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

Cut everybody's welfare (but not mine)

It's good to see that the Business Council is acting according to script.  The ABC reports today that the BC (an appropriate abbreviation really) is calling for cuts to disability pensions and oversees aid to fund disaster recovery.  Of course no suggestion of any cuts to business welfare:

The Business Council says cuts to disability services and foreign aid should be considered as alternatives to the flood levy.


...in its pre-budget submission, the Business Council, which represents Australia's top 100 companies, says the government should instead press ahead with returning the budget to surplus through short-term spending discipline.

Council president Graham Bradley says all current spending should be reviewed and disability pensions may not be the best use of government money.

Read on and you'll even find the word "incentivised".  Now I haven't heard that one for a while!

ET brought a lemon - Stupid rich people and that Cyclone

Stupid rich people's toys.
Port Hinchinbrook post Cyclone Yasi

Most of my posts about Cyclone Yasi (and the SE Qld flood for that matter) have at some point discussed stupid rich people buying or building houses in stupid places (like foreshore sand dunes).

There is no better example of this apparently universal malaise (so energetically supported by planning authorities) than Port Hinchinbook just south of Cardwell.  If you're interested in stupid rich people getting sucked in by property developers to build in stupid places have a read of Critics predicted damage to Port Hinchinbrook by Matthew Moore and Tom Reilly at the SMH but note, their piece doesn't even begin to touch on the graft and corruption that enabled Williams to develop the Port Hinchinbrook site (think Jo and the White Shoe Brigade).

And if you need an example of how stupid stupid rich people really can be, check out this little report from the Nine News site on Andrew Ettingshausen's plans to return to Port Hinchinbrook.  Of course, no mention that he really doesn't have much choice given that he failed to sell his property in 2009 and that it would have been failing in value ever since (and would now be even more unsaleable).

Businesses acting responsibly

As an olive oil lover, I was glad to see news that the Australian Olive Association is to introduce national standards for olive oil labelling within the next 12 months.

Contrast this responsible action of the local olive oil industry with that of multi-national big tobacco who "is hoping a new multilateral free trade agreement will enable it to sue the federal government if Australia introduces plain packaging for cigarettes in mid-2012 as planned."

Bastards! 

But then, maybe it would be good if they sued - I suspect that it would be even more counter-productive than Stupid Rich Person, Gerry Harvey's, attempt at public relations

Stupid rich people - Gerry Harvey

Personally, I reckon the whole GST on internet purchases thing was the invention of Solomon Lew.  I'f I'm right, Gerry Harvey is even more stupid than it seems:

 

Idiot! and as for the company who's providing him with brand positioning advice ..............

Of Malls and Convention Centres

I finally had a wander down the 'finished' section of the Townsville Mall (or Flinders Street as it will soon be instantly recognised as around the globe).

Seeing no one is game to publicly bucket Council's latest little adventure in urban design (remember Flinders St East), let me be the first:

• It's gonna be a bloody wet place to go shopping in the wet season
• It's gonna be a bloody hot place to eat your lunch when it's not raining

On the plus side, some of Townsville's ugliest buildings are now fully exposed for the world's architecture tourists (and American boat people) to truly 'enjoy'.

More to the point, it seems that Council and the developer class about town have worked out that the renovation ain't going to work, ain't gonna make the Mall one bit more competitive as a shopping destination and ain't gonna be the $57 million incentive to potential investors in Lancini's Flinders Plaza development that it was designed to provide.

The building 'campaign' for Townsville's much mooted Convention Centre to be located within the CBD (read Lancini's Flinders Plaza ghetto)  is a great study in how these guys play the game (with the help of The Bulletin of course):

• You simply start by someone with profile raising the suggestion - as CBD Taskforce chairman Craig Stack no doubt did in a call to Tony Raggatt who pushes the idea into play.  The same day the Bully's anonymous Editor does a support piece in his editorial - not too strident, gently, gently, place it second.
• The next day you run a page-3 story (complete with front page header) in which, according to Raggatt, "the idea has been supported by Townsville Mayor Les Tyrell and CBD Taskforce chairman Craig Stack" (the previous day he had reported Stack and Tyrell as saying that the idea should be considered). 
• While we're about it, let's introduce Lancini into play - carefully though, you wouldn't like to look too eager at the prospect of a $140 million key-stone tenant to kick your stalled development along.
• And let's add a bit a bit of weight to the proposition by quoting an economist - and none other than local developer Carey Ramm
• And for good measure, why not give Raggatt a 'Business Desk' opinion piece on the same day when he can invoke the ghosts of his father to argue that Lancini should have the subsidy Convention Centre.

In one sense, of course, they are all right - the only thing that will make the Mall work is more people!  However, no one is going to open a shop in the Mall on the promise of maybe lots of people attending a 2 or 3- day conference once a month for maybe nine months of the year.

And of course adding a few carparks (even at the expense of the hundreds that come to the precinct every day by bus - how dumb is that) is not going to make the CBD any more attractive or convenient or, therefore, competitive against Stocklands, The Willows etc

I'm afraid that population density in the CBD (both residential and office) is the only thing that will save The Mall and Council had their chance when they considered a proposal for the development of an Arts Centre (that could have also accommodated conventions) and office/residential complex on what is currently the carpark between Council and the Law Courts.  Instead, they chose to use the available funds to build the tack-on to the Civic Theatre which (coincidentally, of course) gave Les and the big boys a perfectly oriented balcony from which they can gaze down on Pitt Straight during the annual Ried "Park" dinosaur race.  Perhaps Raggatt should chase down that story.

A convention centre to save Flinders Street is a dumb idea - just like putting a road down the middle will prove to be.  But now that they've started the play, I'm afraid that we're all gonna have to watch it unfold over the quite holiday period when no-one is paying any attention to politics. After all, it might just lead to an extra $140 million subsidy support to the failed Flinders Plaza ghetto -on top of what is fairly obviously the failed $57 million subsidy Mall 'upgrade'.

Oh, did I remember to mention that Lancini is a gold advertiser with the Bully and probably the occasional supplier of free drinks to Tony Raggatt?

Well, I got that one wrong!

Saturday's headlines about Clive Palmer's generosity with his staff at Yabulu has made me reassess the man - clearly he's a much smarter business owner than I expected.

While the the $10m face value of Saturday's party plus the 55 Mercedes Benz sedans, 700 holidays for two in Fiji, and 50 weekends in Port Douglas is iimpressive, the real cost was probably closer to half that (55 by Merc CLC 200 K Evolutions @ $58k each = $3.2m book values before what would be a VERY big bulk discount)

Either way- it's not a bad investment for $16m in (presumably recurrent) savings and the lifelong loyalty of his staff (and associated reduced turn-over costs as a result).

Now that's smart business and smart management!
* Honourable mention goes to Mercedes Benz who got a free page-5 pic and endless free mentions in the three pages of coverage

Sex shame or just plain pedophilia?

I find the headline highlighted below fascinating. 

Pedophile becomes sex shame teacher when it happens in a private school (or is that, a private school formally attended by many of Courier Mail's elite?)

What a damn good idea

Although, given our experience in Townsviile, I'd suggest that candidates in Council elections should also be similarly banned from accepting money from the alcohol industry! 

And then, if industry advertising was banned we might also finally get some balanced reporting on the real costs to taxpayers of the alcohol industry.



Playing the race card in Townsville - again!

Dale Last moved his Mayoral campaign up a notch today just as it looks as if Lez will have to do a humiliating backflip on water rates.

And what a better way to move your campaign along than by playing the race card - it's an old trick, 'sucessfully' deployed by Mooney for years after he'd learnt it from the old CLP in the Territory.

Last's latest effort here in today's Bulletin shows him and his tactics for what they are:

• " ...investors were raising serious concerns about developing in the city." Last claims!  Of course, the investors are unnamed and, as such, the claim should be treated as nonsense.  I defy Last to produce one investor who's pulled-out of the inner-city (or any other part of the city) because of small groups of parkies - because of the lack of speed in increasing population densities in the inner-city or because of the lack of parking or simply because the inner-city can't compete with suburban shopping malls maybe, but because of a few parkies - no way.  If there was money to be made, they'd be there, parkies or no.



• The "...Urban Quarter (is) on its knees with businesses going broke because of the public disorder and the problems associated with this group of people there, constantly harassing people." Last proclaims.  This is not just nonsense, it's bullshit.  Businesses in the Urban Quarter are going broke because if its location.  Completely predictable before it opened, until the redevelopment of the old rail yards is complete there is not the population to support two supermarkets in the city centre.  With Coles (the most poorly located of the two) not able to attract enough punters into the building, the rest of the tenants in the Urban Quarter have been pushing it up hill ever since it opened.

Blaming bad planning and business decisions on a few parkies is laughable simply playing the race card.

As for the reporting of Last's campaign launch, the Bulletin could not have made him happier than with the headline "Shops 'go bust' in city of drunks".  Of course neither the Bully or Last were game to admit that if the city deserves such a tag it is because of what happens in Flinders Street most nights.

Had they looked at the source of most serious alcohol related crime and hospital admissions in the city - you won't find a few parkies - you'll find middle-class kids and boy soldiers (predominantly white) behaving badly and a few club owners (and supporters of Last and major advertisers in the Bully) getting rich! 

And of course they wouldn't see any irony (or is that contradiction) in the Bulletin running at least 1 1/2 pages of liquor adds today while also running Last's latest little race-card play

More on the Mining Tax

Commenting on my earlier post regarding the Mining Super Profits Tax, Dee pointed me to this clip from the CFMEU.



'Nuf said!
(Except that Peter Martin from Fairax is still one of the few mainstream comentators writing anything sensible on this issue - check regularly here to stay up-to-date)

Hat-tip to Dee

How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America (and Australia), Too

I met Ralph Nader briefly in the 70’s when I helped organise one leg of his Australian tour. He struck me as a good man.

So I was interested to read How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America, Too by Chris Hedges in TruthDig.com about the intentional marginalisation of Nader by corporate America.

Among other things, I was fascinated by the account of how the big end of town copied Nader’s own tactics, establishing “lavishly funded think tanks and conservative institutes to churn out ideological tracts that attacked government regulation and environmental protection … and … organizations to monitor and pressure the media to report favourably on issues that furthered corporate interests…”

Which got me to thinking about the plethora of right-wing think tanks established and funded by corporate Australia in recent decades to represent their interests over all others.

Judging by the daily column inches and airspace given over to the likes of the Australian Business Foundation, the Brisbane Institute, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, the Centre for Independent Studies, the HR Nicholls Society, the Institute of Public Affairs, the Lowy Institute, the Menzies Research Centre, and the Sydney Institute (to name a few) it is clear that the same tactic is a work here. Supported so enthusiastically by big media of course.

Other suggested reading:

• Think tanks, oil money and black ops by Clive Hamilton at the ABC’s The Drum
• The Intellectual Sorcery of Think Tanks by Sharon Beder
• Think tanks in the 1990s  by Georgina Murray and Douglas Pacheco

Westpac - How to lose friends (and customers)

News today that Westpac, the bank that turns a $17.5 million profit every day of the year, is about to charge its customers interest on their interest. That’s after they it jacked up their variable home lending rate by 45 basis points last December when the Reserve Bank raised its cash rate by only 25 basis points.

Time to switch to a Credit Union I reckon

It’s a bit late for that

Today’s front place splash in The Bulletin “Let’s get this one right” is wrong on two counts:

• The closing of the Mall to traffic in the early ‘80s wasn’t wrong – it was in fact incredibly successful - until the rise of the suburban (car-centric) shopping malls.
• It’s a bit late to hope that TCC has “got it right”

Mayor-in-waiting David Crisafulli’s comment in the page four article that follows is a bit of a giveaway:

“What we’re doing is a catalyst that will lead to investment for private enterprise”

I’m sure he meant “…by private enterprise” be he’s actually right as quoted – it’s a subsidy to the profit sector (and Lancini’s planned some-day Flinders Plaza Development in particular).

It’s $56,000,000 worth of business welfare, pure-and-simple.

A graph that is bound to give you the sh*ts

Say no more !

Could this be the mansion that the V8’s built?

As we predicted here, it seems that Tony Ireland has been the big beneficiary of the annual dinosaur race and the $30 million spent on what has become a 360-day a year white elephant"

Ireland Holden shifts through gears

The Bulletin's owner on Climate Change

Great article at Rolling Stone on Rupert (owner of The Bully) Murdoch's  hypocracy on Climate Change:

The Disinformer.  Rupert Murdoch, CEO, News Corporation

I strongly recommend you read about all 17 polluters and deniers in The Climate Killers piece by Tim Dickinson of which this is part (I find the piece on Warren Buffett really scary because of his proven ability to read the future of the markets), along with Jeff Goodell's article "As the World Burns" about how Big Oil and Big Coal mounted aggressive lobbying campaigns to block progress on global warming.

If I worked at Yabulu, I’d be worried

News over the last couple of days that Clive Palmer got wrong the name of the Chinese company he had (apparently) done a deal with for the “China First’ coal mine southwest of Mackay should send shudders down the spine of anyone who works at Yabulu.

Not only did he get the name of the company wong, it seems that his $60 Billion price tag on the venture is a bit shonky too.

Clive honed his business skills in the property development game and it strikes me that it is those dubious skills he is applying the mining game he is now playing.

Could it be that the purpose of his (and Anna Bligh’s) now discredited announcement about the “China First” mine was simply to beat-up the profile and the potential value of his Resourcehouse company before it’s public float on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange?

As Gavin Wendt, senior resource analyst at Mine Life, said on yesterday's ABC PM program:

"Well it's curious. I mean it's sort of been done in a very stage-managed way, designed to generate maximum publicity. The fact that the announcement was made on the weekend, reported in the Sunday papers to much fanfare, it obviously generated strong headlines. You know, it wasn't the sort of conservative, sort of managed, sort of measured approach that one would expect."

Could it be that his approach to his mining business is simply the same as any property developer’s approach to business – turn a sow’s hear into a silk purse and flog it off as quickly as possible before the punters realise they are really buying a pig?

Similarly, could his purchase of Yabulu last year simply be about milking a cash cow while the dollar and commodity prices are high? Or could it simply be part of his strategy to build-up the apparent value of his portfolio ahead of the real game of sucking in the punters through his share market float?
It all smells a bit to me and if I were working at Yabulu, I’d be a bit worried.

Big fish on the move?

I see the other night that The Brewery is closed for renovations – again!  Their website is also down.

It leaves you to wonder whether big fish in a small pond, Cary Ramm, is sprucing it up in preparation to putting it on the market like he’s been doing with his other major assets around town.  That in turn leads you to ask - why?

Why sell-up now ??

I see that big fish in a small pond, Cary Ramm, has the C-Bar and Riverway Cafe up for sale.  Presumably he's keeping The Brewery because the margins are more attractive??

The really interesting question though is why is he cashing-up now (surely this is not the best of times) - to pay down some debt, to prop-up his AEC Group or is it in preparation for developoments at Rocky Springs?  After all Richard Ferry's mob is handling the sales.