Friday 25 September 2009

Vile angry rage on radio from failed waterpark developer

Yesterday morning, the former Cairns City Councillor, Paul Freebody was a special guest on John Mackenzie's 4CA 846am radio show.

He let loose, with displaying his uncontrollable temper and anger, at the majority of Cairns Regional Councillors, who agreed on Wednesday to defer any decision on his proposal to build a waterpark in the middle of the Barron River delta, that council planners have said would be cause significant problems.

Assessment Manager, Simon Clarke concluded to Councillors last Friday in a 70-page document, that the site at Dillon Road, just South of the Yorkeys Knob roundabout, was not suitable.said the plan. He said it was lacking in many aspects, and was not at all suited for this type of development. He strongly recommended against its approval.

The 9 minute 20 second telephone interview, was a hate-filled angry rant, probably the worst outburst from a sulking developer this town has ever seen.

In it he called those that didn't support his plan as the "five witches or bitches from east side." Paul Freebody said Councillor Julia Leu was "unsuccessful as a CEO when Port Douglas [Shire Council] went under."

However Freebody saved his most invective venom for Councillor Kirsten Lesina, who defeated him at the polls in March 2008.

"The only one that is negative, and always negative, is Kirsten Lesina because - I mean, I don't know what the problem is with this young kid, but she hasn't got a clue," Freebody screamed down the line.

"I mean, how this city voted in some of these people is beyond me. And I pray that we learn at the next election that councils do make a huge difference in economics of a city. And when you put dumbos in there, you're going to get poor results."

He accused Mayor Val Schier and Councillors Di Forsyth, Kirsten Lesina, and Julia Leu, and Nancy Lanskey (or as John Mackenze said, Lancy Nanskey), as all failed in life.

"I just cannot believe that Lanskey and Leu and Forsyth and this young kid bloody Lesina, do not have a commercial [background] and that's the problem," Freebody bleated to a receptive Mackenzie.

"If you look at all their backgrounds, outside of Leu who was unsuccessful as a CEO in Port Douglas, it went under, if you look at their background, none of these people have a business background, none of them have achieved anything in their life, we're paying them 120 grand a year and we get results like this."

"But to defer it yesterday because you've got Kirsten Lesina coming out going 'oh I don't understand the report'. Of course she doesn't understand it, she's 21 and she shouldn't be in council. But read the report, girl. I mean if you're going to be a councillor do your job and understand the report," Paul Freebody said.

Actually what occurred at Wednesday's meeting, is the last minute 40-condition 20-page recommendation, was handed out to Councillors during the meeting. There was no time whatsoever to even open it or read and consider what it meant.

For Deputy Mayor Margaret Cochrane to push this under Councillor's noses and force them to make a judgement of this project in two minutes, is a professional insult to all her colleagues. Serious questions also need to be raised who directed the Council planning staff to prepare the second report at the last minute. No Councillor has the right to order or direct Council staff.

Freebody, in trying to defend what changes were required for an interim approval from Council, said it was just "minor changes in car parking." In fact it wasn't just carparking, however that alone was going to turn almost half the entire allotted land into a carpark. There were 40 extra conditions, that were almost impossible for him to meet.

"There was a few minor changes, minor changes in car parking. That was the changes put forward and they tried to use that as an excuse to defer this thing for a fortnight, and they're arguing against it," Freebody said, as his voice got more emotional.

"As you can probably tell I'm pretty wound up about it because I'm pretty upset the fact that we have lost a major attraction to Cairns."

Even CairnsBlog got a roasting, not the first time on Mackenzie it's come in for some free publicity.

"I can tell you Councillor Cochrane is wonderful. I mean they're saying because she's a mate of Freebody's and all this on this silly blog site that guy runs," Freebody said.

"That is rubbish. She understands the commercial reality, she's been in business, as does Councillor Bonneau, Pyne, Blake, Gregory and Cooper. These people have a business background, they understand the commercial reality and they're not tree-huggers who say oh you can't have it in the middle of a cane field," he said.

In a brief moment of reason, John Mackenzie said that Freebody's publicity that the park was going to get 250,000 people a year "could that have been wishful thinking."

Freebody said "we have six intelligent councillors who have given us a fair go. They have looked at the report. They have read the report. They understand the report."

If Paul Freebody wanted to move his agenda forward yesterday, and persuade more Councillors to support him and his hair-brained scheme to build a business in the middle of a river bed, then he failed miserably. In fact, I doubt he could have done any worse. He showed his true colours.

What an angry vile individual to talk about our elected Councillors in the way he did. He deserved nothing except a kick up the arse and the public shame of being run out of town with his broken toys and inflated ego.

Here's the recording here:


15 comments:

Noj Nedlaw said...

The hypocrisy of the man is amazing - berates some councillors for a perceived lack of business accumen and then sees no issue with praising the likes of Bonneau and Blake!

What planet is this guy from?

I agree with the last two paragraphs. There ARE reasons why Freebody failed at the last election; perhaps his erstwhile consituents had seen the pettiness and vindictiveness that is now all so apparent to the rest of us.

Matt Heirink said...

Well I guess that's five votes he's not going to get at the next meeting.

nocturnal congress said...

Once again, a hard decision, lots of controvery and Bonneau is publicly silent......

Maximinus the 3rd said...

Bonneau's ploy is to remain a small target, near invisible while behind the scenes he stir the pot with his Machiavellian treachery.
This guy needs to be flushed out, sooner rather than later!

Tom said...

Most were against this proposal simply on the basis of its inappropriate location. After yesterdays petulant rant, they have another reason: Freebody!

Under the Radar said...

Its so sad when a grown man acts this way, I would say that Paul you are showing signs that maybe a little trip to a padded cell would do you a world of good.
Basically a lesson well learnt for you in this matter, maybe next time you will do your research a little better, and really have the communities best interest but as always good will prevails over greedy, egotistical bastards like yourself.
And most importantly you should realise that a stunt like that in a small tight community such as Cairns will take a long time for you to recover from!!!!

nocturnal congress said...

Maximinus, you are spot on. Sadly, this sort of behaviour, ie remaining a small target while acting stealthily and covertly to undermine the opposition, frequently is highly successful with the voting public. Sigh!!!!

The Headless Horseman said...

Paul Nobody's vitriolic outburst on MacKenzie clearly demonstrates why he lost his council seat. His ugly language and personal abuse of good people makes him unfit for public office.
His patronising of Kirsten Lesina, who is an astute, passionate and compassionate young person, offended many voters young and old before the last election. Now that he has taken his gloves off more people can see what Paul Nobody is really like.
Nobody is also wrong about Julia Leu. Douglas Shire Council was already a dysfunctional mess before she took over as Acting CEO (do you understand, Paul Nobody?) Julia was only in an acting position in the months preceding the election and she did a fantastic job in holding the council together. The problems in the former Douglas council were the pro-development-at-all-costs councillors who made life hell for the then Mayor and the council staff. I think Julia deserves a medal for her efforts, not lies and abuse.
The other reason Paul Nobody lost his seat was that he was associated with Kevin Byrne which approved developments that caused flooding between Gordonvale to the Northern Beaches during wet seasons. His water park proposal needs to be considered carefully.

Denis Walls said...

I have attended three council meetings recently for various reasons and on each occasion I have been impressed beyond measure at the probing, forensic skills of Julia Leu. Once again on Wednesday she was excellent with her articulate, informed and no-nonsense approach.

She is an outstanding councillor who has a massive division to contend with but is prepared to better inform herself and make strong contributions outside her division as well.

There are other councillors doing a good job as well, don't get me wrong, but Julia is the Dux. A koala AND a cassowary stamp!!

Thornton On Spence said...

It was an interesting show with vast differences in class. There was Freebody demonstrating his complete lack of any class or professionalism and then Macca demonstrating that not only Val likes Ucelele music. Macca had on a young girl playing her Ucelele and you could sense him really enjoying "Leaning on the Lampost."

What really annoyed me about Freebody on Macca is the criticsm of Julia Lieu who is articulate, not a word in Freebodys vocabulary and definitely something he could not spell, and intelligent. She demonstrates the professionalism that was sadly lacking during Freebodys term. How this clown has the gall to criticise the current Council when Messrs Blake, Cochrane, Bonneau served with him and were dreadful then and still are.

Freebody is a bully who hides and cowers behind Computer Screens and Telephones. He and Blake make a perfect pair....come to think about it maybe Freebodys Lover is Blake.

Thornton On Spence said...

An interesting collection of successful business people Paul Freebody has singled out from Council.
Cooper most definitely YES a very smart lady.
Bonneau NO a failure and is in Council because he needs the salary and other "perks"
Blake NO a well known failure in all his businesses as well as personal relationships
Pyne and Gregory I cannot comment on
Freebody of course has huge business accumen after he won the Lotto or something like that. He certainly didn't last that long in the Toy or Car Wash Cafe Business

Anonymous said...

Thornton on Spence -- here's a bit of background on the "successful business careers" of Pyne & Gregory -

Rob Pyne - Born in Gordonvale and raised in Edmonton, Rob worked in various professions until breaking his neck in 1991, when he decided to embark on study, so he could re-enter the wok force (that is how it is written on his own website - may be did the same spelling class as Freebody). He then completed a bachelor of Arts in History and Politics at JCU and a Law Degree at QUT. Rob was employed by JCU in 2000, remaining there until 2008 when he was elected to represent Division 3 on Cairns Regional Council.

Can't see much business acumen in there.

And as for Paul Gregory ----
Paul lives on the family farm near Gordonvale with his wife of 35 years, Gillian.

Paul is keenly interested in the community, having been involved with school P&C's since 1984, and was involved with health services via the Cairns District Health Council until 2006.

He is a qualified survey technician, and now enjoys his full time Council duties mixed with weekend farming activities. A keen sportsman, Paul has played representative tennis, cricket and golf.

Anonymous said...

Sorry - I forgot to mention the "successful business career" of Cockey .....

Margaret has lived in Cairns for more than 50 years, growing up in the West Cairns area which is now known as Manoora, attending both primary and secondary school at St Monica’s College and completing her General Nursing Certificate at Calvary Hospital in the 60’s.

Margaret married Syd and moved to Freshwater where they lived for 31 years and raised their three children. With her husband, Margaret was involved in their business, Cochrane Hydraulic Consultants for over ten years.

Wow !!! Now that's what I call a highly successful business career!

Thaddeus said...

How many times has McKenzie said, "Thank God for Margaret Cochrane!" Rugnut is using the oldest "divide and rule" trick in the book by appealing and pandering to a weak person's ego.
Then he has the affrontery and gall to rant on about a "dysfunctional and split" council!!

Oliver of Redlynch said...

So you could say that Cochranes business experience is from being a plumber's assistant?

Oh - how the ego has landed.

Well on the upside - at least she knows what she's talking about with the last minute recommendations tabled w.r.t water supply and sewage.