cynicismcentral.org - TOWNSVILLE AUSTRALIA

This is getting beyond a joke in relation to Qld labor taking money from developers and then doing their bidding.

Article "Gore blimey" , Townsville Bulletin 25/10/08 , Magpie column (Townsvilles local Saturday Scandal Page)
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2008/10/25/18681_magpie.html

Gore blimey
MALCOLM WEATHERUP

October 25th, 2008

IN A city that is accustomed to the sound of parades and brass bands tootling stirring tunes, perhaps we didn't pay enough attention to the latest sound of approaching serried ranks and marching feet getting louder and louder.

The boys from Lavarack doing another proud tour around the block? Maybe some of the emergency services around the place getting their due recognition with a parade? Maybe even Capt Snooze leading a group of Papua New Guinea troops to display his special PNG `10th Anniversary of Independence' medal to both of his adoring throng? Nope, folks, that marching sound we should've more carefully noted was the sound of the White Shoe Brigade trudging northwards along the pot-holed Bruce Highway.

And they've arrived here all right, and they are seeking no less than the Freedom of the City. Freedom to do whatever they like, it would seem, even if it's possibly of negative value to us, the poor benighted mugs who'll have to keep living here once the White Shoes have disappeared back south to their counting houses.

If you're feeling a little dizzy, it's because of the all the massive spin around the place, with the arrival in town of one Craig Gore.

Mr Gore is a developer who wants to build the controversial, and in some – indeed most – quarters, stridently opposed canal estate on the `duck pond', that enclosed water in front of Jupiters scheduled to be reclaimed as part of the ocean terminal project.

Gore Blimey breezed into town during the week to hype the widely rejected idea of the project.

Now, The Magpie is yet to hear all the arguments and possible solutions, and takes no side on the issue. But what this old bird does find more than a tad tedious is self-interested folks lobbing here with some tailor-made plan to set we rubes, hicks and yokels right about the error of our ways.

It would appear one of those errors was to elect our current council by a thumping margin.

At least that is the way it would seem, because Mr Gore said in one interview that `our research shows that eight out of 10 Townsvilleans want the project (what?!), and six out of 10 want the project with the residential component'.

"I think the council has an alternate agenda that doesn't really relate to the development, and ultimately at the end of the day, I think the Premier, Anna Bligh, has made her case very clear, she wants this project to go ahead, it's a good project for North Queensland and it's a good project for Townsville," he said.

Then there was this astounding bit of regal dismissiveness from the battlements of Castle Gore Blimey: "So I think ultimately the State Government will not be deterred by a local council."

Hmmm, that council would be like sort of, us, wouldn't it? Our representatives?

So cop that, you yokels, in fact why bother voting, we're apparently to get our riding orders – yet again – from down south.

One trusts Gore Blimey will grace us with details of his quoted (and eyebrow-raising) research, as in how, when and where it was done. Perhaps he may also deign to give we great unwashed an explanation as to why the Government has already said it `puts great weight by what any local council wants' and suggested it would rarely go against the community's wishes.

As regarding some secret agenda by the council, His Goreship may like to take a teeny peek at the last election figures, cast after a campaign that prominently featured the ocean terminal project. Everybody wants the ocean terminal and bugger all wanted the enormously problematic canal estate. But Mr Gore will certainly be able to at least put his case to Anna Bligh. Surely that's the least a fella could expect when four of his companies (Atkinson Gore Group Pty Ltd JE Atkinson & Associates Pty Ltd Consolidated Construction Group Pty Ltd; and Big State Earthmoving Pty Ltd) donated a cool $200,000 – 50 grand each – to the Labor Party in 2006/07.

Details of Mr Gore's undoubtedly altruistic donations to Labor in the last financial year, if any, probably won't be publicly available until next year. Oh, dear, who would a premier be? Well, we are told we'll know the poor dear's decision some time next month.

The Magpie believes in the innocence of this world and cannot conceive of devious and dastardly deals suspected by others. But he whiffed the odour of rodent when at least one or two councillors, mid-interview about the canal estate, hinted, that it would be great to meet with the Premier to talk that and other issues, such as more funding for the financially disastrous amalgamation process. Uh-oh, this surely couldn't mean the council would use its ultimate verdict on the canal estate as a bargaining chip, with a change of heart on the issue in order to get the much-needed – and deserved – extra amalgamation finance?

Worried about such a possible U-turn in its community-mandated opposition to the duck pond project, the old bird rang David The Kid Crisafulli.

"Oh, perish the thought, not a chance, birdy, no way" was the drift of the reply.

So just remember the slogan of this column folks, "If what is written here comes to pass, remember you read it here first, and if it doesn't come to pass, that's possibly because you read it here first'.

There is another interesting sidelight. Should Gore Blimey get the thumbs-up, will Captain Snooze break yet another reported promise to the faithful?

He is said to have told a Labor branch meeting two or three years ago, to wit:"That canal development will go ahead over my dead body".

To quote The Kid `perish the thought'.