It's all about what's not said

Did you happen to see the piece on Palm Island artist Billy Doolan on the 7:30 report?  If not, it is well worth a look and Billy is certainly deserving of the national attention and recognition given the quality of his work and growing international reputation . (Transcript and video here).

Watching it reminded me of an unfinished post which I'd started in response to a Townsville Bulletin article on Billy back on 17 Feb. While that article also gave Billy local attention and recognition, at the time it annoyed me that the Bully tagged Billy as a "Townsville Artist" where of course he is a Palm Island man and that the article was run well back into the paper and not (for example) headlined in the weekly Arts Section. 

There was also something very familiar about the paper's pic of Billy which I couldn't put my finger on - until I found this piece by Chris Johnson in The Age.  As soon as I read there that Billy had been a resident of Happy Valley (for non-locals, Townsville's equivalent to a "fringe camp" or "town camp") the penny dropped.

I had met Billy at Happy Valley a number of years ago.  I now clearly remembered him as a strong and proud man, a leader - far from the image of Happy Valley itinerants and drunks that The Bulletin (among many others) are so fond of betraying.

And of course, while effectively regurgitating The Age article published 47 days beforehand, the Bully managed to exclude (airbrush) any reference to Billy's association with the Valley.  After all, we wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea about that mob would we?

Their attempt to appropriate Billy as a "Townsville Artist" (that is, one of our own) became all the more annoying when I read that Billy has been living in Melbourne for half of each of the last eight years (he's clearly a smart businessman too).

Oh - and I also discovered that Billy is in fact a "major Queensland artist" - certainly worthy of more than a throw-away piece in the local rag of the town that likes to claim him as their own.

While not really surprised by The Bully's approach, I have been particularly annoyed by what appears to me to be the complete ignoring of Billy Doolan and his international standing by the arts establishment in this town - and believe me there is one.  Search the Bulletin's site for "chamber music" and you'll get 67 results.  Search Billy's name and you get just one.

Say no more

Mulrunji and the coppers - "The whole charade is totally offensive"

Tony Koch has consistently written the best pieces in the MSM on the outrage that is the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee and the charade that has followed ever since.  In today's Oz:

THE lawyers' picnic in the Queensland Supreme Court is masquerading as a titanic battle.

THE lawyers' picnic masquerading in the Queensland Supreme Court as a titanic battle between the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the Queensland Police Service is just another attempt to deny any blame for the disgraceful investigation into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee.

The CMC, after years of ignoring its responsibilities to ensure that police acted properly, recommended that disciplinary action be taken against six officers involved to varying degrees in the sloppy cover up.

Last month, CMC chairman Martin Moynihan gave Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson a fortnight to report back on action the QPS intended to take against the officers.

The only body with more culpability is the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee, which has the responsibility to be the watchdog, but whose members have sat mute all this time.

So this week it was back to court with injunctions ensuring that justice for Palm Islanders is further delayed. The whole charade is totally offensive.

Commissioner Atkinson has not had just a fortnight to consider action against the police involved - he has had almost six years. He has a sworn responsibility to ensure the law is applied equally to all citizens, but he has a special duty when a situation involves the most vulnerable in our community.

His refusal to accept the responsibility of his office and to take the obvious action against his officers is reprehensible. His contract should not be renewed when it expires late this year.

The motto of the QPS is "With Honour We Serve".

The investigators of the 2004 death of Mulrunji, so enthusiastically supported by Atkinson, have defiled that noble claim.

...and the things that make you shake your head

An eerie silence from The Bully

Interestingly, The Bulletin’s parent paper, The Oz has this front page story:  Five years on, Doomadgee death investigators facing discipline

And the Bully has ... precisely zilch!! Even more interesting given that our copies of the Oz are printed on the Bully’s presses right here in Townsville

Palm Island, The Townsville Bulletin & Greek Mythology

Unfortunately, the Townsville Bully don’t have Saturday’s article by John Andersen about the Palm Island Community Company (“Island hit by Trojan Horse” page 20) available on-line and I haven’t as yet worked out how to make scans of large articles available to readers here.

The article in question is yet another example of the lazy research that passes as journalism in this town. In essence, the article repeats accusations by a number of Islanders that the Qld Government’s establishment of the Palm Island Community Company (with the support of the Island Council) was a “Trojan Horse” designed to take-over community run organizations and in so doing disempower locals.

In true Bully style, Andersen of course fails to seek any comment from either the relevant Minister or the Community Company (itself and Indigenous-run organization).

To be fair though, in some 88 column-centimetres it does, in a sentence or two, allude to the fact that control of Government funding is only diverted to the Community Company where the community organisations involved fail to meet the obligations and standards which come with that funding