Liberty: business as usual

The manager of gay holiday resort Liberty said it is business and bookings as usual despite an ongoing dispute between the resort’s builder and developer.

The Australian Financial Review yesterday reported that developer Posada Properties and builder Metrobuild Construction had locked horns over the alleged non-payment of moneys in conjunction with work carried out on stage one of the resort’s re-development.

But Liberty general manager Michael Ruff said the dispute had nothing to do with the resort operation and that the gay holiday destination was trading well over budget.

It’s bookings as normal, and Mardi Gras looks really promising for us, he said.

While Posada and Metrobuild arbitrate over fees, the involvement of former Satellite Group managing director Greg Fisher in the Liberty project continues to be questioned.

Yesterday’s Financial Review article referred to Fisher as a paid consultant on the project -“ a situation confirmed to the Star by Ruff. The article also quoted Posada’s director Alastair Brown as saying that Fisher had no financial involvement in Liberty.

But when Sydney Star Observer first wrote about the Liberty project, in September 2001, Posada’s then-chief executive officer, Marcus Bear, said that Fisher had phased himself out of the company after providing consultancy services early in the life-cycle of the project.

At the time, Fisher told the Star that he had no involvement in anything other than my legal case.

In late December 2001 the Australian Securities and Investment Commission banned Fisher from being a director of a private company for five years. He is due to appear in court in March to face new charges relating to the alleged misuse of Satellite funds.