Sunday 20 January 2008

Paul kisses and makes up. Yeah right!

If you missed Councillor Paul Freebody's last email stouch, then you missed a shocking belly laugh.

Although the email message exposes the real character of some of the politicians running our city, that alone should deserve his dumping in the March Council elections.

The fact that such a public person, who wants the respect of his constituents would actually put something like that in writing is almost beyond belief. But then again, any mate of Byrne's.....

Anyway, Val sent around an article Time to take the cash out of politics, that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday. It was all about receiving donations from 'supporters' in politics. Canada, the writer points out, limits donations from corporations and unions to $1,000.

In Byrne's Unity party for the 2004 election, the big contributors were all property and development interests. I know you're not surprised. Raine & Horne gave $15,000; CEC gave $13,000; Gasparin $12,000, C & B Consultants $3,000, just to name a few.

So the story was rather timely and relevant to the 2008 election race here, given the ability for some political partys to receive over $260,000 in "donations" and Val's team just $45,000. Surely some of those big spenders would like a return on their investment?

The SMH article also noted:

  • However, one needs nothing more than commonsense to know big donations do not come without expectations. The hotels boss John Thorpe acknowledged in 2004 that "democracy isn't cheap". Certainly the type of democracy he practises is not. During the preceding five years, in which hotel profits skyrocketed, thanks mostly to gambling accommodations by the State Government, the Australian Hotels Association gave Labor more than $500,000. Individual publicans gave more than $2 million.

    As Special Minister of State responsible for electoral law, John Faulkner is drafting legislation to undo manifestly self-serving changes made by the Howard government in 2006. The raising of the threshold at which donors must be identified from $1500 to $10,000 will be reversed. The tax benefit allowed to donors will be reduced, and the use of public funding - $2.10 for each vote secured by a candidate who achieves at least 4 per cent of the vote - will be more closely scrutinised to ensure it is spent on electioneering, and not pocketed.


So back to Councillor Freebody's latest email.

He can't resist an opportunity to put his thoughts down in writing. Mind you, I'm the same. When he's not washing cars, he's firing off some of the most articulate wisdom of our time. However this time, I think Paul's being a bit sarcastic. No really, I do.

  • ----- Original Message -----
    From:
    Paul Freebody
    To:
    Val Schier, candidate for Mayor
    Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 4:13 PM
    Subject: RE: Time to take the cash out of politics

    Hi Val,

    Thanks for the email below, Interesting reading for you I guess?

    I must take the time to congratulate you on your sense of humor!

    The kids have just shown me
    your you tube ads and they reckon they are the funnies [sic] thing they have seen in a long time ,

    It [
    sic] good to see someone still has a sense of humor in politics and the one with “Mia “ is especially funny !

    Well done and keep up the good work with the humor side of things, you should be on stage!!!

    Cheers
    Paul

    Paul Freebody
    General Manager (Freebody Group)
    Email : Paul@freebodygroup.com.au
    Mb: 0418741160
    Wk: 0740534399

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's do the sums folks:

Gregory, Lindsay, Pezutti, Blake, Cochrane, Sheppherd and Max Brown (Sno)

That's seven independants, enough to control the balance of power.

But no, we have 7 sooks running for cover everytime KB walks in the room.

Time to get rid of the lot.

Anonymous said...

"The Freebody Group" - I take it they don't hold the patent for spellcheck

Anonymous said...

Bwa hahaha, Freebody's letter is the joke. Nothing like showing a bit of vindictiveness and spite hey Paul? Oh..and through the medium of a letter of course.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you know what they say, if he looks like a wanker and sounds like a wanker, then he is one.

You can add Freebody's name to the list of useless Councillors, (Sheppherd, Max Brown, Kathy Plath (the Councillor you have when you don't have a Councillor) and Mr Free-for-all, who has to state in every Council meeting when approving controversial developments "the Council will be sued if we do not approve".

Good riddance to a bad bunch I say!

Anonymous said...

I remember when Freebody first appeared on the scene in 2000 with his ads, sitting there with his family. Ha ha, oh how we laughed......

Anonymous said...

Most impressed. I met a new player for division 7 today door knocking the area. His name is Jeff Lyon. He answered all my questions off the cuff. No bull dust about this guy. He came across as honest, articulate and very knowledgable. His presentation was first class with information about himself and the upcoming election. He has my vote. Keep up the good work Jeff.