Mayor dumps on Arafat

Nick Leys, in todays Strewth colum in the Australian, takes Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrnes to task over dressing up as Arafat for a charity function.

CAIRNS has been rocked by debate over the past week after mayor Kevin Byrne thought it would be a good idea to attend a charity debate and lunch dressed as Yasser Arafat ? just two days after his death. Byrne defended his actions as just a joke, but a local businessman of Palestinian descent is far from laughing.

Just two days after his death is not an exact date as we all recall nobody wanted to declare Arafat dead until they found his PIN number for all his stolen billions. Nick has the whole town ‘rocked‘ but all he quotes is one Cairns resident.

John Hawash yesterday lodged a complaint with the anti-discrimination board, saying the mayor had “made a fool” of all Cairns residents. “This problem has to be rectified. It’s done damage to the city. There are investors coming from the Middle East to Cairns and this sort of thing will scare them away.”

The type of Middle East investor that is ‘shocked’ by fancy address that lampoons Arafat should stay in the Middle East and we shouldn’t have anything to do with them. I should declare an interest here. Kevin Byrnes is an ex Infantry Major from my Regiment and his Chief of Staff is likewise, an old friend from Army Days. When I phoned for an indepth analysis of the ‘shocked’ city I found my friend absent on a holiday in China and Kevin busy getting on with his Mayoral duties. Great to-do about nothing but it does give Nick Leys a chance to put Conservatives in a bad light. You’ll just have to do better Nick.