Using polarimetry data collected for the S-PASS survey by the Parkes radio telescope, Carretti, Crocker et al.1 have recently discovered giant, magnetized outflows from the Galactic nucleus. I explain the implications of these outflows for understanding the global mass and energy flows through the centre of the Galaxy and show how these outflows - and the coincident Fermi Bubbles found in gamma-ray data - are the result of star-formation occurring in this region rather than activity of the Galaxy's super-massive black hole. The S-PASS data also imply that very strong magnetic fields - surpassing 10 microgauss - extend many kiloparsecs into the Galactic halo.