SEND IN THE STEWARDS
A HUGE thorn in the side of the Gold Coast Turf Club as it charts a course for new infrastructure and future events lies an hour’s drive up the M1.
The problem is Brisbane – or in this instance the state capital’s Eagle Farm racecourse. But let’s just settle on Brisbane, since the movers and shakers who polish their suit pants on the leather seats in State Parliament and occupy spaces in the boardrooms in the glass towers are the source of so many issues that have blocked the Gold Coast time and again as the tourism capital tries to get things done.
Much of the problem for the Gold Coast lies in Brisbane’s inner city suburbs where bureaucrats, who think they know what is best for the rest of Queensland, and a green-leaning intelligentsia reside – and have the State Government terrified of losing seats and power.
The consequence is that the big projects that would produce attractions to elevate the Gold Coast’s tourism industry to a new level are knocked back because they do not fit in with Brisbane’s view, or are stranded in never-ending studies and reports.
Decisions are made that inevitably favour the capital.
Brisbane is getting a rails run in development of a cruise ship industry while the Gold Coast is left parked in limbo as the Government and stakeholders grind their way slowly through the process for a Spit and Broadwater master plan.
Mayor Tom Tate faces a mountain of green protest and therefore Government opposition as he talks about resurrecting plans for a cableway into the Hinterland.
Despite a truce declared between Stadiums Queensland and the Titans, the Gold Coast has still been shafted with stadium fees, with Metricon – home of our Suns AFL side – losing the Bon Jovi concert to a Brisbane venue that should have been pensioned off years ago.
Suns chairman Tony Cochrane says Stadiums Queensland should be named “Stadiums Brisbane’’. We agree.
And as we revealed this week, Brisbane is trying to purloin our film industry, or at least fragment it, ignoring the talent that has been developed in our city to provide technological expertise.
The Coast hosts the Logies next weekend. No doubt Brisbane is looking for a way to snaffle that too.
Back to Eagle Farm. In this instance, the inner-city elite can’t be blamed directly since the problem lies in a botched $22 million track “upgrade’’. Attempts to fix it have been plagued by more problems.
But Brisbane yet again wields influence, since the fallout extends to putting the brakes on an important project that would take racing at Bundall up a significant peg.
Apart from major meetings like Stradbroke Day having to be held at Doomben, the fallout from Eagle Farm’s track debacle has resulted in a $39 million master plan for the Gold Coast Turf Club being on hold at Treasury until Eagle Farm is sorted out.
As far as the Brisbane-based Government is concerned, that means funding for lighting to allow an ambitious plan for night racing at Bundall to go ahead is on the backburner, even though it was originally promised by the Bligh government. To say the Gold Coast is becoming fed up is an understatement.