“The development of the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal will enable future expansion of Port Botany’s container handling capacity, and investment and employment opportunities in Western Sydney. The project will create around 7,700 ongoing operating jobs and more than 1,300 construction jobs in south-west Sydney.”
Who said that? You’d think it would be someone from the private companies behind the Moorebank intermodal terminal proposal. No, it was none other than our country’s deputy Prime Minister and infrastructure minister, Warren Truss, in a press release last week titled, Rail on track for Australia’s economic and social future. It would be fair to say that a deputy PM ought to also mention that the project has not yet been approved and that it is going through the approval process. Maybe even mention in passing how local residents are totally opposed to the idea of something like that in their backyard.
♦ David Giammetta, the media liaison officer in the Media and Communications Unit of the South Western Sydney Local Health District, couldn’t help himself in a press release he sent out about people having their pets pictured with Santa to help raise funds for the local cancer therapy centre. The puns were quick and fast: “Campbelltown Pet and Aquarium Centre are making residents an ‘off-fur’ they can’t ‘re-fur-use’ to a photo opportunity with Santa Claus and a photographer that will see $1 from every picture go to the Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre this Christmas. Please see the attached media release and I think you’ll agree that it’s almost ‘im-pawsible’ to say no to cute pet pictures with the big red guy. Cheers, David.
Well, we appreciate the effort, David, as we believe you need a sense of humour to survive in this world. Thus he becomes the inaugural winner of the South West Voice Best Pun of the Year award.
♦ Staying on this theme, Liverpool Council CEO Carl Wulff told me he had beaten me to the Greek island of Rhodes by a week in October. But he also beat me to the punchline as we swapped notes of our recent overseas trips: I kept looking for the Colossus when I was in Rhodes but couldn’t find it anywhere, he told me. Boom boom.
♦ Readers will remember the controversial Liverpool Council interfaith dinners, “porkgate’’ and all that. Once the dust settled, a report was called for on the two events so the council could move forward. The report was tabled at the last council meeting and it revealed that in in July Liverpool Council held an Iftar Interfaith Dinner at Skyview Reception, that is one for the local Muslim community.
“There were 300 attendees at the dinner. The cost of the function was $13,500,’’ the report said. “In August, Liverpool Council held an Orthodox Interfaith Lunch at Liverpool Catholic Club. There were 591 attendees (this included over 65 entertainers). The cost of the function was $45,698,’’ the report said.
Not sure whether to be outraged by the cost of these functions or the number of entertainers at the Orthodox one.
♦ Keep on walking: Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun won council support at the last meeting for council to allocate $1 million towards building new footpaths in the next 12 months. That would be 10km of footpaths. It is still far short of what’s needed across the vast Liverpool local government area, but it’s a start.
♦ From the sublime to the ridiculous: Walking past this store in Minto Mall packed with shoppers and outside a metal queue structure like the ones you get at airports. What the heck are havaianas, I ask my long suffering better half, who luckily was with me at the time. Very popular, good quality thongs, I’m going in myself, what planet have you been on, was the answer. Sigh: Maybe it’s better not to know some things. Hello, folks, it’s thongs, not the meaning of life. I like thongs, too, but they’re still only thongs, sorry.
♦ Speaking of Christmas being around the corner, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me where the year’s gone I’d have enough money to retire on. We’re all too busy to notice the days and weeks and months flying by, that’s what.
