Jones calls for truce in stoush
PLAY nicely boys, for the good of the Games.
That was the coded message from Commonwealth Games Minister Kates Jones yesterday as the ongoing feud between Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate and Goldoc Chairman Peter Beattie deepened.
The two men are critical to the success of the event but have been at each other’s throats since Sunday when it was revealed the council had bought 1800 Games tickets for councillors at ratepayers’ expense, despite thousands of people missing out in the public ballot.
Cr Tate blamed council CEO Dale Dickson for the publicly unpopular deal.
Mr Beattie intimated Cr Tate deliberately leaked the information to the media as part of his battle against Mr Dickson, who also sits on the Goldoc board.
It was, Mr Beattie said, “an act of bastardry” that damaged the reputation of the Gold Coast at a critical time.
A furious Cr Tate fired back, saying Mr Beattie was a media “tart” who was past his “political use-by date”.
He said the former premier should “shut your mouth” and threatened to have Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk sack him.
But Mr Beattie wouldn’t back down and yesterday said the Gold Coast lacked “mature leadership”. He declined to elaborate on whether he was referring to Cr Tate.
Now Ms Jones has delicately waded into the dispute, saying the men were “big boys and people know what they are like – they are both out there.”
She said she was confident the spat would “all smooth over” but warned much was at stake.
“It’s still a long way until the Commonwealth Games in April next year but we absolutely have a unique opportunity to showcase the Gold Coast and Queensland to a worldwide audience of more than 1.5 billion people,” Ms Jones said. “I am certain that those gentlemen will be talking between themselves.
“We have an opening of the hockey centre on Saturday, we will all be there celebrating.”
The Premier did not answer questions about whether she had confidence in the men.
We are all working together to make GC2018 the best Commonwealth Games ever,” she said.