Paul Pisasale’s name to return to Ipswich bridge, street

Former Ipswich mayor turned convicted criminal Paul Pisasale will have his name reinstated on an Ipswich bridge and suburban street, despite council admitting that community sentiment did not support the move.

A council decision to remove disgraced former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale’s name from city assets has been successfully overturned by his former deputy, a move that will see the now convicted criminal’s name live on around Ipswich.

The original decision, made in December 2021, called for community consultation for new names for Pisasale Drive in Yamanto and Pisasale Bridge in Springfield.

Paul Pisasale outside a Brisbane court in July 2019. Picture: AAP Image/Richard Gosling

Councillor Paul Tully, once Pisasale’s deputy, led the push to overturn that decision, moving to leave the names as they are during a council meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Of the nine councillors present at the meeting, five supported the motion and four did not.

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said that community sentiment was supportive of removing Pisasale’s name.

“Every single landowner came back to us, except for one and all of them wanted the name changed,” she said. “We did follow the community engagement policy.”

Former Mayor Paul Pisasale was convicted of more than 30 serious crimes including fraud, official corruption, extortion and two counts of sexual assault.

“As a Mayor and as a woman, I cannot pretend that this is okay,” Cr Harding said of the offences.

Mr Pisasale was in 2020 sentenced to a total of seven-and-a-half-years behind bars for fraud, corruption and sexual assault offences that he committed while in the city’s highest office.

He will be eligible for parole in October 2022, after the court took into consideration his age, pleas of guilty and the steps Pisasale had made to “right his wrongs”.

Councillor Paul Tully said that he raised the motion to rename the roadways after his former boss when he saw support for the idea on social media.