Dinosaur music for dinosaur racing

I see that Oz music legend Michael Hutchence's old backing band will be playing at the V8's Reid Park sales expo this year.

There is some sort of beautiful irony about a band that will be on its fifth lead singer (that I can recall at least) since Hutchence's death in ’97 and which had to stoop so low as reality TV to try and kick-start (poor pun, I know) its career again (unsuccessfully so) now playing to petrol-heads at an event for dinosaur vehicles that will be extinct in another 10-15 years (or at least unable to afford the petrol).

INXS haven’t done anything worth listening to in the last 13 years – a bit like dinosaur racing’s contribution to humanity over the same period.

Finally, it's an oldie but a goodie:
     Q: What's the difference between Michael Hutchence and Princess Diana?

     A: Michael Hutchence had his belt on when he died.

For the sake of completeness

Further to my post here about moves by some disgruntled ALP members to set up a NQ Labor Party to run (against Mooney) in the race for Herbert and for the sake of completeness, click the graphic below to read Mooney’s letter to members

Tagging Officer Dibble or how The Sun supports Graffiti Artists

Guest post from Greg

Just plucked the "throw over" Townville Sun from my letter box to be faced with Officer Dibble on the front page espousing his anger over vandalism in our fair city that has apparently cost the equivalent of a councillors salary in the past year to clean up. If it gets much worse perhaps we should just ditch one or two of our elected officials and use the savings to hire more clean up gangs, but indulgent thoughts won't get me anywhere.

Anyway in the article Officer Dibble makes a few significant pronouncements about graffiti in our town by saying " vandalising any property is a criminal offence - it's not art work, it's vandalism" (funny but I never seem to use a sentence that includes both "Officer Dibble and "artistic appreciation"), "they are very difficult to catch as tagging accrues(?) late at night" (I bet every defence lawyer in town shook in their boots when Officer Dibble gave evidence for the prosecution with such a grasp of reality) and that " the more graffiti you have the more it generates (so) it is important to clean up and paint over these senseless works as soon as possible".

Ignoring the fact that the final comment can be seen as a call to arms to paint over much of the awful signage that carries the TCC logo in our once attractive locale, Officer Dibble does make sense on this one point. One of the big attractions of graffiti to the artist is that it allows his or her graphic to be seen by all and also (hopefully) provoke a public response.

But here is where our once proud member of the thin blue line has also shown how his thirst to be portrayed in the media as "the tough on crime" Councillor overtakes good sense and effective public policy. The centrepiece of the photo on page 1 of the throw over (that has a circulation of 52,858) is a crystal clear shot of a tag on a concrete culvert in the new Eyre St carpark (replete of course with the obligatory mug shot of Officer Dibble).

This particular tagger must have thought that all his/her dreams came true by being provided with the biggest audience in town and subsequently driving a very public discourse about graffiti. The price tag for having the Last word is $72,000 and climbing.

I hope you weren't relying on The Bully for your news

I see The Bulletin has finally uploaded an item on their website about Mooney's preselection - about 3 hours after I broke the news here.

And I thought that they followed Blogging Townsvfille a bit more closely than that :-(

Breaking News: Mooney wins preselection

News just through that, as expected, Tony Mooney has "won" ALP preselection for the race for Herbert.  Well actually, he has been handed the preselection by the party's National Executive.

Don't bother checking The Bulletin's web site for the news - well not for a few hours anyway.

While everyone is a bit focused on the off-shore cyclone right now - I forecast, as a result of the ALP's decision, an extended period of mud flying for the next few months (see, for example, my earlier post)

I'm currently setting-up a book on Mooney losing the seat as a result.  Any takers?

Townsville's pub profiteers: "We are the innocents. It's everybody else's fault (and problem)"

Expect more tomorrow from the local pub owners’ mouthpiece, Greg Pellegini, following his piece in today’s Bulletin claiming that alcohol related violence is everybody’s fault except those who profit from it.

News this morning that the parliamentary Law, Justice and Safety Committee’s Inquiry into Alcohol-Related Violence has recommended 2am closing for pubs in Flinders St will have him crying in his beer.

And a damn good thing too.

Pellegini's argument that “the onus was on club patrons to control themselves, rather than entertainment venue hours being restricted” is a bit like those who profit from pokies (and deliberately design their venues to encourage gambling) arguing that they have no responsibility for gambling addiction, or that the sale of heroin should be legalised but the consumption of it policed.

Clubs and pubs trade into the early hours of the morning for one reason and one reason only - in order that people can drink more and for longer and thus generate more profits.

Finally, ya gotta laugh (or, is that cry) at representatives of “free” (ro do anything) enterprise who argue that their right to profit should be protected by the expenditure of more public money – this time on coppers and hospitals.

Who exactly is backing Mooney for Herbert?

I hear that it’s not so much the PM who is backing Mooney for ALP preselection  for the race in Herbert (as The Bulletin and others would have us believe) but one Leigh Birmingham who has been touting for Mooney’s consulting business in recent times - presumably in return for his doing quite well out of TCC when Mooney was Mayor.

With the Federal ALP executive apparently taking the risky road and likely to back Whitsunday mayor Mike Brunker for Dawson preselection despite his being under investigation by the Crime and Misconduct Commission, you’d think that they’d look a bit more closely at the links between Birmingham and Mooney as investigated in a previous Criminal Justice Commission probe.

Expect more federal intervention in Herbert

Expect an article from Rosanne Barrett in The Australian in the comming days/weeks on the federal ALP's intervention to assure the preselection of Tony Mooney in Herbert. 

It seems that quite a few local ALP members are only too happy to voice their outrage (and opinions on Mooney's chances of getting local members to "man" the booths on election day and of actually winning the seat).

You heard it here first

The answer is in what’s not said

Jenny Hill’s assertion, as reported in today’s Bulletin, that ratepayers and the TCC are now paying the price of the former Thuringowa Council’s failure to keep up with that city’s infrastructure development needs is, I believe, spot-on.

That failure was either a result of incompetence or, as Hill asserts, a deliberate ploy by team Tyrell so that they could enter the amalgamated council race claiming to be debt free managers.

The truth of the matter is in Les’ inability to answer Hill’s argument that the current council has to play catch-up for his past failures and/or election strategy.

Actually, Les does give it way in his “From the Mayor’s Office” piece later in the Bully (page 15 – not available online) - $323.6 million being spent on infrastructure catch-up in the old Thuringowa compared to $83.8 million being spent in the old Townsville city boundaries (all on facilities that, it could be argued, the whole of Townsville/Thuringowa will benefit from/use - Murray stadium, Civic Theatre and Flinders Mall)

Who's encouraging bullying now?

I see that Mary Vernon is increasingly editorialising in The Bulletin. Her article on Saturday about bullying was a shocker – in particular her advice to “…tell our children who are being bullied: belt those who belt you, they will respect you much more”

While ignoring the overwhelming research that shows (amongst other things) that bullies have often themselves been the victims of bullying and/or adopt bullying behaviours as a way of avoiding bullying, she would be wise to consult with some experts on the issue rather than relying on a bit of home-spun advice.

There’s a plethora of advice and research available on the web which she could have drawn on to write an article that was useful to parents and kids alike - I’d suggest that she would have done the community a much greater service by, for example, reporting on developments such as this from her sister tabloid, The Courier Mail:

School bullies part of solution under 'shared concern' method of intervention