Herd on the Terrace: Ellison’s yacht takes a vacation to Kwinana shipyard and why Perth towies won’t hook up

It’s a sellers’ market for home owners in WA, but sadly for reformed taxpayer Chris Ellison the same can’t be said about problematic luxury yachts. His 35-metre M.Y. Anya has now clocked up six months on the market with the embattled Mineral Resources boss still hoping to get about $12 million to part ways with the seaworthy money pit. Well, maybe not so seaworthy at the moment. Anya has been idle in a Kwinana shed over the past few weeks for a tune-up. Coincidentally, The Bull is reliably told a deal was lined up but recently fell through despite a “motivated” seller. Ellison’s billionaire buddy Tim Roberts originally bought Anya in 2009 and then sensationally sued the naval architect because the yacht was apparently “unsuitable” over long ranges. Maybe the would-be buyer came to the sudden realisation they want Anya to do more than just laps around Rottnest. Or maybe now that MinRes is no longer footing the bill for Anya to be crewed by its minions, the 26-year-old vessel has lost some of her appeal. Get off my flight As a fan of the Tom Cruise film American Made, The Bull has a fair idea how hard it is to stuff duffle bags of goods into plane cargo bays. But travellers on Jetstar’s flight JQ982 from the Gold Coast to Perth had the opposite problem — with about 50 huddled around Terminal 2’s carousel late on Monday awaiting delayed luggage. After parent company Qantas’ recent cyber scandal we were wondering whether Vladimir Putin had hacked the airline’s handling system for a gag. Apparently not. A Jetstar spokeswoman said the plane needed extra fuel to fly through unexpected weather and had offloaded the bags to save weight. It all arrived the next morning. But in the rigmarole of ditching suitcases and surfboards, the airline forgot to tell customers. We’re told Jetstar played a notice about the mishap — but only on speakers at the wrong end of the terminal. That left the sleepy mob standing around past midnight for a cargo that was not coming. Just when you think Qantas and Jetstar have left their corporate baggage behind, they leave their baggage behind. No hookups for towies Mad Max is coming to the streets of Perth as heavy vehicle tow drivers launch an open rebellion against Main Roads over new regulations on their craft. Spies this week discovered a truck broken down on Kwinana Freeway near Jandakot, stuck for about 12 hours. Our source in towie world — these guys move big trucks, not cars — says they will be refusing jobs until the bureaucratic beef is fixed. The battle has been waged over brakes, cameras and loading rules. The Bull doesn’t know much about the physics of dragging 20 tonne objects but we do know that towies are tough nuts to mess with. Forget David Niven’s 55 days at Peking — it would be broken down trucks spending 55 days at Parmelia without a peace deal. Not to worry. Some companies have met the new conditions and Main Roads says it organised another operator to do the Jandakot tow. Cooking up jobs With the looming threat of ChatGPT-generated content bearing down on the esteemed journalistic profession it is refreshing to see the State Government’s hiring noticeboard retains a few relics of the past. Tech wizards moved quickly at the start of the month to update the search.jobs.wa.gov.au portal following (another) major reshuffle of departments. Out with being a boring Treasury apparatchik, in with being DTF. That is Department of Treasury and Finance, of course. Despite the rapid-fire rejig on the web, an eagle-eyed HOTT operative discovered a couple of anachronisms. The Egg Marketing Board and the infamous Potato Marketing Corporation are still listed, many years after their hard-fought abolitions. Readers would remember the Soviet-style potato police and Spud King Tony Galati’s famous fight to free the carb-loaded vegetable from excessive government control. You’d have to scroll even further back in WA’s red tape history to find any mention of the egg regulators, as the body was privatised in 2005. Needless to say, neither were advertising any jobs this week. Made in WA And a special shoutout to the Premier’s media spinners on Tuesday for their press release touting “water Made in WA” when announcing the latest incremental update at the Alkimos desalination plant. Made in WA was Labor’s big-spending flagship State election commitment in a bid to excite their base of blue-collar workers. French manufacturer Alstom has led the charge hoovering up the Made in WA slush. They trousered $1.4 billion to make the new Metronet rail cars in India, weld on equipment near Midland, then roll them out with windscreen demisters on fire. Good dough if you can get it! But back to the desalination. For those unschooled in the sciences, the water is not made, it comes from the ocean. Desalination removes the salt to “make” it drinkable. Either way, raise a glass to four more years of largesse for the CFMEU and AMWU.

Herd on the Terrace: Ellison’s yacht takes a vacation to Kwinana shipyard and why Perth towies won’t hook up

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