Going, Going, and …. Gone? Whatever Miles Decides, Conman The Barbarian Has Won.

It’s what American gamblers call ‘creating a middle’, a strategy of backing two outcomes with different ‘starts’ so you cannot lose.  If Miles moves on the mayor,  Thompson wins up to a year on full pay for doing nothing but waiting for a CCC outcome. If Miles doesn’t move on him, Thompson will remain a pointless person still doing nothing but still on four grand plus a week.  Plus invites to openings if fast food outlets. Either way, we will be left with his shit-eating Cheshire cat grin to comfort us.

But if Thompson is allowed to attend Wednesday’s TCC meeting, there can be only course open to councillors on the Strand parking meter issue: they must oppose the mayor’s ruinously stupid motion to ‘pause’ the Strand installation’, as spelt out in his latest FB post … there is a much better way if councillors simply put up their own amended motion.

The mayor’s MyPlace mates are busy elsewhere, having a minor victory … with outside and even international help … in Gympie.

With the passing of his friend and confidant Fran O’Callaghan, The Magpie is now at liberty to reveal the extent of the bullying she was subject to, and to call out  the main snivelling second rate standover merchants.

Getting rid of the Jenny Hill junta doesn’t seem to have changed anything, even the newbies are showing a tendency towards the old ‘let them eat cake’ agenda. It’s all there in black and white. It’s a particular instance that leads The Magpie to a serious suggestion … if Palm Island can have its own council, why can’t Magnetic Island?

And will Anthony Albanese be able to claim a social legacy like John Howard and Kevin Rudd before him? The issue is bthere but will he haved the ethical will to do something meaningful about the gambling scourge creating havoc across thre nation. The ‘Pie has a link to a brilliant analysis on the issue.

The ‘Pie is too busy with this wide ranging edition of the Nest to be witty or whimsical about the ever present need for assistance with blog costs, so in short, if you can help, that would be great, the donate button is at the bottom of the blog.

But first up …

A SERIOUS PLEA TO TCC COUNCILLORS: PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT FALL INTO TROY THOMPSON CAREFULLY SET TRAP.

There is a sensible, responsible  and fairly obvious way around his cunning, a way that should achieve a sort of compromise on the parking issue. Just in case you’re not aware of what he is up to,  you should see the following and make your own judgement

Some background.

Last Monday, councillors and TCC executives had a private meeting with Strand business people who strongly oppose the introduction of paid parking on the Strand.  The reality of their opposition, allied to residents, health, professional, the Chamber of Commerce and even the Catholic Bishop, was persuasive enough to bring the matter back before them at next Wednesday’s regular council meeting.

And while the Bulletin and reporter Chris Burns have been doing meticulous work in putting this issue front and centre, even they have fallen into a trap that Mayor Troy Thompson has latched onto …  they have conflated parking on the Strand with the proposed same scheme in Palmer Street and around the Mater Hospital in Pimlico. This is a fallacy, and each area has it’s own reason to accept or oppose the plan, but these are three separate issues, with widely varying arguments that are not related to one another. One size does not fit all.

Shortly after that Monday meeting, Thompson, in a move that was exceedingly dense or exceedingly cunning,  put up this Facebook post.Sounds good, doesn’t it?

But in fact it is a wasteful recipe for confusion and manipulation, not to mention endless ratbaggery  from various quarters.  Socially indifferent people like Matt Richardson and Clr ‘Chuckles’ Robertson only see numbers and their financial outcome, not their community outcome. It should be made clear that this no way a council should govern.

You cannot equate the concerns of restaurateurs, hoteliers conventions centres and tourist areas with the residential concerns of Pimlico residents.

This can easily and justifiably be pared down to just two issues … Pimlico, and Palmer Street. Consultations and surveys of the sort Thompson proposes aren’t cheap and they invariably aren’t quick. And the longer it goes on, the more opportunity Thomson has to dishonestly paint himself as the people’s champion … which he is anything but.

The key factor here is simple … there should not be any expensive, double dipping, time wasting consultation needed on the Strand issue … if any councillor is in any doubt about the overwhelming opposition to the scheme, they haven’t been paying attention. They’ve got their ‘consultation’  on the Strand proposal in spades from all quarters. It is clearly NO, scrap it.

The solution next Wednesday is simple. DO NOT vote for Thompson’s self-serving popularity contest, but put up your own motion to immediately scrap the Strand project, and admit you got it wrong. If you feel there is consultation needed in the other two areas, include that in your motion.  If you don’t settle the Strand matter when you so easily can … and it is really just bowing to the inevitable … you will feel further wrath from the public who are fed up with the endless back and forth of some council matters, with no real leadership evident from anyone.

You can all change that to a small degree on Wednesday.

Note the words accountably, responsibility and integrity.

Leading businessman Craig Stack, whose company manages the North Ward shopping village has not so subtly reminded the council of an unwanted consequence of the Strand move … in the past few days, new signs have been placed around the car park. Village regulars will not have missed Mr Stack’s point.

But the Stack company will have to pay for the monitoring and organise the towing. All thanks to the TCC.

But Will Thompson Be There On Wednesday To Put His Motion?

As the saying has it, nothing concentrates the mind like being hung in the morning … or a like a losing election coming up.

Premier Smiley has made a judgement that moving on our unbudging mayor might get him some brownie points with local voters in the state election. We will know by tomorrow evening (Monday Sept 29) if Premier Miles mind has been concentrated enough by his legal galahs to stand down our con man mayor until the CCC verdict on his behaviour is in.  Which, for inexplicable reasons,  could take up to a year.

But that is hardly likely to bother TwoNames, in fact, might be cause for a bottle of bubbly, because either way, the big con has been achieved, and he’s on $4000 per week for at least the next six to nine months for doing nothing, no matter what Miles decides.

But of course,  Thompson, of all people,  had to post his thoughts on democracy in his usual insincere schoolboy FB flapdoodle.

LABOR POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING:

I am deeply concerned by the report in the Townsville Bulletin this morning, which appears to quote Labor Premier Steven Miles stating his intention to remove me as Townsville’s democratically elected Mayor without cause, seemingly due to personal dislike.

It seems that the Labor Premier Steven Miles is attempting to create chaos ahead of the upcoming election on October 26, where he faces a potential and devastating defeat.

The suggestion that Labor Premier Steven Miles intends to remove me from my democratically elected position without legitimate cause is alarming. Such actions undermine our democratic principles and suggest a level of disregard for democracy in Queensland.

This kind of rhetoric, even as a threat, sets a dangerous precedent. It should serve as a warning to every Mayor and Councillor about the potential actions Labor may take against those they oppose in the future.

That prompted The Magpie to offer the following in comments.

Anyway stay tuned.

But If This Walking Pong Remains, Here’s A Cautionary Tale

Thompson’s whacko MyPlace knuckle draggers ares sweating on their man getting. a greater foothold in Walker Street to claim another local government scalp. They will be waiting to introduce some of their wild-eyed policies here, just like they have done elsewhere, most recently in Ipswich.

This lot are no joke, they are expensive pests, and have been creating all sorts lolling-tongue mischief, first in Frankston, then Bundaberg, Maryborough and Gympie. Now they’re poised to have a tilt at their biggest scalp, Townsville.

Another reason Thompson must go.

With The Sad passing Of Fran O’Callaghan, Some Things Need To Be Put On The Record

Fran always said she hated all the non-smiling pictures of her in the paper. This is how she wanted to be remembered.

Fran lost her battle with cancer and died peacefully on September 17,  with husband Peter and family at her side. There was a private funeral last Tuesday, and on Thursday, at Fran’s request through a third party, The Magpie announced the sad loss on behalf of the family.  That she had asked me to make the announcement was a final small gift marking our friendship.

I met Fran shortly after she was elected  to represent Division 10. She rang asking if we could have a chat. Over coffee, it was clear she was very distressed at the treatment she was receiving by her council colleagues and the mayor, and she needed reassurance that she was doing the right thing. The ‘right thing’ for Fran was being directly honest in her concerns and questions, many put to her by constituents who were mystified by council matters, particularly finances.  Not surprisingly, this greatly upset the Hill Team’s cosy club,  particularly the then mayor Jenny Hill, who took an instant dislike to Les Walker’s replacement.  Hill’s public bullying, official complaints over minor matters  and threats of further unjustified regulatory action became standard fare that Fran faced. It was a disgusting display of the misuse of power, which was aided and abetted by several councillors, but Fran never flinched or took an easy but less ethical path.

I kept meeting Fran from time to time over the coming years, giving her what reassurances I could. She was sometimes close to tears of frustration and hurt at her treatment, but she never wavered, and went back with hard but polite questions time and time again. She was often shut down or refused permission to speak by Hill on many occasions. Fran told me the bullying wasn’t restricted to the Chamber, and the most vicious corridor snipers were Clrs Greaney and Ryder, and was all the more devastating for her because of the private nature of the corridor comments.

But the worst insults she confronted were from the egregious, mock official behaviour of the poor  man’s Dennis Denuto, TCC junior legal council Tony Bligh. Having witnessed Bligh’s hectoring, bullying behaviour in minor court matters – you’d think that the owner of an errant dog was a mass murderer the way he grandstanded in magistrates court – I really felt for Fran. In the end., probably on Bligh’s advice, and for the last few months she attended council, she was ordered that she could not talk directly to the mayor, but only though Bligh who, Fran said, often belittled what she wanted the mayor to hear.  A truly little man with the heart of a pea, who told me himself when I bumped into at Coles before I learnt of this behaviour that I had wrong in sticking up for her and she was a crackpot.

This all made Fran so indignant that instead just running again for council – an assured victory, she was popular – she decided the only way to restore the council’s credibility was to run for mayor. She she did, using her own money. Through casual mentions here and there, it seems she bankrolled herself to the tune of around $35,000. Despite offers of mega backing from at least three local businesses, Fran was determined not to be compromised and insisted she would not accept any donation over $499 ($500 was the level where donors had to be declared).because she wanted to be able to show she was beholden to nobody but the ratepayers.

There are two others who deserve dishonourable mentions here.

Troy Thompson gave a very nice tribute to Fran on his FB page, and revealed that when Fran retired from the mayoral race, she gave him assistance in his campaign (she knew no more than all of us knew about him at that time) There was an implicit understanding – or so Fran thought – that if he won, she would have some role as an advisor.  Thompson did not honour whatever agreement they may have had and point blank refused to entertain the idea. It is subsequently clear why, his MyPlace mates have no room for a straight shooter like Fran knocking their agenda of the rails. She shared Thompson’s concern about previous council financial fancy footwork, but I cannot imagine she would not have entertained for a minute off-the-wall idiocy like the Gympie fluoride issue let alone their ‘sovereign citizen’ claptrap..

And the Townsville Bulletin needs to think about its community role here. The paper’s tributes for Fran have respectfully praised her , and Cas Garvey knew Fan and spoke with often in the final months, but Ms Garvey’s predecessor point blank refused to consider some of the well documented questions and complaints about the Hill council’s financial management, and certain behaviour towards her.  His astounding reason was that readers weren’t interested in local politics, which for a newspaper editor, is a hell of a funny way to fly an aeroplane.  The close relationship between Hill and the paper is well known but ignoring this behaviour was a new low in its journalism. Ms Garvey, aided greatly by reporter Chris Burns, is returning some credibility to the paper, ironically because of Troy Thompson’s hostility towards truthful stories they ran.

But that’s all to late for Fran O’Callaghan.

It is fitting that certain councillors made any comment on Fran’s death, thus avoiding be labelled as hypocrites as well as disgusting and cowardly bullies.

Vale, my brave friend.

Speaking of Messagebank

Seems Labor have given up on him. His posters look like he’s almost ashamed to be associated with the party.

Looks like a shy afterthought, doesn’t it?

Forget A New NQ State, Let’s Have A New NQ Council

Many residents on Magnetic  are unimpressed with the Townsville City Council, and with their representative on the agust body, Ann-Maree Greaney.

And Many people on the big island (Australia) think the people on Magnetic Island are entitled whingers, who get more than enough of city ratepayers money.  But it would seem, to the ‘Pie’s imperfect memory of recent island history,  many of the complaints are justified. And the high handed behaviour towards them by Walker Street has been exemplified by the Nelly Bay dredge dump site in residential Kelly Street.  Sure, what to do with the spoil when Nelly Bay marina is dredged – 10,000 cubic metres of it – is a cosy versus site availability exercise, but the very least that could reasonably be expected is some consultation about the project. Because there does seem to be an alternative, but no discussions have been held.

And how about this for arrogance from the preening shiny bum public servants at the TCC. This is an excerpt from a council update in a Magnetic Island News story - get a load of the last paragraph in bold.

Our Weekly Selection Of US Politics (And Elsewhere) In Increasingly Dark Humour

As election day gets closer,  Donald Trump and his MAGAniacs have already promised more turmoil, by deciding in advance that the election will be rigged. And that will  be very interesting if by chance Trump wins, however if he does, that will be the least of the world’s problems.  But there are strong indications that more and more people are wearying of this shysters verbal vomit.

The Cowardly Lion 

Next, Exploding Cleft Sticks

Reaching Across The Gender Divide

Cooperation between the genders has always been a touchy factors from time to time. What wife hasn’t chosen her hubby’s undies?  And there must be many a generous chap willing lend a hand with a similar problem for women.

 Gives a while new meaning to the pleasure of being in your cups.

………

The end of a sad week in some ways, but perhaps we will see hope in the next seven days. Join the conversation in comments, lively, amusing and sometimes thought provoking (often regarding the sanity of some readers). If you can help out with kicking the financial can to help meet ever present blog costs, the donate button is below.