Despite having officially lost the election , the vanquished Ewen Jones (LNP) sign still is in place above the Townsville office into which the victor, Cathy O'Toole (ALP) , has already moved . It is understood federal Administrative Services officers who came to Townsville to assist O'Toole move in were surprised that the large Ewen Jones sign, at a busy main intersection , had not been removed.
Somehow, the local media has not twigged that this is a most unsatisfactory situation which could be interpreted that Jones, backed by the Queensland branch of the Liberal National Party , is not admitting defeat , and that Ewen's fingernails will be under the wallpaper , when he is eventually dragged out of office , if the almost certain appeal to the Court of Disputed Returns fails.
Once again, it reveals that Townsville needs an independent media outlet to ask obvious questions, chase up obvious angles , break new ground . One shining example was the recent event in which Jones announced , midst much fanfare, a $45,000 grant to a stock exchange listed ferry company on which Lucy Turnbull , wife of the PM , had once been a member of its board. No scribe asked the obvious question ... could this in any way embarrass the PM? And , being a savvy party whip , did you not think to raise this point with the PM to avoid any controversy ?
Once again, it reveals that Townsville needs an independent media outlet to ask obvious questions, chase up obvious angles , break new ground . One shining example was the recent event in which Jones announced , midst much fanfare, a $45,000 grant to a stock exchange listed ferry company on which Lucy Turnbull , wife of the PM , had once been a member of its board. No scribe asked the obvious question ... could this in any way embarrass the PM? And , being a savvy party whip , did you not think to raise this point with the PM to avoid any controversy ?
When this blogger raised the above points with Jones , he dismissed it as being money for Aboriginal employment . How much employment is provided by 45K? Furthermore , the ferry company has just announced it had a good year , doubling its profit to $22.3million , so why the federal government drop in the bucket?
The Conservative father of both houses of federal parliament , Senator Ian Macdonald ,70, was quoted frequently during and after the election , but as usual it seems not many questions were asked of him by reporters, one being why he had his arm in a sling during the counting .
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Senator Macdonald plays same monotonous old tunes on upright piano, one being that GetUp! is the Hitler Youth group of the Greens (November 3,2011) , backed up by likening Stephen Conroy(ALP) to Joseph Goebbels , leading to an apology to the Jewish community , not Conroy .
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He has just had printed in the Murdoch Townsville Bulletin , which backed Jones to win , a wide ranging statement which could be interpreted as an indication that there will be a court challenge to the win by O'Toole by 37 votes.
In it he launched an attack on the ALP (what's new ?) and ended up saying what a mighty job Ewen Jones had done for Townsville in six years . Really ?Townsville has the highest unemployment in the state , the highest bankruptcy level , high youth unemployment , real estate values down , parts of the CBD and industrial areas looking like Detroit . Eventually Jones and the PM were belatedly forced to support the stadium and entertainment centre, which Bill Shorten had backed to the tune of $100million.
During the election campaign,O'Toole drew attention to the real plight of Townsville by pointing out this derelict street building , not far from the Townsville Bulletin office; one main street with 80 plus empty or up for lease/sale premises .
Meanwhile, where is Ewen Jones ? In short public statements ,where obvious questions were not asked , he announced he would abide by the party's decision on whether or not to mount a court challenge and that he was going for a holiday .
Obvious questions . Who ( names ) is conducting the examination of the election for a possible challenge on the alleged grounds that soldiers and hospital patients had missed out on the chance to vote ? Where-Townsville, Brisbane, Canberra ? How many lawyers involved , are they local ? Is the Attorney-General George Brandis involved in any way ?Where is Ewen Jones holidaying ...Queensland, Rio ?
And do Jones , Senator Macdonald , the PM and Senator Brandis think the Ewen Jones sign should be removed immediately, if not sooner ? MUCH , MUCH MORE LATER.
