Fiery moment a veteran councillor explodes at a Channel Nine reporter for his ‘rudeness’: ‘You’ve hurt me and you’ve hurt my family’
- Councillor Paul Tully and reporter Josh Bavas go head-to-head
- 9News reporter questioned the councillor about charity fund
- Tully angrily responded and called him the rudest reporter ever
One of the country’s longest-serving and most controversial councillors has exploded at a reporter for his ‘rudeness’ over questions about charity fund donations.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully, who has served for more than 40 years, is the holder of an Ipswich Community Charity Fund, set up by the community to raise funds for locals enduring hardships.
The fund has been put under the microscope in recent months after it was revealed it has held almost $200,000 in donations for five years that have not been dispensed.
At an unrelated media doorstop on Wednesday, Mr Tully initially declined to answer 9News reporter Josh Bavas’ questions about when the funds would be handed out before returning minutes later to tell him what he thought of him.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully (pictured) has clashed with a reporter over his ‘rude’ questions about the distribution of a charity fund to community members enduring hardship
‘First of all, let me say this was a press conference for the drones and it’s very rude to raise other matters,’ Tully said to the reporter.
‘I find you a very rude journalist, the rudest I’ve ever encountered in 42 years in local government.
‘You’ve hurt me, you’ve hurt my family and you know exactly how you’ve done that.’
Tully was aggravated by Bavas’ questions, asking the reporter: ‘Are you suggesting I have done something illegal?’
Bavas then replied, ‘No’.
‘I know you’ve got a biased view of this and you always have,’ Mr Tully continues.
‘I respected you until July of last year.’
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Tully.
Tully was aggravated by 9News reporter Josh Bavas’ (pictured) questions, asking the reporter: ‘Are you suggesting I have done something illegal? The Queensland-based reporter replied: ‘No’
In July, 9News reported hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by Mr Tully and former Ipswich City councillors on numerous overseas trips dating back to 2010.
He was then sacked in 2018 when the whole Ipswich City Council was dismissed by the state government, however, Mr Tully was re-elected two years later.
The Ipswich Community Charity Fund was handed a Show Cause Notice in 2022 by Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading which showed around $186,000 sitting in the account.
Documents also revealed that recently $3,300 had been deducted from the fund for accounting services as well as $5,500 for an audit.
Mr Tully said he was getting help from Ipswich News Editor Peter Chapman on how to distribute the funds, despite Chapman not being a fund member.
‘I would like to thank Peter (Chapman) who is a very respected journalist in Ipswich with the Local Ipswich News,’ Mr Tully said.
‘He’s been working as an intermediary to resolve the issues of the signatories.
‘We expect that monies will be distributed within the next few days.’
9News also report they have spoken to members of the fund who have requested to meet with Mr Tully for years to no avail, a claim Mr Tully denies.