But the most astounding aspect of this week’s campaigning in Townsville is the missing link, the elephant in the room that no one seems to want to mention.
And kinky kings their titties take … could Prince Andy could be a chip off the old block(head)?
The customer complaint of the year, and we inevitably visit the weird world of words from near and far.
But Bentley has been determined to have a relatively undisturbed holiday season, shunning worldly woes while taking the rays and lounging around. But huge issues are never far away, as he noticed as he idled on the beach.
Now (sigh) politics.
The Queensland campaign trail seems to be sinking into a heady mixture of pork fat and steaming bull dollops.
The LNP appears to have adopted a controlled panic stance as the campaign passes the midway mark, it is suddenly dawning on them that they just might’ve misread the electorate across a number of issues. However, Paul Zanetti reckons they’ve sorted out one particular albatross.
Not since the undisguised electorate bribing of Joh have we seen anything like this. Anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu once summed up colonial history in his country when he said, “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
That’s how it worked around the world, from the first white men to barter with the Indians of the New World …
to the early settlement of Australia.
In this country, that didn’t just include the aboriginal population, but ticket-of-leave men and women and others trying to work, in European eyes, a depleted landscape that required some sort of coercion to stick it out.
Nothing much has changed, as we’ve seen in the past couple of weeks, with our southern masters (and mistress) descending on this outpost with trinkets, blankets and beads to gain our favour and take our assets.
In this case, it was the very tenuous promise – with an even more tenuous timeline – of partial funding for a superstadium. In return, the LNP wants a mandate through the ballot box to privatise our port, inland railway line and our electricity supplier.
The Bulletin just about wet itself in a lather of thinly disguised self-congratulations.
Premature and dishonest to say the least.
Would’ve been far more accurate to say ‘We Did It’, but that would give the game away wouldn’t it? That a totally one-sided, manipulative campaign of bullying and half-truths had triumphed. They think.
The insult is breathtaking, the bullshit more transparent than it usually is. The founding concept that kicked this whole thing off was an integrated stadium and entertainment/convention behemoth to replace the current ageing facilities. A $200,000 KPMG feasibility study – commissioned by the government itself – made it clear that the project was feasible only if all three components were built. It is conventional wisdom that stand-alone stadiums do not make money … not in regional areas anyway. But somehow, led by that unquestioning sock puppet of self-interested business (including itself) the Townsville Bulletin, the words ‘entertainment/convention centre’ suddenly disappeared a few months ago without explanation. The talk was of nothing but a stand-alone stadium, which without a doubt is a blueprint for a colossal white elephant. Someone had whispered in the Iditor’s ear, and the warning bells should’ve been deafening, and now the worst has been realized.
Premier Campbell Newman (pro tem)
The Brisbane Bantam was at his grinning frog-mouth best in making the announcement of $150M towards the ‘stadium’. He and Kid Crisafulli then blithely said that an entertainment/convention Centre was a possibility that could be added ‘sometime in the future’. You are bloody joking, surely. That throwaway comment raises the spectre of a repeat of the wasteful ring road debacle, half built and left for a few years before a costly completion – some estimates say twice as much as if it had been done all at once. That also came about because of politically inept pork barreling by Labor. Surely the general rule is that if you’re going to pork barrel, go the whole hog, so as to speak.
This approach is nothing but an unaffordable attempt at vote catching, taking advantage that the community has been locked out of the Bulletin’s pages, not allowed to openly debate their concerns which would run contrary to the paper’s business agenda.
Two questions for the LNP and our Magoo-ish councillors. We’re told the current entertainment centre will need multiple millions to be brought up to scratch from it parlous current state. So where do we get those millions in these belt-tightening times, until the proposed ‘future time’ for a stadium add on arrives? Ratepayers, be alarmed. Demand iron-clad guarantees or you’ll be crying in your beer before bedtime.
And a question for Campbell Newman. Yesterday, you sent out a begging letter seeking campaign funds, which said among other things, ‘Our team has stopped the unsustainable growth in debt, and next year the budget will be in fiscal surplus for the first time in a decade’.
If that’s the case, why do you need to sell assets owned by the taxpayer? Or does that depend on a once-only asset sale/lease?The ‘Pie is open on the question of such a sale (lease if you want to use smoke and mirrors) but, mate, by your own boast, you’re doing OK without that. As one of your red-headed campaign opponents would say ‘Please explain’.
The ‘Pie again turns to history for suitable electoral advise. While searching through historical aspects for this week’s blog, a little reported incident came to light which could act as a suitable response to the insulting behavior of both major parties of today. In 1838, the unpopular Governor of Van Diemen’s Land travelled to the Cascade Womens’ Factory in Tasmania to address the inmates. But they were having none of it, and if you thought mooning was something new, witness this, drawn at the time.
Mooning the man. Eloquence of a sort without words.
The blokes were offended but the ladies in the official party couldn’t stop laughing. Perhaps a reality check of this nature might awaken some politicians to the reality of their policies in the community.
Back to today, as a sideshow, the Queensland campaign was used by Federal Labor unveils its newest model windfarm.
In the background can be seen the old model windfarm.
On the national stage, here’s something that landed in the in-tray well worth pondering.
That’s in the same but more serious vein of why is there only one Monopolies Commission?
On the international stage, it is interesting times for royal watchers. After the media’s non-stop saccharine overdose surrounding Prince Billy (known as The Lucky Sod), Kate and their blood sucking burden on the public purse, the world’s favorite little snot George, in a way it was refreshing to get a bit of vinegar and salt back into the prim House of Windsor. This surfaced with the allegations that the forgotten royal Prince Andy had been indulging in a spot of underage sex. If mental age is a criterion, there are those that consider he has form in this area, since he was married to the infantile walking social disaster Sarah Bloody Ferguson. The Palace, which usually deigns to remain above the cut and thrust of tabloid allegations has been miffed – and alarmed – enough to deny the charge made by a now-married woman, adding just for helpful completeness that Andy not only did not pants her, ‘he hasn’t ever had underage sex with anyone’. Certainly that’s what he’s told Mumsy, anyway. As you would. But Pickering thinks there is some familial rumblings behind the scenes.
Be that as it may, those in high places are always inventing their own myths and their own morality, tailored to their public posturing. This was never more evident than that meaningless and hypocritical peacock strut through Paris by world leaders backing the Je Suis Charlie defence of free speech. There has been no more eloquent scorn and derision heaped on these breath-taking double standards than this post doing the rounds of cyberspace.
Quite so.
The value … and the cost … of words was evident this week, when the Astonisher published this front page on Friday.
Now, not wishing to stir up emotions on a sad occasion, The’ Pie has to point out that the use of the words ‘murder victim’ is legal quicksand in this instance. Yes, someone has been charged with murder over the woman’s death, but there’s been no confession nor has a plea has been entered. And if any matters come to light that lead, say, to a charge or plea of manslaughter, the accused legal team could easily cite this headline as prejudicial, and seek to have the trial make a costly move to another city. The taxpayer would have to foot the bill.
And here’s the thing. The local lads decide on the front page headline, but the story itself was subbed and headed by presumably experienced sub-editors in Brisbane, NZ or perhaps Mumbai. But wherever, they got it right on page 2, a fact carelessly overlooked by the local editorial decision maker of the day. Another reason sub-editing (for consistency) should be maintained in-house.
And still with words, econboof Colin Dwyer is on his travels, and was startled to come across this sign at the newly refurbished Adelaide Oval.
One can only guess that the City of Churches has a desperate water shortage, or has dogs that can read.
Apropos nothing, herfe’s a cute one.
Finally, the customer complaint of the year.
