The Editor of the local Murdoch owned newspaper, "The Cairns Post" looked furiously at the young female journalist standing in front of him. She was showing him images taken on her mobile phone from the riot at the front of the Cairns Regional Council Chamber that morning.
For the hundredth time, the Editor inwardly cursed mobile phones and all the Generation Yers who never ventured as far as the John without one. They all appeared to have been born with one permanently attached to their bodies, like tumours or something. Amber Martingdale, al of 23, was typical. Trying to suppress his growing anger, he listened to her as she prattled on. "Councillor Mingin was clearly attacked as soon as he arrived at the Council carpark," she was saying. "He had barely stepped out of his car, when several men descended upon him and began to physically attack him. Look, you can see it all here." She thrust the phone up closer to his face.
"Yeah, yeah," I see it, he snapped back thinking he would now have to change the lead story, which, he, the Editor himself, had painstakingly wrote, insinuating, oh so delicately, that Councillor Mervyn Mingin, the only black Councillor on the Cairns Regional Council, and in fact, the first elected black Councillor on the Cairns Regional Council in over one hundred and forty years, had initiated the first physical violence, thus directly causing the worst public riots in the history of the tourist city of Cairns. He was furious that now he would have to change the report entirely. Now people would end up sympathising with the black bastard, instead of demanding his resignation from Council!
Brusquely, he waved the confused Amber Martingdale away. "Leave me then and close the door!" he rasped curtly. As he watched her small, neat departing figure he wondered sourly why Universities were still churning out half-baked "journalists" who still believed in the quaint idea that "NEWS" had to be factual and accurate. They either quickly learned that "news" was a commercial product, readers were consumers and that their top and bottom lines were to ensure that profits to the shareholders continue to rise, or they gave up journalism and went to work as bar-tenders or waitresses somewhere. Frankly, he thought Amber Martingdale would end up as a dish pig somewhere, washing thousands of dirty dishes. The thought brought a brief, cruel ghost of a smile to his lips. So many young female journalists had drifted in and out the doors of his newspaper office. It was a bit like staffing revolving doors. He couldn't remember many of them.
He went back to the story on the riots outside the Cairns Regional Council that morning, and cursed again as he deleted his entire script in wich he had subtly suggested several times the riot was the sole cause of undue and unnecessary force by Councillor Mingin.
Oh, it wasn't that he himself was a racist, the Editor always maintained, even to himself. It was just that local government representatives were public figures and as such had to be well esteemed by the community. Counillor Mingin might have been a star football player, representing the State of Queensland in many State of Origin matches, and idolised on the football grounds. But, really, he thought, the man came from a very poor, welfare dominated area of Cairns, known for its high crime rate. Mingin had never been a businessman either, a key essential in local government as far as the Editor was concerned. Mingin's only claim to fame had been playing football. Besides, the City Fathers had all been of white European descent. The Council itself had always been dominated by men of white European descent, almost entirely British descent and what was good for Cairns in the past was good for Cairns in the present. Why change the formula, that is what he always argued. Cairns had already experimented "outside the square" so to speak with the one off election of a female Mayor back in 2008. Well, it just wasn't on. After a hundred and thirty years of men running the city, the fools of Cairns had to go and vote for a splitfork! The local media machine of which he was proudly a part, all made sure her days in office were pure living hell. They were satisfied with their results. The first female Mayor had been soundly trounced at the last Council Election and Colonel Ken Cush had effortlessly been elected. Everyone, not the least of which was himself, had heaved a great sigh of relief. Cairns was back to conservatism and normality. Well, almost. The fools of Division 5 had gone and elected a black man to Council as an "Independent" and the half-wits in Division 9 had elected a female Greens Party Councillor. As if that wasn't bad enough, the bogans and hillbillies out in Division 2, had subsequently elected another "Independent", the seriously freakish, Doug Dunnysmore. The Editor was determined to get rid of them. They were all a serious blight on the normality of life in Cairns. Some of them had the sheer audacity to oppose His Worship the Mayor, Colonel Cush himself. The Editor was outraged.
He thought for a few moments before typing in the headlines:-
WORST RIOTS IN HISTORY OF CAIRNS
THREE PEOPLE DEAD AND SEVERAL SERIOUSLY INJURED
.Yesterday saw the worst rioting ever in the history of Cairns outside the front of the Cairns Regional Council offices in Spence Street. In what senior Cairns Police described as "wild, frenzied, unrestrained behaviour" three people were killed and several seriously injured. Police said they had no options but to use clouds of capsicum gas and the liberal use of tasers. "I have never seen anything like it," said one police officer. "People were crazed, and beyond reasoning. They were out to kill. It was mob behaviour at its most lethal. It was only because of the quick thinking of the police that there were not more people killed or seriously injured."
The Mayor, Colonel Ken Cush, who was contacted immediately after the riots said.....
Here, the Editor stopped, and thought. Yes, he had phoned Cush on his direct phone and found him almost incoherent. He sounded like he was laughing, but then he could have been crying too. The sheer stress of it all! The Editor shook his head, thinking about Cush. Such a good, good man, one of the best Mayors Cairns had ever had! He was proud to call him a close friend. He thought briefly of all the wonderful evenings they had spent down at The Red Plum....But, he had better not. He steeled himself to continue writing. He could attribute some suitable words to the Mayor. He started writing again......
The Mayor, Colonel Ken Cush, who was contacted immediately after the riots, was visibly upset at the events, and gave way to his emotions. "It's a sad, sad day for Cairns!" he said. "This whole riot was caused by desperate people, desperatey wanting jobs, desperately wanting income and the means to support their families, desperately wanting to pay their bills and their mortgages. Poor, poor people. That they had to go to these lengths to show the naysayers in our communituy how desperate they are for work really says it all, doesn't it !"
The Editor leaned back and viewed his text thoughtfully. "Desperate" was a good word, and using it several times he thought added to its emotional impact as well as demonstrating the compassion of Colonel Cush for those down on their luck. He continued....
Mayor Cush of course was referring to the outcry from the conservationist element of Cairns who decried and protested the planned sale of several hectates of Mt Whitfield Conservation Park to the Chinese Shangai Hangyang Corporation. Their action effectively halted the giant Shangai Hangyang Executive Training and Retreat Centre, expected to employ over 1,000 construction workers, from proceeding.
Had the project been given the "green light" it would have been the biggest construction project in Cairns in decades.
Councillors Skye Lovelady, Mervyn Mingin, Doug Dunnysmore, Enzo Bombiniere, Dom Piper and Brad Buttonworth however had all opposed the sale of the Mt Whitfield land, despite the efforts of Mayor Colonel Cush and his team at explaining all the benefits to Cairns of such a huge complex. Councillor Lovelady is a member of the local Greens Party, while Councillors Mingin and Dunnysmore and Independents.
The Editor thought it worthwhile always mentioning that Councillor Lovelady was a member of the Greens Party and that Mingin and Dunnysmore were "Independents". He knew people were not fooled. "Independents" only ever meant one thing. They were both pinkos, reds, Labor dogs, whatever you wanted to name them.
Colonel Ken Cush assured The Cairns Post that an Inquiry into the riots would be conducted. 'We can't have this terrible sort of thing happening again, not under my watch," he said. "We will be getting to the bottom of it all, and finding out who the key instigators were and dealing with them harshly. They won't be allowed to get off scott-free on this one, don't you worry about that!"
The Editor thought that the above text was sufficient for the front page. He had some "eyewitness accounts" written by Amber Martingdale, plus several large photos for a substantial layout. He leaned back in his chair and thought with a smile that he might nominate himself for a media award again this year.
He leaned across and switched on his small radio transister sitting on the cabinet beside is desk and tuned into the local radio shock jock and his "talk back" program.
"Mate, maaaaaate," Reg of Redlynch was saying, "I agree with you mate, its all them greenies mate, they're the ones causing all the trouble mate. They should all be jailed and the key thrown away. I reckon give em all life imprisonment for this one."
"Reg," the shock jock replied, "I have always said, I don't know how many times on my program over the years, that these idiots, these simpletons, these crazy know it alls are causing so much damage to our society and our economy. I mean, they put trees and mountans, moutains for God's sake, above the lives of people."
The Editor smiled. He was good friends with the radio shock jock, and he whole heartedly supported the mans viewpoints immensely. With any luck, they might succeed in getting rid of the Greens Party from Cairns permanently after the Inquiry into the riot. He personally, couldn't wait to see that splitfork Greens Councillor Lovelady booted out of office on her arse. She was one woman way too many on the Council.
To be continued................
