I See A Tall Dark Stranger

The Liberals' campaign to take control of the city gets nuttier than a fruitcake with their anointed 'deputy mayor' Keith Douglas consulting his live-in 'psychic' girlfriend, Zandra Marie de Vere.

Oddly enough Douglas describes their work in his now defunct web site as:

We specialised in business intelligence, market forecasting and risk assessment and built a very successful operation that became a resource for businesses, companies and entrepeneurs throughout Asia. Royalty, Government Ministers, Ambassadors, famous actors and performers became clients, friends or aquaintances.

Um okaaaaaay.

Pity she couldn't foresee the future when interviewed last August when Douglas announced his intention of standing for Gold Coast mayor:

THE parapsychologist partner of mayoral candidate Keith Douglas has delved into the future and says her man will win.

By January 10, 2008 Douglas announced he was joining the Liberal Party as candidate for Division 3.

Zandra Marie de Vere said: "If things stay the way they are he will get in.

Didn't she see that one coming?

"But I do feel that there could be two more men to enter the race, and possibly a woman which will make things more challenging."...

Calling Tom Tate a woman? Ouch. Tate stood down from a local Chamber of Commerce to campaign in December.

...Ms de Vere said she gained her powers after being struck by lightning as a six-year-old.

She was left temporarily blinded but claimed that within 24 hours she was
able to visualise the location of the bodies from the Moors Murders in England.

Really?

I'd have thought if she could do that there would be no need for another psychic muscling in on her turf in 1995.

She also claims to have helped the cops on the Yorkshire Ripper case, but according to Google there are no other references to it so one supposes we'll have to take her word for it.

So how good are her predictions? According to her she's brilliant. According to this report from The Skeptic she's a, well we'll let them put it in their words shall we?

Indeed it doesn't require extensive research to prove that Zandra-Marie has bungled nearly every prediction she has made.

That's gotta hurt.

...The pair live high above the city in their Main Beach penthouse overlooking The Spit but both are quick to point out that both have worked hard to amass their fortune...

I'll bet they have. On her web site Madam Zandra has a minimum charge of $175 for an e-mail, $150 for an MP3 (add $10 if you want it on CD), $150 for a 10 minute phone call ($10 per minute thereafter).

And these are the people that the Liberal Party want running the city of the Gold Coast - a booze 'n' bikini tout and a flake. Sheesh!

-- Nora

Vale Clem, Public Servant

Vale Clem Jones who has died at the age of 89 and achieved a heck of a lot for Brisbane, including:

He was curator at the Gabba cricket ground - which has a stand in his name - during his time as lord mayor.

But more importantly in terms of Brisbane being such an attractive city:

Under his stewardship, the city bought properties to build underground car parks, which were then topped with public parks and gardens.

The new.com.au story makes something of the fact that:

...Dr Jones also closed the city's large tram and trolley-bus network, replacing them with buses, a move which attracted widespread controversy.

...and Labor has indeed occasionally been shortsighted regarding transport in Brisbane - they opposed Joh Bjelke-Petersons's vision of a three or four lane South-East Freeway - but many cities all over the world got rid of their trams and trolley-buses, thinking the unconstricted motor-bus was the only way of the future.

Thanks for a great city, Clem.

-- Nick

Well Qualified For The Job

There's a wicked irony in this:

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd will come face to face with indigenous leaders today as he prepares to deal personally with the "challenges" confronting the Commonwealth intervention in Northern Territory communities amid the growing outrage over the gang-rape of a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl on Cape York.

Rudd was Queensland Premier Wayne Goss's chief of staff when the State government shredded evidence of another Aboriginal child gang rape and cover-up:

A YOUNG Aboriginal woman has confirmed claims by several former staff members of a Brisbane youth detention centre that she was gang-raped while being held in the centre as a 14-year-old. The woman, now in her mid-twenties, said she was gang-raped twice on a supervised outing from the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre in the late 1980s. Former members of staff at the centre also have claimed the matter was "swept under the carpet" and "hushed up".

Further:

THE former Children's Court magistrate who conducted the aborted 1989 inquiry into the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre was told of claims that a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl in care was gang-raped. But the inquiry by former magistrate Noel Heiner was terminated by the Goss government whose cabinet directed that all of Mr Heiner's materials be shredded in 1990.

Allegations that the centre's management knew of the rape, for that it had been covered up for 12 years, were raised in The Courier-Mail on Saturday.

A former centre youth worker... When asked if he had volunteered information about the rape claim or had been questioned about it, the man said; "He (Mr Heiner) asked...he knew about it already." The man said everyone in the centre knew about the rape allegation.

A former minister in the Goss cabinet, Pat Comben said on television in 1999 that "in broad terms" the cabinet had been aware that the shredded documents had contained information about child abuse.

One supposes Rudd is well qualified for dealing with the latest cover-up in The Midnight State.

-- Nick

Nothing To Declare

Even as Kevin Rudd seeks to become Prime Minister of Australia, his Labor party pals in his home state of Queensland turn out to be even more corrupt than previously thought:

FORMER State Government minister Gordon Nuttall apparently received $100,000 more in alleged corrupt payments than investigators had previously thought.

New evidence also points to the possibility of a third person being involved in the affair, over which the former health minister was charged earlier this year with 35 counts of receiving almost $300,000 in secret commissions from mining magnate Ken Talbot.

The Courier-Mail can also reveal Premier Anna Bligh recently provided new documents to the Crime and Misconduct Commission - despite her predecessor, Peter Beattie, saying in February there was "nothing" left to provide to investigators.

Third person, eh? Nothing left to provide, eh?

-- Nick

Blow Up The Pokies

Kevin Rudd is such a good man, he's even willing to criticise his Labor buddies if he sees an injustice:

...has criticised state Labor governments for hurting Australian families with their over-reliance on poker machine taxes, vowing to come up with solutions to wean states off the addiction if he wins the federal election.

However, even News.com.au can't avoid the absolutely bleeding obvious:

Mr Rudd... as chief of staff to former Queensland premier Wayne Goss oversaw the introduction of poker machines in Queensland clubs from 1989

The state of Queensland is completely addicted to the drug Rudd pushed on us, yet he has the affrontery to say now:

"I hate poker machines and I know something of their impact on families."

Sure you know something about their impact, you were the pusher who sold them to us.

-- Nick

Peter Beattie Resigns

Mr Peter "I'm so sorry" Beattie has resigned.

No big news there, it was Queensland's worst kept secret.

Public reax is funny though.

It’s time to celebrate, you know when Labor appoints a woman to the premiership, the conservatives will win the next election.

Champagne Cocktail
Tbs of brandy
Tsp of sugar
Dash of bitters
Top with champagne
Serve in a cocktail saucer

-- Nora

Premier Swamped

Could our dear Premier be just a tad paranoid? Beleagured? Feeling like no one loves or appreciates him?

PREMIER Peter Beattie has told opponents of the proposed superyacht marina at The Spit on the Gold Coast that the project will go ahead.

``Thinking people will support this ... it's a done deal,'' he said.

``I don't expect them (opponents) to love it but we said prior to the election that we're going ahead with superyachts and I believe we have a mandate to do so...

..."I don't want people to get caught up in propaganda.

"We want The Spit to be world class and it will be. This will be a successful, balanced development and we'll get a lot of (private) interest.

"We set the rules and the rules are the ones I have spelled out."

But let's see what the 'opponents' actually have to say about the new project:

THE State Government's revised blueprint for The Spit has been backed by the spectrum of Gold Coast groups in a rare display of consensus.

The city's lucrative marine industry believes the proposed superyacht berths will bring 'the richest people in the world' to the Coast, signalling a new era in commercial and property investment.

The Save Our Spit Alliance, which whipped up a grassroots campaign that sank plans for a cruise ship terminal, lauded the latest vision, which will ban development north of Sea World.

And environmental group GECKO was thankful private developers -- who will tender for parcels of Crown land -- would contribute to the maintenance and improvements of Doug Jennings Park and Federation Walk.

Charles Dickson, president of the Gold Coast Marine Industry Association, congratulated the State Government for promising to develop a dredging strategy.

See, was that so hard Pete?

The above exchange is clearly demonstrative of a man who is out of touch with the community. First Beattie tries to force a cruise ship terminal on the Gold Coast (despite having spend multi millions on building one 40 minutes up the road in Brisbane) and can't understand why people aren't swooning at his feet.

Now the Premier announces new plans for the land and belittles the people who hated the first plan.

Gee, thanks.

Whatever happened to 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people'?

Beattie has forgotten who is supposed to serve.

-- Nora

Lovely Lindy

Lindy Nelson-Carr is the Queensland Labor Government's Minister for Environment and also Minister for Multiculturalism:

...continuing the work for people from different cultural backgrounds and celebrating diversity...

Except for the people of Far North Queensland:

"The last thing Queensland needs is a bunch of gun-happy hillbillies on a crocodile shoot," she said.

Nelson-Carr is a former high school teacher.

-- Nick

I'd Just Take The Car Wash

A car wash in Brisbane run by former pimp and Fitzgerald Enquiry 'identity' Warren Armstrong 'offers a $55 car wash by a topless woman, and a $100 wash by a totally nude female attendant – which includes an X-rated show'.

The cops were worried about public decency but Armstrong is running the show in a closed shed and 'there had been no indication of wilful exposure, which is a criminal offence'.

However, Acting Premier Anna Bligh had more serious offences in mind and was relieved to learn:

The operation also was running on recycled water and therefore did not break current level five restrictions...

Presumably prompted by the reporter, Bligh added:

...the government fleet would not be using the car wash.

Pity really. It's a miserable existence in the Queensland Public Service.

-- Nick

Footnote: What an odd situation in present-day Queensland that two adults can arrange a commercial transaction in which she gets her gear off for his visual titillation and it's ok as long as she doesn't - ahem - spread 'em, which is the offence of 'wilful exposure', yet he can walk into a newsagency and, following a commercial transaction, obtain any number of magazines in which the aforementioned flash is taking place.

Just saying.

State Mafia

Queensland's smoking bans are hitting pubs and clubs in the poker machine hip pocket with losses of $50 million despite numbers of machines being up.

The State Treasury is also a loser - fewer pokie takings mean revenue will be down there too.

But while Premier Peter Beattie and Deputy Anna Bligh are slagging off at nasty smokers for their addiction, how about Labor kicks its habit of being hooked on the pokies for State revenue?

'Progressives' ridiculed long-time conservative Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen for not allowing 'pokies' which were introduced almost the instant Labor came to power in the late '80s.

Now the State is addicted to the revenue from them and, like all addicts, Labor will likely now look elsewhere for their 'fix'.

One suggests that if they can't extort in the clubs and pubs, they'll probably turn to mugging with a mass rollout of revenue raising speed cameras.

-- Nick

Another Day In La La Land

Allegations of an assault by police that led to riots in an Aboriginal community have been found to be false:

In the CMC's report yesterday, Mr Bell told investigators that a member of the Aurukun Community Justice Group, Martha Koowarta, had asked him: "I think them two coppers were hitting you, hey?" Before being asked this question, he had spoken to members of his family and staff at a local medical clinic, none of whom were told police had struck him. "On the contrary, he told them that his brother had hit him," Mr Lambrides said.

That's ok though - Queensland Premier Peter Beattie will have the coppers charged anyway.

-- Nick