… but about par for the course. Seriously, what is up with the editorial management of this paper? The Magpie counts the ways revealed in just a single week.
The Magpie offers a very special treat for this week’s readers … all three of the British investigative doco series on Rupert Murdoch, which no lily-livered commercial TV in Australia would touch. They’re here for you, gratis.
A restaurateur dims the bulbs of those bright spark ‘sovereign citizen’ nitwits.
And it took an Aussie interviewer to reduce The Trumpanzee to a slow motion train wreck during the week. Many are asking how John Swan managed to get the access to the Oval Office. The Magpie thinks he knows why.
But first …
The Cape Of No-Hopers?
Regular readers will know that our man Bentley is a keen and knowledgeable sailor, and is very active in the local yachting scene.
He is reflecting the general resigned disgust in the yachting fraternity about the lack of consultation about a significant change to navigation with his following comment accompanying this week’s ‘toon.
The National Parks First Nations Naming Project intends to rename C Upstart (an important navigation waypoint) apparently without public consultation to ‘Budgenerra’ in the language of the Juru native title holders. As if its not annoying enough applying changes of place names to a language which has no meaning to the majority, I would like to think our navigation system deserves a bit more respect.
The Magpie wonders about that Fukawi tribe is any relation to the New Guinea Farkarwees … the Farkarwee have been of great interest to anthropologists, because of their apparent pride in declaring themselves. Scientists have been fascinated by these three feet tall pygmies who live in the coastal plains covered in four foot tall grasslands, and have been mystified by their habit of bouncing high above the grass top and yelling ‘We’re the Farkarwee’.
What a Bummer, Bulletin
The Townsville Bulletin has always been easy meat for a bit of fun, especially given their delightfully casual attitude to grammar, mathematics and checking of copy before it is printed. But there is a more serious side to this constant slackarsery, and an underlying problem was exposed this week.
On Tuesday, we enjoyed one of the silliest, lazy and baffling iditorials of recent times. You will recall that last week and throughout comments for many days, there was argument about the Palaszczuk government sniffily rejecting a $195million grant from Canberra for the Stage 2 water pipeline. Treasurer Dick’s Jabberwocky explanation that if Queensland accepted the money it would result in a $156million reduction in the annual GST handout from the Feds. This was ably demonstrated by local Fed Phillip Thompson to be an impossible calculation, but still Brisbane maintained the line.
Cameron Dick
But then, in those rare moments when fortune favours the questing journalist, Cameron Dick came to town. Wow, big chance to clear up this widespread confusion. Here was the man himself walking straight into the arms of the Bulletin’s fearless investigative reporters who, we are constantly told, are not frightened of asking the questions to we want answers. Surely there was a scoop just around the corner?
Well, we got a scoop alright, a large steaming scoopful of juvenile horse manure. Here’s Craig Warhurst’s iditorial on the matter.
Two things stand out. The first – the following bit – casts doubts on Mr Warhurst’s grasp on journalistic basics.
Murky argument? Surely you jest, boofy boy, especially when throwing in the phrase ‘whatever the number’. FFS! CAMERON DICK WAS IN TOWN, HE COULD BE ASKED HOW HE MADE HIS DISPUTED CALCULATION TO CLEAR UP THE WORRYING MATTER, AND REVEAL WHO WAS CORRECT OR OTHERWISE.
That’s what bloody papers are meant do, Mr Warhurst, ask question to remove any ‘murkiness’. That is our calling. And here he was, right there in front of you. But ther best you could do was show he wasn’t the only Dick in town that day, with you just regurgitating chunks of press releases.
Then you went right off the rails when you penned this totally unsupportable brown-nosing analysis of what appears – but by no means guaranteed – an extra $195million for Townsville infrastructure.
A coup for Mayor Hill? Dragged money out of the Feds? And FFS!!! ‘well played, Jenny’? Are you saying she – oh, what a clever girl – engineered this set of complex circumstances to end up – maybe- with some extra loot from Canberra? Even the more vaguely believable ‘Well played, Anna,’ would’ve been a stretch.
This is foaming lunacy of the first order, embarrassing and just plain wrong. The mayor has said, quite reasonably, what she would like to see the money used for, but not even a humbug exponent like her would make your grovelling, sycophantic claim of ‘well played’.
FYI, Mr Warhurst, there are four meanings listed in the Merriam’s dictionary for ‘coup’.
coup | ko͞o |
noun (plural coups | ko͞oz | )
1 (also coup d’état) a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government: he was overthrown in an army coup.
2 a notable or successful stroke or move: it was a major coup to get such a prestigious contract.
- an unusual or unexpected but successful tactic in card play.
3 historical (among North American Indians) an act of touching an armed enemy in battle as a deed of bravery, or an act of first touching an item of the enemy’s in order to claim it.
4 a contusion caused by contact of the brain with the skull at the point of trauma.
It would appear that using meaning 2 in relation to the mayor in this matter raises a very strong suspicion that you are suffering under meaning 4.
To top of this sorry episode, you let letter writers do the job your getting paid to do. Why couldn’t you, or say, Tony Raggatt come up with this fairly comprehensive parsing of the situation?
Look mate, it is one thing to spark up a doobie and get laced at parties, but it is quite another to be fried all day, sitting in the editor’s chair. Desist.
That Way, You Might Avoid This
Gosh, look what we found today – Saturday – tucked away on page 38.
Boy, you can bet there’s some frantic scuttling and the clinking of coins behind the News Ltd skirting boards on this one. Apologies like this are often just part of an already agreed settlement, and one wonders if the ex-copper who wrote the letter has been enjoined in any action. There goes a chunk of your pension, Sunshine. A total lack of checking and/or the scantest legal knowledge let a doozy through, unmistakably implying that, of all people, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Queensland is deeply corrupt.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE FOR OUR HAPLESS IDITOR.
The ‘Pie checked back and sure enough … the offending letter is still there in the paper of that date., as it first appeared. The redaction is The Magpie’s otherwise he becomes a party to any defamation, and anyway, the suggestion is complete bollocks.
So, you’ve said sorry, Mr Warhurst (no doubt at the furious direction of Holt Street in Sydney) but you have left it up on the Bulletin website for those interested enough to still see.
You’re a fucking idiot mate. An expensive one.
Speaking Of Matters Murdoch
Things aren’t too cheery for ol’ walnut face just now, what with his eldest son jumping ship over News Ltd’s climate change poicies, and now this …
And more angst on the Murdoch horizon.
There has been quite a kerfuffle over a three part BBC documentary series on Rupert, which all commercial outlets in Australia went wobbly at the knees of the possibility of airing here. And even the ABC was very tentative about the prospect, but is now said to be in negotiations to air the three programs. Well, The Magpie already has got hold of all three progs, and here offers you the three links to all three episodes. Get in quick before some dark minion nobbles ‘em … they were all working at the time of publishing this blog.
It has particular resonance for Townsville. A Magpie reader of solid insight emailed:
This is significant business (and social) news. Good to see it get a decent run on News.com.au. As I’ve said before, the day Rupe goes is the day they shut all the printing presses – including Townsville. It’s unlikely to be a protracted matter.
The Guardian’s full report.
They Said It
Wise words of the week.
Let’s not delude ourselves into believing the days of an independent public service and “frank and fearless” advice are still with us.
They’re long gone.
Steve Wardill C-M.
The ‘Huh? Come Again’ Quote of the Week
“He was entitled to remove Mr Papworth from the land so on that basis I am unable to conclude without reasonable doubt that the assault was unlawful”. Magistrate Ross Mack digs deep into legal negatives in ruling on a neighbourly biff-up in Railway Estate. The defendant won … we think.
This Will Have Folks Spitting Chips
Anyone remember Spitting Image, the Brit cult TV show featuring those brilliant rubbery figures? The series had the same audience dynamic as Media Watch and The Magpie … the show you loved – until you were in it. Well, it’s coming back and what a timely return , being revived in such a target rich environment.
Is it your type of humour? Well, the best promise of some well aimed sniping is that the show will feature weather updates by Greta Thunberg. (Cue outrage in the Ashton household.)
Has Jamie Durie Gone Federal?
Noted during the week in the Australian.
…And A Touch Of Perspective From An Exasperated Restaurateur
Lost In Translation
In The Canterville Ghost (1887), Oscar Wilde wrote: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.”
While new coinage of words is a particularly American trait, Australians more readily accept the often delightful new descriptors than some countries, particularly Britain. But even then, accent and blurred language of a hasty media isn’t always accounted for, so in the age of COVID, we have the great Masturbate …, or is that Mask Debate.
And Then There’s Mondegreens
We’ve all done it, in the privacy of our own minds …accidentally or deliberately misheard lyrics of popular songs. The history of the word is a story in itself, or as an article in The New Yorker tells us:
The term mondegreen is itself a mondegreen. In November, 1954, Sylvia Wright, an American writer, published a piece in Harper_’_s where she admitted to a gross childhood mishearing. When she was young, her mother would read to her from the “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” a 1765 book of popular poems and ballads. Her favorite verse began with the lines, “Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands / Oh, where hae ye been? / They hae slain the Earl Amurray, / And Lady Mondegreen.” Except they hadn’t. They left the poor Earl and “laid him on the green.” He was, alas, all by himself.
It is an error compounded nowadays by the glissado of modern singers, slurring and sliding through lyrics. And one bloke who makes hilarious fun from all this is Peter Kay.
Sinking Slowly …
When the histories are written, it may well be concluded that the identifiable point of no return for Donald Trump was his recent interview with Aussie journalist John Swan (ABC health spruiker Dr Norman Swan’s not so little boy). That chat has become known globally as the Train Wreck Interview, and has been widely reported elsewhere. David Pakman has done one of the more intelligent dissections of what happened, well worth a look to fully understand the childish deception of a charlatan.
But just how did an Aussie journalist get to do such a significant one-on-one, and with such welcome up-front scepticism?
The ‘Pie has a theory that Trump granted the interview, after he had immensely enjoyed an embarrassing brown-nosing, sycophantic chat with another Australian, Sky’s Paul Murray. It is quite likely that Trump concluded that ‘Aussie really love me, bigly love me, great guys, terrific’, and figured another Aussie would be just as accommodating. So he agreed to let what h thought would be John Swan orally pleasuring him – interview-wise. Trump didn’t even seem to realize what was happening.
Trump’s off-hand dismissal of his handling of the pandemic as ‘it is what it is’ – a line of such breathtaking thoughtlessness and callous denial of responsibility for the most powerful office in the world was the sun by which so many cartoonists and satirists have made hay this week.
A Closing Note
To many a bookie’s despair, unless something catastrophic intervenes, The Magpie reaches the milestone of 75 next Tuesday, and so will be spending a few days on the Gold Coast with family. Not sure how the internet hook-up is going to work out down there, so if your comments take a while to appear, The ‘Pie will put any tardiness to rights later in the week. Of course, the good news for all of us is that the donation system still works no matter what, so you can delight yourself with your generosity in supporting the blog, and The Magpie will be delighted to thank you for doing so.
Firstly , Happy 75th Birthday for next tuesday Pie and be careful not to take a wrong turn at Coolangatta or you wont be let back in for awhile . I see LGAQ Ceo Greg Hallam is taking legal action against ex State MP and now Cairns Councillor Rob Pyne and Lyn Oconnor for defamation . It appears Hallam has spent $250,000 on anyone critical of him reported in a review of defamation law in Australia and New Zealand by the Council of Attorneys-General . With so many LGAQ Council members Mayors in Jail , Councils under investigation , Councils sacked and lets not forget Hallams claims , investigations into Mayor Paul Pisasale were a witch hunt , Hallam has had to try to put lipstick on a pig due to the endemic issues at Councils across Queensland . Speaking of Councils the Impailer commented ” i knew things would be bad but didnt realise they would be this bad ” when commenting on a $7 mil blow out on Palm Island Council financials whose previous Mayor was also a previous LGAQ Board Member . Rates are out and based on the dire situation locally and in Qld how many Qld Councils will need $ from the State Government ?.
Oh! ye without sin, sorry mate couldn’t resist it.
But there is a more serious size {sic} to this constant slackarsery, and an underlying problem was exposed this week.
Accer, mate, didn’t not publish comment – which was quite correct – through pique, just so out of date and disconnected because The ‘Pie has been on the wing all today, it would not have made sense.
Ref. mondegreen, Dave Allen had a great one, at 7 years old he attended a funeral and as the coffin was lowered into the grave he “heard” the priest say “in the name of the father, and of the son and into the hole he goes”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4g_OMETzOk&list=RDJ4g_OMETzOk&start_radio=1&t=219
Happy Birthday for Tuesday old bird
75 not out, going well
To borrow from medical parlance, it’s definitely an outrageous ‘false positive’ for the TB to claim that Mayor Mullet has had some sort of victory with the pipeline funding and the soon to be re-directed Federal funds!
Such a claim (and in writing too) demonstrates that nothing has changed in the unwavering and amateurish ‘arse-kissing’ antics between the TB and the Walker St. clan! I’ll be plucked!
I don’t often praise The Mullet, but good on her for trying to respond to ratepayers while doing her grocery shopping.
With apologies,Gal, doing this remotely from an iPad from the southern suburb. Of Townsville called Brisbane, and somehow lost the attachment you sent. Pls resend.
So, was someone stoning her with cans of John West Tuna in brine?
Mr Magpie, it seems that no matter how many times you, me or the Townsville Bulletin ask the Queensland Treasurer about GST allocation and the $195m “grant” from the Commonwealth, nothing fruitful is forthcoming. Part of the problem seems to be that no one will make it clear, even by reference to past or historical funding events, how these things usually pan out. You publish the letter from Barry Lowe which itself contains a weird assertion about only 20% of the $195m coming to the pipeline project – surely that is not a number out of the Qld Treasurer’s mouth? And then there’s the assertion from Phil Thompson who said there was no way the state could know how much the $195m would cost it in GST allocation because the decision was yet to be made. So when can we hear from the federal government – via the federal Treasurer or Mr Thompson about how a $195m ‘grant’ would actually affect the state’s GST allocation? And while they are at it, could they give a definitive ruling on whether the same applies to the stadium funding, about which there should be some clarity after all this time?
That is exactly the sentiment expressed in the blog, with the aim of chastising the Astonisher for not doing its job and insisting on clarification and tie up loose ends of both arguments.
Have a good one and hopes many more
Thanks, David.
‘Appy birthday Pie – hope you don’t end up on your back or you’re arse when celebrating! Love and respect Plucker, oops, I mean Donald!
Happy 3/4 of a century for Tuesday Magpie. You deserve to down tools for a couple of days.
Enjoy and don’t worrry, we will survive for a couple of days without your wisdom.
The demise of the NQ Cowboys continues.
Schoolboy stuff on Saturday and once again the Cowboys poor recruiting and retention was on show.
Too many old players who should be retired and younger rejects from other clubs who are not up to NRL standard.
Meanwhile players that were let go are performing like State of Origin stars for rival clubs.
They got rid of coach Green but that didn’t help so its time that the football manager was also moved on.
The fact that he is part of the group interviewing prospective new coaches is a joke.
Had to laugh about stand-in coach Josh Hannay’s choice of words when describing the woeful return of captain Michael Morgan.
“He’s in there pretty disappointed with some of the involvements he had,” Hannay said after the game.
When did mistakes become “involvements”?
An ardent Cowboys fan in his twilight years told me that when he passes away he would love it if the Cowboys player would carry his coffin and lower him into the ground so they can let him down one last time.
Unfortunately the team are playing like Hannay used to; average at best. Although I do think Morgan will be so much better for his first game back, despite his below standard performance on the weekend. In the modern game, any team can spot weaknesses in their opponents and the Cowboys are offering plenty at the moment. And yes, I think Peter Parr needs to move on and make way for an elevation of professionalism in the ranks.
Have a fantastic birthday away you old bird! And here’s to many more years Letting it fly from on high
May the wind always be beneath your wings! Have a fantastic birthday!
Same from me, Pie… birthday wishes and all that.
(And, just saying… I had a grandmother who lived that long. Similarly, she went a bit “odd” during the years approaching that score).
Anything to do with you being her grandson/daughter/other?
Yes, I am sure she was determined to keep on living because I was such a fantastic grandchild.
Interesting series on Murdoch Mr Pie. The news and media industry has (was) always an important fabric of our society. However it has become ‘fake’, an empire based on profits and a tool for the elite to use to therir advantage. Blogs are now the only reasonably true source of information. Murdoch is a parasite. It’s not about need, it’s about greed, ego and narcissism. He has more billions than one could dream about and his family are set up for life, so why keep buying, expanding, investing when you are 89 and not far off from croaking it?? Fucking ego. The conga line of politicians so eager to slurp on his sausage proves that the 1% are pathetic grubs and their day will come. The world, it’s economies and societies are collapsing. When the car age is over these fuckwits won’t be worth a dime.
well done, old Magpie, and happy birthday
TEL’s Little Pattie and Kevin Gill were on Ch7 News tonight talking up Townsville Enterprise’s trip to Brisbane to lobby for funds for shovel ready local projects, including the controversial Townsville Airport upgrade.
Kevin Gill is also the chief operations manager for Townsville Airport.
No conflict of interest there, of course.
Given the bleak future of aviation Townsville Airport probably needs to be downgraded to reflect lack of future demand, NOT upgraded at taxpayers expense to provide a private company with free assets.
I thought the airport upgrade was already being funded through a Federal loan? Is he hoping for money that they don’t need to pay back instead?
Ironic isn’t it, Queensland Airports Limited is a conglomerate of airports that were sold off by successive Governments. Now they are a corporation that gouges the public and sends all of the profits to their hedge fund masters yet they want Government project money for their infrastructure. WTF!!! Grubs grubs grubs. They can go and fuck off
The NAIf funding has been scrapped for the airport project as TAPL can no longer meet the requirements of the loan deal, so in normal Townsville style out comes the begging bowl and off to Brisbane they go to try and find some gullible Dick to subsidise this pathetic joke of a business. The fact that Numbskull Gill as chair of TEL is actively seeking funding for his own business as part of this delegation is a complete fucking disgrace and the fact that other members of TEL allow this to happen reflects the toxic business culture in this town, no wonder it’s dying.
Happy birthday Mr Pie, and tell Plucka to get off my back.
Also Freuquent Flyer, Stewart on the news again (every night) on Ch 7 peddling the same shit , how many times can they pay for the stadium, port upgrade, water line, but never speak about crime or anything else that’s good for Townsville, must be getting desperate, in the words of maybe Tville’s greatest businessman ( oh what a feeling) his favourite saying was it always takes people at least 6 times telling them before it sinks in ( I worked for this great man for 23yrs) and boy it has sunk in about 50 times at least going by Stewart’s effort.
Whats the difference between the three Labor members for Townsville, and a computer?
You only have to punch information into a computer once.
Have a good one, Malcolm. Keep those claws firmly attached to the perch. Wine calls.
I find it interesting how Rockhampton Council, the Council that was in bed with Townsville Council to build the Adani airport, are now looking at another venture. They (Rockhampton Council) have been involved in talks with Emerald airport and Gladstone airport with a potential view of all three being sold off to Queensland Treasury and then becoming a single entity corporation. It’s all being kept very hush hush but there has been closed door Council meetings with state Government and some legwork done already. Two of those three airports are owned by Councils. Doesn’t that constitute ‘asset sales’?? Sneaky sneaky
A VERY good question. How about giving Greg ‘Pizza The Hutt’ Hallam a call? Bet he’s in it up to the third fold of his neck.
Very true, Jabba the Hallam would have his tubby fingers in any such proposal. There would be a mad scramble to put Labor loyalists into Board positions within the new airport corporation. The current Labor Premier and QTC loyalists would make sure of that. Mind you, with COVID hanging around, the three airports in question are duds. All three have debts owing to QTC also. But selling them off would bring their Council owners much needed money to fill up empty bank accounts. Madam Doona won’t get that chance because Townsville airport is already owned by the hedge fund grubs. Lots of former Mayors, Ministers and minions in the political world would love a Board seat. All the piggies will be lining up for a ringside seat at the trough.
The LGAQ and ‘Pizza The Hutt’ Hallam may well have a circle jerking ‘jobs for my mates, scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ culture of secrecy and border-line, unethical empire building, but the LGAQ coterie are mere amateurs when it comes to rorting the system.
This from an article in the Oz online last month. Honestly, how can this be justified? Paying someone $5,240 a week for”management advisory services”!
From the Australian online edition 28 July 2020
by Matthew Denham:
Several members of a panel reviewing whether World War II hero Teddy Sheean should receive a posthumous Victoria Cross are being paid $30,000 for six weeks’ work.
Federal Labor on Tuesday night criticised the payments as a “waste of taxpayer money”, given an independent tribunal had already unanimously recommended the VC for Sheean.
“We knew from the start that the Prime Minister was wasting taxpayer money and time with another review of a review,” said Labor defence personnel spokesman Shayne Neumann.
“Now we hear that two members of his so-called expert panel are being paid $31,450 each for six weeks of work — or $62,900 in total. That works out at $5240 a week. Nice work if you can get it. This latest review is a farce and completely redundant. Everyone except Scott Morrison already knows Teddy is worthy of a VC. We don’t need another review to tell us that.”
Tender documents published by the federal government confirm two members of the four-member panel — former solicitor-general David Bennett and former top bureaucrat Peter Shergold — are being paid $31,450 for “management advisory services” from June 15 to July 31. The amount being paid to the other two panel members, including its chair, former defence minister Brendan Nelson, has not been disclosed.
It might actually equate to “asset purchases” by the state government. Emerald and Gladstone would be licences to print money (under normal circumstances) with all the mining and industry FIFO work.
Happy Birthday Mr Magpie. May you continue to shine your spotlight into the dark places where (mostly) politicians don’t want you to look for many years to come.
Dear Magpie, happy birthday you miserable bastard. Wishing you another 20 or so years of sinking the boot into me and my inept Council.
If you’re around for another 20 years, there won’t be anything in which to stick the boot.
Happy birthday young fella!!! All the best.
Happy birthday Magpie. I hope you have enjoyed the start of your 75th time around the sun. Always here mate, just not in Townsville anymore, place has turned to shit. Perth is bliss. Early retirement is even better. A little something in the nest for you. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, longest reader.
Anyone notice the birthdays and the picture in the paper today don’t link with anyone….anyone…Bueller….??? Plus that if the cape is renamed it will remain as Upstart to the vast majority… or shortened to Cape Budgie…..
I hope you had a great birthday, sorry for the belated good wishes.
Happy 75th mate, I reckon you got a few more good years in you yet.
God willing and mayor Mullet not finding the hit man fee.
Thanks.
Nice to see rates exploding again.
It can only mean one thing, the council has just taken a monster of a loan, my guesses at least 50 million.
Pineapple Express , rates havnt increased but go down to utility charges . Waste &Recycling + 5% , water consumption + 5% but some people have been hit $250 + water consumption . Seems they have changed the allocation of water that previously we wernt charged for , reduced the free litres and added an extra charge . Creative accounting as my total rates + utilities up 3% . Can anyone clarify on the water charges ?.
Want proof that there’s definitely something wrong with all this smoke and mirrors stuff about rates and utility charges? Simple it’s the mere fact that deputy Doofus Frothy Molachino is making the running. No Mullet in the mix, ergo it has to be an unavoidable bad news story, offering no photo op, and boof is the fall guy.
You know, if it wasn’t so clumsy dishonest and dumb, you’d have some sneaking admiration for Jenny Hill.
Don’t be silly. Our glorious deputy dud leader is reported thus in the paper today:
Council has worked hard to put downward pressure on rates, and this is working – no longer is Townsville amongst the most expensive councils in Queensland. Townsville ratepayers should not have to shoulder the upfront capital cost to further upgrade the lighting at Riverway alone and we look forward to working with the state, Commonwealth and peak sporting bodies on upgrades in the future.
CR MARK MOLACHINO,
Deputy Mayor
It is written, do it must be true.
WTF will someone please tell this idiot that Riverway is a council asset and the associated costs whether these costs be for upgrades or maintenance, are the responsibility of the council.
To me this is another example of showing that no capital works are going to be undertaken in Townsville unless council goes cap in hand to Auntie Anna for a grant and Auntie Anna gives it to Mullet. I expect Mullet will be begging with cap in hand a lot more before the October election and Auntie Anna will give as she tries to save the seats of her three useless elected idiots.
Pineapple Express – At least you have your rates notice! I’m still waiting for ours to arrive from gods knows where they were being printed and dispatched from. Council – once again not supporting local business.
nq gal check your email because its so bad in tcc that they are sending it that way to save buying paper.
i can tell you every department is in budget savings mode to the maximum. All staff have been told that wages is to high and in order to keep any promises services need to be carried out in the same manner with half the money. Not ECQ can bang on about how good jennys doing but the truth is tcc is in deep shit. Your veiw on utilities is where everyone is getting hit. They always look at the rates bill as a whole and say how dear it is. General rates is very cheap. The utilities are the wolf in sheeps clothing. 5% increases in waste/recycling is massive. You only have to look at the fleet driving around if they arnt in workshop to see they havnt spent money there in years. How much did that mollion dollar shed at hearveys range cost us ratepayers? Contractor’s are used instead of hiring tcc staff. By that i mean the old tcc were internal only contractors last resort. Yes there were alot of shovel holders but it kept Townsville employed. The blonde bitch fucked that with hill in front. Millions have gone into the stafium that you dont see. Our water infrastructure is in dire need of replacement everywhere in Townsville. The busted pipe before the election was just the start. Yep jennys budget looks so good on paper and yep she will get it back in order that she says in 2025. But its easy to do thay when you dont spend money on services/fleets/staff or infrastructure. A these projects around town are state government money not from rates. Any road and bikepath is built with that money. Covid 19 has nothing to do with anything she says in tje future because the state has propped her council up so much it looks good. It wont be long before we all start to see the effect. I give it 12mths or sooner.
Internal, all that you say is very true. Every year that these muppets fuck up the finances is another year that we will be left suffering. They keep kicking the can further down the road. There are major infrastructure issues in Townsville, and it is mostly to do with ‘what you can’t see’ – underground! Sewerage, pipes, water, pumps, pump stations and the list goes on. Team Hill didn’t spend wisely when the good times were bringing in the money, and now with the Councils massive debt and with COVID expected to crash the economy completely we are really really up shit creek without a poo paddle. So many tossers in Townsville Politics – Hill, Cupcake, Moccachino, the list of incompetents is frightening as they are pretty much all suckholes, arse lickers, shonks and shysters.
There MUST be something very wrong when The Mullet pushes head on a stick Molachino to the front, as TCC ‘spokesperson’!
As you point out Magpie, she has form on the above point on multiple occasions. Still awaiting some sort of statement from her on EXACTLY what inducements were given re The Horn fight and the V8’s. TRANSPARENCY right, PFFFTTT!!!?
And doncha just love the way politicians degrade any dignity their office should carry when panic pushes them to become shameless hucksters and shills for events like the Horn fight.
Kate Jones went for bimbo parrot speak today: ‘Sold all the corporate ringside tickets (as if they wouldn’t) and now urge Queenslander to snap up the remaining tickets’ (to see Horn) who has a heart of gold but fights like a man of steel’. Upchuck all round.
No matters how much political lipstick she puts on it, this event is a private promotion, which, if the backers believed their own publicity, would not need any government support apart from extra control on scalpers.
And our very own vacuum that is abhorred not just by nature,Townsville MP Scott Stewart materialised just long enough for the Astonisher to catch in the wind the words’ “The promoters are over the moon because people are supporting these events.” Gosh, really, Scott? Indeed, the promoters would be mad not not be lunar looney over the event, because the main people supporting this event are government and council people sending money flying into their pockets of this ‘world class event’. The ‘Pie was about to ask Mr Stewart how much we are being stiffed for this event, but, alas, he had disappeared into thin air. Again.
He must’ve heard someone in the media crowd say ‘crime’.
There’s lots of waste at TCC. A few years ago management bought hundreds of budget tablet computers so parks staff could use them to log jobs via email and be more efficient. From what I understand the program was over 1yr late and the entire time each tablet computer had an activated phone Sim card in it for the mobile data costing something like $30 a month. A guess that there were 500 tablet computers not being used for a year would equate to $180,000 of our money spent for nothing. This is why our rates are so high.
and they wouldn’t even play games
useless
I remember it well; I had recently joined the IT department upon returning to TSV after several years based in HK but working across the APAC region. It was an exciting time to be involved in all the new advances and developments in IT stuff.
The problem with implementation at TCC-IT was the Projects Director, a legend in his own mind. He had zero commercial acumen and spent nearly all his time “creating” and bragging about his own versions of readily available, robust and economic equivalent programmes, sailing awfully close to the Microsoft wind.
The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA’s) as the modules were called, were being implemented across all industries and had many advantage’s especially safety and emergency situations.
After buying the PDA’s, this clown then spent months writing his own version of the comms. which had only 20% of the features of the commercially available package.
Needless to say, I was soon persona non gratis, as I tolerate fools lightly and my acid tongue was not appreciated by the PD, I left to my comfort zone back in Asia.
But if this clown is typical of senior department management at TCC it’s no wonder it’s so bloody dysfunctional.
you remind me of me!
If there is a covid-19 outbreak in Townsville after the V8s and the Horn fight just remember that Jenny Hill didn’t just invite them here – she paid them to come (with ratepayers money)
Mayor Mullets lips are locked down tighter than a chastity belt when it comes to transparency.
What about the Adani Airstrip, the bogus battery factory, ratepayers funds spent on bread and circuses over many, many years (e.g. the Horn fight, the V8’s, underwater art ‘exhibits’, rate and headworks concessions for multiple ‘projects’ etc)? The list goes on? Why is this person never called to account???
The question is how the hell did she get voted back in. Was it apathy, stupidity or something else?
Haven’t you read the Townsville City motto:
‘It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.’
I thought the Council’s motto was ‘Serves you right’.
It is … the other is the city’s motto reflecting it’s voting populace.