Townsville Magpie skeptical of “ Unicorn Battery Factory” and unfunded water pipelin

http://www.townsvillemagpie.com.au/...ling-with-bullshit-to-bullying-with-belcarra/

That Unicorn Battery Factory Is Looking Rarer By The Day

It was inevitable really. No, not the regulation typo in the headline … don’t they know it’s spelt lie it’s said … it’s ‘gumminint’.



Consider this … tiny wannabee big company Magnis Energy Technologies, a private company, asked the gullible galoots in George Street for $3.1million of Queensland taxpayers money for a feasibility study to see if this battery factory project is a goer. A rare way for a private company to finance the feasibility of a blue sky venture, a weird blend of socialism and capitalism, but damnation, would you believe it, they’ve done the $3.1million worth of numbers and, according to the latest in a long line of Magnis Disallowed salesmen, MD Marc Vogts, ‘  …our feasibility study indicated the project is financially sound.’ Well, to quote a gay expression of surprise, I’ll be buttered on both sides. Whodda thort?

But wait, Mr Vogts told the paper he had some more voltage with which to shock the taxpayers hip pockets. He is looking at a Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan to kick start the venture, because as he told the Astonisher that sucke … sorry … investors are hard to come by in these times.

Mr Vogts said the next major stage of getting the battery plant started was securing finance. “There’s a couple of challenges for us, and probably the most significant one is raising the finance,” he said. “But we’ve put ourselves in the best position to do that.”

So we’re only three construction stages and $3billion away from happy days being here again. And we wonder if this staged project will be like others in struggling vainly towards fruition … such as the stage two of the stadium/entertainment/convention centre.

And What The Hell Is This, Pray Tell, Madam Mayor?

This little snippet turned up this week, which makes one wonder if there are dots to be joined.



There is still not explanation of why the original council Development Company  EA2 is being wound up without having done a thing, but it is even stranger that a new council company suddenly pops up, without explanation or any publicly announced purpose. Something to do with the battery factory maybe? Or the council’s Lansdown Industrial Park at Woodstock, where The ‘Pie has noticed something else that hasn’t been mentioned but may cost further council funds. Have a look at this map.



Note the bottom right hand corner, a 15km or so blue line labelled ‘planned water pipe’, which clearly is to service the Industrial Precinct.

The question is whether have funds already been allocated for this multi-million bit of infrastructure and who pays for it, and when? Under normal circumstances, it would be the industrial park tenants, one way or the other, but Mayor Mullet has gone to great lengths to plead, beg, wheedle and flog the idea to various groups (the unicorn battery factory is on a promise of free land), some of the other businesses water intensive operations (like the proposed hydrogen gas idea). So is she going to chuck in gratis multi-million dollar branch pipeline? If so, where’s the dough coming from? There doesn’t apear to be a mention of this anywhere The ‘Pie can find. Happy to be enlightened.

These are only questions but rather interesting ones, to which we folks ultimately footing the bill deserve transparent answers  – hahahah, oh, The Pie does  crack himself up sometimes. Possibly all sorted, all thought through, all above board, and The ‘Pie is being an old silly.