Strewth: Pun like the wind

What name would you pick for a wind turbine? The Bob Brown Eye Catcher?

Aurora Energy is launching a statewide competition today to name each of the 48 wind turbines. Picture: istock

What name would you pick for a wind turbine? The Joe Hockey Utterly Offensive Experience? Or the Bob Brown Eye Catcher? How about Tony Abbott’s Dark Satanic Mills? We hope not Windy McTurbineface.

If you are or know a Tasmanian school student you’re in luck, as Aurora Energy is launching a statewide competition today to name each of the 48 wind turbines being built at Cattle Hill on the shores of Lake Echo in the Central Highlands.

The $300 million wind farm is due to start spinning this year and will power more than 63,500 homes. 

A few other Strewth suggestions: The Parrot Purrer or Eagle Blender.

Close to Home Affairs

Here at Strewth we love a curious tale, and today we are proud to present The Mystery of the Home Affairs Facebook Express.

As part of the social media giant’s bid to regain the trust of its users, Facebook launched a “page transparency” summary last year that provides a page’s history, any name changes, a list of current advertisements and the primary location of people who manage it.

An avid Facebook user pointed Strewth towards the official page for Peter Dutton’s Home Affairs Department. It has gone through six name rebrands since its creation on March 7, 2011. But more unusual are the people behind the page.

The transparency summary says it’s managed by 11 people in Australia, one in Turkmenistan and one in a location hidden by the page manager.

The transparency summary said the Department of Home Affairs' Facebook page was being managed by someone in Turkmenistan.

But when Strewth asked the department about the Central Asian anomaly, we were told everyone with access to the page was based in Canberra. The department claims the Turkmenistan location was automatically generated by Facebook because the staff member in question didn’t have one listed on their personal profile.

What a strange bug that picks a tiny country 10,494km away, especially given the social media platform makes it near impossible to deactivate location tracking. Since we alerted the department, the page has had some spring cleaning.

Now just seven people have behind-the-scenes keys — six in Australia and one in a secret location.

Asking price

It is a truth universally acknowledged that politicians who phone in for an FM radio interview must be in want of an easy ride. Enter Steve Price of the north, host of Pricey for Breakfast on Triple M Townsville, not to be confused with Steve Price of the south.

Price: Hello?

Scott Morrison: G’day, Pricey.

Price: Yes, it is.

Morrison: How are you, mate?

Price: Good, mate. Who is that?

Morrison: It’s ScoMo.

Price: Hello, Mr Prime Minister. Are you going to the footy?

Morrison: No, I’m not.

Price: Well, what did you come up here for?

Morrison: I’ve got to head up to Cairns. But I’m here to do some things today …

Price: But hang on a sec, forget about Cairns, you’ve got to stay and go to the footy.

Morrison: I’ve got to go to COAG. I’ve got all the premiers coming together and the chief ministers.

Price: Oh, don’t worry about them.

The topic turned to the $5 million announcement to control prickly acacia, a weed destroying land in north Queensland.

Price: I thought it was going to be $10m?

Morrison: Well, the state government … it was supposed to be $5m each.

Price: Right.

Morrison: The state government just wanted to give money that they’re already giving and count it as new money.

Price: Yeah. So are we going to get that off them as well?

Morrison: That’s up to them. But we’re not going to make it contingent on us putting our $5m. We’re going to do that and hopefully they’ll stump up later.

Price: Hey, you know, that amazes me. I’m sorry to interrupt, but you say it depends on them. Don’t you guys get along? I know you’re different brands but, you know, it’s all for the same thing and that’s the betterment of life up here.

Morrison: Well, we get along OK. But at the end of the day, they make their own decisions about what they do.

Price: But you’re the boss, aren’t you? Can't you say, ‘Hey, I’m Prime Minister, you give them their five million bucks’?

The answer, apparently, is no.

Poorly received

A clarification from the Department of Parliamentary Services. After Wednesday’s blame game over phone reception, DPS now says Telstra is holding back “critical information” required for the upgrade project. And the completion date? TBC, of course.

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