Tate’s leading media adviser pulls pin for tilt at council seat
ONE of Mayor Tom Tate’s most senior advisers has quit city hall for a crack at sitting within it.
Mayoral media adviser Hermann Vorster yesterday resigned from Gold Coast City Council to make the jump from advising a politician to becoming one himself as a candidate to become a divisional councillor.
Mr Vorster, 30, will contest Division 11 at the March 2016 council elections against incumbent councillor Jan Grew.
The area, which takes in Robina and Varsity Lakes is expected to have at least three candidates beyond Cr Grew, who has represented the area since 1994. Mr Vorster worked for Cr Tate for more than twoand-a-half years and replaced Simone Holfzapel as the mayor’s media adviser in early 2013.
The media role will now be split between council communications manager Warwick Sinclair and former Bulletin journalist Milena Stojceska for the remaining six months of the current council term. Cr Tate’s longtime chief of staff Wayne Moran, who ran his successful 2012 election campaign remains at city hall.
Mr Vorster, a former president of the Young LNP, yesterday said he would contest the seat as an Independent while remaining a member of the party
“I am an LNP member but I have always held the view that local government is about local interest and I firmly believe there is no place for party politics in council,” he said.
The elections will be on March 19 but few candidates have put their hand up to take on the incumbents.
Virtually the entire current line-up of councillors is expected to recontest their seats.