Airport coming: Convicted firebug Joshua Staples wants cash to leave Badgerys Creek

A CONVICTED firebug says he has a right to “speak out” for his community despite his criminal past and that he isn’t ashamed of his ­actions.

NO BYLINE THANKS Daily Telegraph - Pictured: Joshua Staples - Joshua Staples received an 18 month jail sentence (He didn't end up going to jail) for lighting fires in and around the Bringelly and Badgery's Creek area of South Western Sydney in 2013. Story is about hundreds of renting residents being told that they have six months before having to leave the area due to a planned airport - Sydney's second

A CONVICTED firebug who appeared on radio and television demanding grants for Badgerys Creek residents said he had a right to “speak out” for his community despite his criminal past and said he isn’t ashamed of his ­actions.

Joshua Staples, 22, was last year sentenced to 18 months in prison — later commuted to an intensive corrections order — for deliberately lighting grass fires in Bringelly and then fighting them as a volunteer with the RFS in 2011.

He was interviewed by Channel 7’s Paul Kadak on Monday under the name of Joshua Carter and phoned Ray Hadley’s 2GB show the next morning as talkback caller “Josh” to speak out against the eviction of Badgerys Creek residents to make way for Sydney’s second airport.

“I would expect the government to at least give some sort of a grant to help us,” he told Hadley.

Mr Staples’ history as an arsonist was not ­revealed on either program at the time, however a 2GB listener tipped Ray Hadley’s producers off about his true identity.

Joshua Staples entering Downing Courts in 2011.

“So we’ve got a bloke who’s a Rural Fire Service firebug, last night on Channel 7 he gave a different surname … they were duped into providing a convicted firebug a ­platform about getting a rebate from the government,’’ Hadley said.

“The only rebate the little bastard should get is a rebate in prison, he should be serving time for what he did, you low-life.”

Mr Staples yesterday told The Daily Telegraph: “It’s not that I’m ashamed, I just didn’t want what has happened to overshadow what I’m saying.

“Why should I just sit back and be silent when there’s something affecting my friends, family and neighbours?”

Mr Staples lives on eight hectares of Commonwealth land with his father and pregnant fiancee Gabby. The family pays “between $300 and $400” in rent each week.

Convicted firebug Joshua Staples.

They, like others at Badgerys Creek, have eight months to vacate the properties to make way for construction of the city’s second airport.

“Yes, in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have gone on television ... I’m trying to move on with my life,” Mr Staples said.

Channel 7 confirmed the 22-year-old “entertainment host” disclosed his real surname and ­history at the time of the interview and producers allowed him to use his mother’s surname.

However, he did not provide his surname to Ray Hadley’s producers.

He said he was “in discussions with his lawyers” about legal action against the top-rating radio host.

Neighbour Joan Peever, 76, said: “I had a scathing report of (Joshua) at the time. He made mistakes and they were big ones ... but the boy’s trying to move on. We have to learn to forgive.”

Neighbour ... Joan Peever, and daughter Cindy Eastwood.