Pead hits election trail … again
Serial candidate Gary Pead is among two last-minute mayoral hopefuls joining the fray to for the Gold Coast’s top job.
The cut-off for nominations is Tuesday, with Mayor Tom Tate leading a field of at least seven candidates including himself, the second-largest of the past 20 years.
The latest to register are Mr Pead, an Independent, and Jennifer Anne Horsburgh who will run for the Animal Justice Party. Mr Pead secured 2.52 per cent of the vote at the 2020 election, coming a distant fifth out of eight candidates.
But the 70-year-old said he was undeterred by his repeated rejection by voters and insisted he continued to run because there was “no leadership” from Mr Tate.
“People haven’t listened to me for 20 years,” he said. “I turned 70 a few weeks ago and age will not weary me, nor will I ever be shut up about the major items which affect the people of the Gold Coast, the country and the whole world.
“They relate to climate change, costing of living and all of those circumstances in which false, interfering remedies are postulated because the politicians and administrators do not have the lived experience that I do.”
Mr Pead criticised Mr Tate, a three-term veteran of city hall, for not declaring a climate emergency and said he was out of touch with the community.
Mr Pead said in his opinion “Tate doesn’t work for the greater good ... and that is why I keep putting myself forward for mayor.”
Mr Pead previously asked for some of the world’s richest people to help his 2020 campaign for the city’s top job, having contacted similar-minded billionaires Mike CannonBrooke and Scott Farquhar asking for $3000.
Mr Pead revealed he had planned to withdraw from the mayoral race just days after announcing his candidacy but changed his mind after lobbying from community groups.
He was formerly a member of the Labor Party and contested the state seat of Mermaid Beach in 2015. He later left the party ahead of his aborted 2016 mayoral run and instead contested that year’s federal election as a Senate candidate.
Ms Horsburgh is a first-time candidate and currently the sole person to represent a political party.
According to her online profile, she graduated from St Ursula’s College Armidale in Brisbane in 1969 before studying at the University of Queensland where she finished in 1973.