After days of media witch-hunts and stubborn refusals from the Mount Isa Mayor, Cr Molony has acknowledged his words have caused offence to some in the city.

The Mayor spoke exclusively to The North West Star last night, and offered the people of Mount Isa his apology.

“People have told me they don’t feel so good about themselves anymore,” he said.

“I’m sorry if these people were hurt by my words. It’s important for people to have confidence in themselves.”

“I do not believe the women of Mount Isa are beauty-disadvantaged. Anyway, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

“I’ve had more blokes get up me than women. A lot of men have told me that they’ll choose who they think is beautiful, not me. In hindsight lonely women would have been a better word to use than beauty-disadvantaged.”

Cr Molony said he was disappointed the issue he was attempting to address had been lost in his poor word choice.

“As Mayor, I was trying to rebalance the genders in this city to get the desired stability that suits the major employers,” he said.

“We need a stable workforce in this area for our future. But in order to do that we have to look for people outside our own town.

"We have to source some extra women and encourage them to come to the town. I want to attract families to the area and offer them a good lifestyle. I want to see people getting married in Mount Isa. I am a rough as guts kind of guy and I got the message out the wrong way.

"To those people who I have genuinely hurt I am sorry.”