Tate’s terminal velocity Mayor quick to hit back at Fanning’s criticism of port

MAYOR Tom Tate has defended his cruise ship terminal plans against criticism from pro surfer Mick Fanning, saying the shark-beating, three-time world champion did not consider the “younger generation”.

Fanning derided plans submitted to the Federal Government for a 1.2km jetty to an 800m rock wall and wharf as a base port for 150 cruise ships a year, servicing a two-floor terminal on 6ha of public land at The Spit.

He described the jetty plan as “ugly” and called on the community to “band together to stop this horrible thing”.

The council submission details plans to build a terminal in stages: first as a transit port serviced by a monorail and then as a base port where ships would be refuelled via barge or truck and where people could begin and end their cruises.

Diagrams of the base port show a two-lane road on the jetty.

The Mayor used Facebook to hit back at Fanning, who led a successful community campaign against a cruise terminal in 2014. “It’s OK for you Mick, you’ve got a job. A pretty sweet job at that,” he said.

“But what about all the younger generation … who want work, to live and to bring up a family?

“You say the jetty will be ugly? Well it’s funny how you haven’t mentioned the existing sand-pumping jetty that’s been on The Spit for the last 30 years, and will be there another 30 … without complaint …”

Cr Tate repeated his claim the submission was not for a base port, despite his consultants telling the Federal Government “a base port is the ultimate development outcome for the project”.

“My position hasn’t changed – a ‘port of call’ is what I want and if it doesn’t tick all the environmental boxes, I’ll be the first one to vote it down,” Cr Tate wrote.

The Federal Government will use the council’s submission to decide whether it needs to assess the project under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Public consultation on the initial referral closed last night.