I’LL WIN BY A LANDSLIDE
Tate not only backs himself for an historic third term he predicts...
MAYOR Tom Tate says he will stand again at the next election and win by a landslide. Asked if next year’s budget – the last which will be delivered in the current council term – would be a pre-election budget, Mayor Tate said: “Absolutely it will be a re-election budget and I’ll get in on a landside.”
MAYOR Tom Tate has vowed the city council will fund and build a cableway in the Gold Coast Hinterland if the project fails to gain support from the State Government.
Fresh from promising to put money towards a dive site off The Spit, the Mayor yesterday went further, declaring the council’s strong budget position would give city hall the ability to push ahead with other projects.
“We have the capacity to deliver more infrastructure but I don’t want to deliver just transport infrastructure ... also tourism infrastructure,” he said.
“And that means … I’ll let the cat out of the bag a bit, not just the dive wreck only. If they don’t push for the skyrail, I reckon we should look at it and council will build it ourselves.”
Cr Tate said the city would be able to proceed because of its ability to acquire land.
A Naturelink cableway was proposed in early 1998, running from Mudgeeraba to Springbrook, but was canned by the Beattie government in late 2000.
Several other proposals were made in the 2000s but none got off the ground.
In 2014, the Gold Coast Skyride proposal, which had backers including Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens, was unveiled.
The plan was quietly shelved in 2015 after the defeat of the Newman government.
But Mr Stevens said yesterday he was not confident Cr Tate would be able to proceed with the tourism infrastructure, warning it would still require State Government approval.
“It’s the same problem we faced – it will need approval from a state Labor government and the Federal Government under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act,” he said.
“It’s not a problem of money – the money is there to build it today – but it is the approval.
“Unless Tom has a magical way to gain that, then the Gold Coast City Council will get the same answer that Gold Coast Skyride Consortium got from the State Government.”
Yesterday’s budget revealed the council would spend $34.7 million on tourism and marketing for the city.
But Cr Tate said more could be done, especially after paying off the last of the city’s $269 million contribution to the Commonwealth Games
“It opens up a range of possibilities for the city,” he said.