much of him as a person but the music was great.
Today in 1988, “Dark Side Of The Moon” by Pink Floyd fell out of the US Billboard’s Hot 200 Album Chart after a record 741 weeks.
Speaker of dark, I read that “ dark Tourism” is a big thing nowadays, Chernobyl tours, that sort of thing, people can’t get enough of it, might be something the Dudley’s could look into for Townsville and it’s struggling tourism sector.
Dark Side Of The Moon – in my humble opinion is the best album ever made. I’m my late 50’s and I still play it weekly. Sadly the old days of smoking a spliff to accompany said Album is no longer ‘acceptable’ in society. Not that I give a shit about that.
P.S Another legend, Ginger Baker from Cream kicked the bucket this week. Brilliant musician. R.I.P
I believe it is incumbent on the many Climate / Extinction activists to lead by example instead of demanding that everyone follows their lop eyed mantra and just do as they say, they should immediately, ditch their mobile devices, computers and have the power disconnected from their homes. They should then follow this up by never owning or commuting in a gasoline or diesel fueled vehicle. The list goes on.
You might not have heard, but you can power mobile devices, computers, homes and cars with renewable energy these days.
Silly argument by both of you. FFS.
I agree. The point being made is the other extreme. How dare I. I would bet my bottom dollar though that the activists don’t throw out a solar panel to charge all their devises.
Why not? 30% of Queensland households and growing have solar. Who’s more likely to be included in that number than someone concerned about the climate?
Ummm, perhaps, or perhaps just as likely is someone who is concerned about the price gouging of the power companies. In fact, a rough guess would have that as the primary motivation of maybe 95% of solar installers (with the considerable installation outlay justified by environmental virtue signalling.)
And change the world with virtue signalling!
Hey Pie. I emailed a couple of photos taken from maiden hair track this morning of the fire at sun metals.
Probably a warranty claim for RCR.
Yup received those, pretty rough quality, but thanks. Two questions: what is maiden hair track, and what in this instance, is a solar fire (as you say in your email)?
Yeah. Sorry. Taken with my phone.
Looked like a tire fire to me but apparently it was a transformer oil fire for the solar farm.
Lot’s of chatter on fake brag about backpacker’s pulling in and terminating cable’s for the solar power. RCR have gone belly up of course.
Maiden hair is the southern part of the goat track. I’ve always liked that name. Can’t put my finger on what it means though..
Pie , smart old bird , breaking the 200 comment barrier weekly would that now label you as an “ influencer “?. Based on what I have picked up from reading your blog for a few years would AFL, wine, resturants, amusing anecdotes, be your forte ?.
Perhaps, but we have many a repeat performer in the comment section and indeed, among the 200 is a large number of Magpie replies. So the Bulletin need not quake just yet, while it enjoys its small tight knit group of repeat offenders in its letters/text pages.
If there is ever an award for shoddy journalism, a contender of the past week would be the appallingly bad reporting of the death of a five year old child, accidentally run over a by a car.
Any child’s death is a tragedy in any community, but a reporter’s job is to present the facts alone to let each reader react appropriately. Surely there should be some dignity for the family in the most terrible hours of their lives. And it is certainly no place for florid pathos such as we have been treated to in this instance.
The Magpie does not wish to pillory the reporters, but rather the penny-pinching lack of oversight and restraint which once would have been brought to such stories by an experienced sub editor. The use of language used in this instance is sub-Facebook level, with its juvenile adjectival overkill such as ‘tragically killed’ – as versus what? – and ‘sadly died’ (same question) and the statement that the police were ‘meticulously investigating’ the circumstances, as versus what? An earlier report by the same writers said the driver (who had been turning out of a parking lot at the time of the accident) ‘did not flee the scene’. That is just plain silly, and also hints at the possibility of fault. And the lack of sensitivity by quoting the local Imam’s description of an hysterical, grieving mother’s frenzied words in the face of the loss of her child is also a question that a good sub would have at least pondered.
The Bulletin clearly believes that readers need sign posts to register their emotions, which in truth will vary from ‘deeply affected’ to ‘noted in passing’, so iditor Jenna Cairney backed up the paper’s usual grasp of unreality by stating that the boy’s death ‘has broken Townsville’s collective heart’. What??? And a lot of other rambling tosh pandering to what she fancies is city-wide recreational grief. No wonder reporters don’t have any sense of proportion at the Bulletin, when they follow the example of the editor herself so lacking any sense of proportion.
And the ‘puff piece’ on page 3 advertising subscription to the paper.
“which allows you to enjoy Townsville’s best journalism”
Well, not exactly a stellar field in which to compete. Local TV and the financial restraints thereupon sure ain’t anything ton write home about either. All staffed by hair-tossing girlies and wannabe metrosexual hair slickers.
Collective heart? You don’t speak for me lassie – at any time
Hyperbole!!
Best thing ever!!
Isn’t that where they play football?
Pie, in case you missed it – the Trumpet did it again, making comment on the Turkey military action against the Kurds. Now that US troops have been ‘taken out of harms way/withdrawn’, (the Kurds were a US ally and US troops were moved without any consultations with the Kurds) Turkey is in attack mode.
In his press conference Trumpet said that if Turkey did not act in a ‘humane way’, they would be hit with US sanctions. When pressed on what ‘humane’ was, in a war conflict situation, he said we would all have to see how it all played out!!! Pluck me this a is very, very dangerous man making equally dangerous decisions………our Govt had expressed ‘deep concerns’, whatever that means….,
Hey, Just to make sure The ‘Pie has got it out there, in case …. if/when Trump is impeached, the evidence may be enough to turf out the bible bashing hypocritical VP Mike Pence as well …. so guess what under the rules …. welcome Acting President …. Nancy Pelosi.
That would make a few heads explode on the right over there. They’d better tighten the wingnuts.
Is this an option for Maggie https://bbc.in/35eFgvn
Sorry Scott Stewart , new office estimated $100,000 a year rent and $223,456 fit out when nearly 2,000 Townsville families are still displaced and many residents and business can’t get insurance doesn’t pass the pub test and is abhorrent . To simply say “ I don’t know the costs because other Queensland Government departments are paying for it “ is a cop out and playing the electorate as mugs .
Private Cupcake (aka ALP state ‘member’ for Townsville) has well and truly run his course. By election time we will have endured 6 years of his head nodding behind others, decreases in property prices, investors abandoning the city in droves, out of control crime, totally failed ‘bail houses’ (more like kiddy kids play-pens) etc. and now he ‘says’ he knows nothing about this new office, which has come at great and disgraceful high cost to us mug taxpayers while others in our community continue to do it tough with no end in sight.
Well, he really knows ‘nothing about nothing’, evidenced by his inept performance, his failure on numerous occasions to stand up for our community, preferencing the ALP party line – we don’t need another 4 years on top of what we have already endured.
I wonder if the project (office move) stacked up
“Financially & Environmentally”
Dolan Hayes must have had the day off yesterday.
Brisbane firm carries out fit out of Private Cupcakes new office, that is how you create local jobs, jobs, jobs.
But to be fair, that really is nothing to do with Cupcake, but his feigning ignorance of details in this matter says it all about this political hole in the air.
I’m assuming you have read the front page today. What a load is shit. Firstly the useless waste of money for an MP that not to many people know who he is little own know what he’s done for the city, then our labor mayor “NEEDING” to move on the parkies because the stadiums opening soon. 200k plus to build an office???? And we people and families still waiting for accommodation from state government. Of course he knows how much it costs. Now for the mayor! How many years now have these parkies been there? And how many years have councils tried to move them? I’ll tell you exactly, it’s the same time the mullet has been in public life. Mooney and Tyrell tried, unsuccessfully, the tsv first tried, no results. Now all of a sudden a plan is needed. Just like the climate protesting idiots she’s completely out of touch. She is only trying to re elect herself. The only way to stop them coming back is to demolish the outreach centre there in Dean park. Or chop there legs off. Sorry but to late jenny, 25 years on council and 8 now as mayor. How many other high flyers in the city are you trying to keep happy???
As if by clockwork, the Bulletin continues its campaign to soften up the populace for the stadium underperforming on exaggerated (false hope-inducing) claims. This time, the stadium will fall short because of a handful of parkies….. this was never mentioned when the stadium was peddled as the only snake oil the joint needed. Yet, if it was such a big risk, you have to wonder where the Bulletin was 3 years ago?
You forgot about Captain Snooze’s ’10 Point Plan’ when he was mayor.
All the elites who live in metro queys apartments are the ones the mayor is looking after now. I’ve been told that staff who enter the 2 streets, Ogden and henron, now face disciplinary action from management if it’s before 7am to empty rubbish bins apparently. I thought the bylaws is 6am. Be an interesting hearing in court if anyone was sacked because they did there job. Why are these people given special treatment? So question is who are the elites and how is the TCC meant to do there job anywhere else if everyone gets there way like these knobs.
Sorry to have to say this, but The ‘Pie simply does not believe that, but certainly will if you or anybody can produce email or any other documentary evidence that this is so. And if it can be produced, don’t just send it into the Nest, the CCC or an associated agency would be greatly interested.
Considering 7am AEDT time is 6am AEST (Townsville) time it may become a complex legal case if anyone challenged it. Especially if the dump truck drivers allege they live south of the border and just visit here for work. The TCC has already set a precedent with a FIFO employee – chief procurement officer, in the past.
Hmmm, weekend recreational consumption started already, mate?
A touchy situation coming up by the looks of it, how to move the homeless people away from sitting around under Jonathan Thurstons statue, sounds like a job for Jenny Hill, decked out with baseball bats and pepper spray.
If the stadium is only used 14 times year (give or take – and don’t quote me, I read it in a local rag) who cares who is sleeping in the park down the road on the other 351 days?
The ‘Well Duh’ answer to that, NMD, is that we should ALL care about who is sleeping down the road on the other 351 days, and not for any reasons to do with the stadium, more to do with the responsible addressing of a very complex and sad problem. Absolutely nothing to do with stadium, and surprised that someone of your far left advocacy and extremism would suggest such a callous ‘let them eat cake’ view.
‘Pie, I know about the “sad and complex problem”, I acknowledge the many attempts over decades to “move the homeless people away from sitting around” (as Cantankerous has put it) and I can see that tut tutting and hand wringing have no effect whatsoever. I just don’t see that the construction and grand opening of the stadium should or will herald the beginning of a new campaign to move the ‘parkies’ along. And I don’t pretend to know about anything that will change the situation. So, no moral high ground here and no virtue signalling necessary.
The ‘Pie’s point was the conflation of two separate issues that are wholly discrete … stadium and homeless.
And a mat.
WTF, Freya Nolin, 21, from WA, appealed her sentence of $10000 imposed by a Bowen magistrate, after she stopped rail traffic for 3 hours. Judge Ian Dearden said the magistrate erred and ordered the police to pay her $1800 and reduced her fine to $1000 which was referred to SPER, so after all this she is now $800 in the black.
Correction OT, the $1800 was for QPS to pay the Appellants costs.
But it does raise the question of why a 21year old WA Student on a Youth Allowance was in Bowen taking part in the protest.
I would wonder exactly how many of the protesters are on some form of Taxpayer funded allowance, whether it be youth allowance or social security of some sort.
Here’s an idea. Why not move the Dean Park homeless out to the former old people’s home at Pallarenda, which I understand is owned by Lozza Lancini?
After all, he was the one who put pressure on government to fund the new stadium.
Not sure OLTD, but that could be crown land that the Methodist church was granted a lease in the mid 1960’s.
Here’s another idea – how about the clans stop their in fighting and actually build some housing and support services at the Cranbrook reserve?
Nope! Too far from the pub.
Did anyone else spot the screaming midget back in town during the week? What unfinished work would see him grace us with his presence?
Yes I see his posted pics on social media with the usual Labor lackies around town, guess we will see more of him as the election draws closer, going to be a long 169 days by the looks of it.
Droopy, maybe he needs to attend a mediation re his alleged bullying at the TCC? Or perhaps he was on leave from his position and is back now, or……….
Maybe he’s done a Durie and has been recalled for a bullying ‘how to’ tour.
Been thinking about the Bully’s recent coverage about CBD projects falling behind and the lack of life on Palmer Street, and I’m increasingly of the view that it’s all about setting up the argument that when the stadium opens and there’s no meaningful impact on CBD and Palmer St business, the Bully can claim it’s all because of the delayed boardwalk etc rather than the more obvious (and accurate) explanation – namely that the expectations of significant boost were always based on dubious assumptions and wishful thinking.
Hmmm, been crystal-balling again ‘Memory’??? Can you have a quick look and tell me the winner of race 3 in Sydney today? Thank you, Plucker.
Surprising no one has paused to wonder why the really simple enabling infrastructure – like walkways and pedestrian bridges – for the stadium and CBD have not been started?
Our glorious CEO at council has deemed them not to be a priority.
Surely not building this access facilities in tandem with the stadium construction itself is like building a sub-division with no road entries. Perhaps we should re-introduce the debate about the appropriateness of this city’s name. Maybe a bit unwieldy but Clusterfucksville would be about on the money.
If only this council had any people looking at the bigger picture. Then we mightn’t have traffic detours scheduled to be in place during school days, but not in place in school holidays. Or food trucks in the same place and same time as ratepaying restaurants. Talk about Bogansville.
Rundownhillstown