Inside Cover: Water Corp releases terrifying photograph to warn WA people about flushing correct things down toilets, Chief Justice Peter Quinlan’s TikTok video and Old Young’s wins again for Pavlova Vodka

Jig’s up, judge When Peter Quinlan was introduced to the Supreme Court as WA’s 14th Chief Justice in 2018, the Justice doing the introduction dropped a Taylor Swift reference into his speech to acknowledge Quinlan’s reputation for being hipper than your average judge. “In the years ahead, though the haters gonna hate, and the fakers gonna fake, we have every confidence you are just going to shake it off,” Justice Rene Le Miere said at the time. However, despite Quinlan’s rep for citing T-Swizzle and the movies of the Coen Brothers in his legal arguments, few could have ever imagined they’d see the State’s top judge on TikTok, the social media platform du jour for cool kids. Cool kids, such as Quinlan’s own daughter, Lux (awesome name, BTW), recently twisted the judge’s arm and had him take part in a TikTok dance video. To be honest, we’re not sure much arm-twisting was needed. As far as we can tell, Quinlan is the most senior legal figure on the planet to take on the Blinding Lights dance challenge, but we should note the Chief Justice hasn’t just been staying agile on TikTok. We hear his efforts to build flexibility into the courts have resulted in the WA justice system functioning better amid the COVID-19 pandemic than counterparts in other States. Now that’s something worth dancing a little jig for. Bunged up big time Though it looks like the worst of the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 is behind us, the consequences of this debacle is still causing headaches for the Water Corporation. Last month, Water Corp reported a 12 per cent increase in blockages in wastewater pipes compared with March last year, and the most likely culprit is people who are flushing toilet paper substitutes such as paper kitchen towel and wet wipes down the dunny. Since the start of this year, Water Corp crews have cleared a whopping 1965 blockages from wastewater systems around the State and, with the spectre of COVID-19 hanging over everyone, we hear the utility has finally cracked the sh.... “We’re asking the community to do their bit to ensure our crews are only being called out to essential work, and not to clear blockages caused by incorrect things such as wet wipes, paper towels and newspaper being flushed down the toilet,” a Water Corp spokeswoman told Inside Cover. To ensure you lot stick to the rules, Water Corp asked us to run this horrifying image of a blockage that was removed from Karratha’s wastewater treatment plant earlier this year. It can’t be unseen, so we’re confident you’ll remember it next time you think about flushing the wrong thing down the loo. Vodka pav a winner Last week we mentioned that Limeburners Heavy Peat, the Grange of Australian whisky, became a two-time Best International Craft Whisky winner at the recent American Distilling Institute Awards. But that wasn’t the only WA drop to win big at the world’s oldest and biggest craft distilling trade association awards. Swan Valley distiller Old Young’s took home the gong for Best International Flavoured Vodka at the ADI Awards, too. In fact, it has won that prize in three of the past four years, only missing out last year because of complications due to the US Government shutdown. Hit by the pandemic like so many other businesses, Old Young’s founder James Young said the result was much needed good news. “Our turnover is down about 80 per cent, and we know it’s even harder for lots of people, especially our friends in hospitality,” Old Young’s founder, James Young, said. Get your Pavlova Vodka at oldyoungs.com.au/bottleshop.

Inside Cover: Water Corp releases terrifying photograph to warn WA people about flushing correct things down toilets, Chief Justice Peter Quinlan’s TikTok video and Old Young’s wins again for Pavlova Vodka

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