Beattie hits civic politics

GAMES chairman Peter Beattie has savaged “internal council fighting” and “stupid politics” at Gold Coast City Council, saying an agenda to get rid of the council CEO risks sabotaging the city’s $200 million investment in the event.

Veteran council boss Dale Dickson, who is on the Goldoc board with Mr Beattie, was expected to be reappointed after his contract expired in December, but in a shock public meeting last month, councillors were asked to consider “potential city leadership renewal”.

At the time, Cr Paul Taylor requested councillors be given more time to consider the CEO’s future and “test the water” while Cr Glenn Tozer said the CEO had performed admirably.

Reports yesterday claimed Mr Dickson had “gifted” 800 ratepayer-funded tickets to Games events to elected councillors, sparking outrage from residents who missed out in the random draw.

Mr Beattie said the tickets were purchased at full price and “everyone on the Gold Coast” knew the “game-playing” motivation for the reports, which he said could squander “the biggest promotional opportunity the Gold Coast and Queensland will ever have”.

“They cannot be sabotaged by stupid party politics or internal leaks from the Gold Coast Council,” he said.

“These stories go globally and are damaging. Leave the Games alone and out of the game playing.

“Today’s story about tickets is a direct result of a leak designed to undermine the clerk’s reappointment. It has nothing to do with the Games.”

Mr Beattie said the council and other government partners were given the opportunity to purchase tickets in line with normal practice at Commonwealth Games.

“There are no free tickets,” he said. “The council paid for the tickets – both the council and State Government are investing millions in the Games and are entitled to buy a modest number of tickets at full price. How they use the tickets has nothing to do with the Games organisers. Unused allocations will be returned to pool later in the year.”

In a statement in the Sunday Mail, Mr Dickson said the council had bought the tickets “for city business purposes” and had been invited to prepurchase the tickets.

Mr Beattie could not reveal what percentage of tickets for the Gold Coast Games were made available for the public, but said it was more than one million of the 1.2 million total.

At the 2014 Games in Glasgow, 30 per cent were not available to the general public, but reserved for athletes, the Commonwealth Games Federation, sponsors, broadcast partners and “contingency”. One per cent were reserved for Games partners.