Dawn probes casino plans
VETERAN city councillor Dawn Crichlow says the proposed integrated resort and casino in Southport has serious planning obstacles.
In an unprecedented move at a tense full council meeting yesterday, Cr Crichlow asked 10 Questions on Notice. The answers to the questions are likely to reveal the secret talks in the lead up to the project being proposed.
As she attempted to address one question, Mayor Tom Tate interrupted and told her flatly “just keep going”.
When she finished and asked if the questions could be answered, the Mayor told her: “No, no. Take it on notice”.
The Mayor spruiked the proposal last month, saying it would create 10,000 jobs post the Commonwealth Games. The idea was flagged after the State Government rejected ASF's plans for an integrated resort on The Spit.
Cr Crichlow asked who initiated the project on Crown land and when did council’s economic development committee produce a map of the project and who requested it.
In critical technical questions on the land needed for the project, Cr Crichlow asked whether council was aware that “the old sea wall” went through Carey Park and had been heritage listed in 2010.
She asked if a meeting had been staged at the Southport Chambers on August 3 when officers from council’s special project unit met with State Development bureaucrats.
The Southport councillor also wanted to know if the Mayor had informed fellow councillors that she supported the project.
The Mayor’s office main- tains Cr Crichlow had indicated her earlier support for an integrated resort in Southport, but in a clarification on council papers the councillor strongly denied supporting the current location fronting the Broadwater. “Now that’s a load of garbage. I did not give my support,” she wrote.
Cr Crichlow also asked whether councillors, before giving their support, had been advised of the lease arrangements for the Southport Bowls Club and Queens Park Tennis Club.
Both community groups had been operating on the Crown land for 80-102 years and their leases extended until 2026, the questions suggested.
Cr Crichlow wanted to know if the Mayor had received a response from his letter to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk looking at moving the project forward.
Outside the meeting, she told the Bulletin: “I don’t even know if the State Government has been given that information. There has never been a report that’s come to council on this.
“I have never seen a project like this being presented to council without a report.”