100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

From bad to worse: it's a world seemingly full of terrible decisions

Do you have a news tip? Click here to send to our news team.

Talks underway to host major national championships

A national sports body is in talks with the local council to host a major Australian championships in the lead-up to the 2032 Games, More

‘Humbled’: firefighter honoured on top national level

Robert Frey, station officer at Noosa Heads Fire Station, has been awarded the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM), the highest honour an Australian firefighter More

Australia’s biggest ever prize home on offer

A luxury house, the biggest prize of its kind in Australia, is now up for grabs on the Sunshine Coast. Dream Home Art Union is More

Photo of the day: man versus nature

The lines are drawn in the sand in this 'battle' between man and nature. Photographer Ruth Fiechtner captured this interesting perspective of tyre tracks More

Proposal for 39 townhouses lodged after aged care plan scrapped

A townhouse complex with 39 three-bedroom units is being planned for a high-growth area of the Sunshine Coast. The one-hectare site at 22-24 and 26-28 More

Tourism industry says ‘thank you’ with top locals-only deals

The Sunshine Coast tourism industry is opening the doors to its biggest local 'thank you' yet, inviting residents to holiday like visitors at mates’ More

Poor decisions come pretty naturally to me.

I probably would be an all-time champion if it was an Olympic sport.

I have always thought there were no worthy challengers for my dumb decisions, but now I am not so sure. It seems quite a few have popped up over the last couple of years.

I will give you a couple of examples of the quality they are up against.

My first big mistake was probably back in the 70s, when I had a perfectly good rotary Mazda.

Someone told me that the motors in them could blow up so I decided to trade it in on a new-model Ford Cortina, which was the biggest lemon I ever owned.

It fell apart instantly as it came out of warranty.

I used to see my old car cruising around the Coast looking mint, and he paid about half of what I had.

To fix this poor decision I traded the Cortina in on a Nissan ute, which rusted out immediately after it came out of warranty.

I found out years later that particular shipment of Nissans had nearly been submerged on a container ship on the way over to Australia.

To make it worse, I owed a fortune on that bucket of crap after I had added on the HP losses from the other two cars.

Now, that is just a small sample.

Sunshine Coast News columnist Ashley Robinson.

Oh, another popped into my brain when I was typing. I once wore lemon-coloured trousers to the races when I had a touch of gastro, so I guess you can figure out how that worked out for me. Yuck.

So, the contenders are the boffin who designed that off-ramp at Caloundra’s Bruce Highway turn-off. He may be related to the one who put that turning lane in at Moffat.

Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast stories coming by subscribing to our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article. 

But the field gets stronger when I wonder who at the BOM could miss that deluge aftermath of the cyclone that walloped Wide Bay with no warning, but then made a decision to close all beaches on the eastern seaboard because of a possible tsunami from Tonga?

With all due respect to our friends in the Pacific and not to make light of their loss, it certainly seemed to be a possible massive overreaction over here.

Yes, I know, better safe than sorry, but my list of contenders could go on if I start on some of the Covid decisions.

But I am comforted by the fact that I don’t feel lonely at the top any more; there are a few “geniuses” with me.

Ashley Robinson is a columnist with Sunshine Coast News and My Weekly Preview. His views are his own.

Subscribe to SCN’s free daily news email

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
This field is hidden when viewing the form
[scn_go_back_button] Return Home
Share