TATE TAKES A STAND
MY RECORD FOURTH MAYORAL BID ■ Still got the ‘fire in the belly’ ■ At age 63, I’m in my prime ■ Dismissing Pastor Sue-gate
GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate will stand for a record fourth term, saying he has the “fire in the belly” to do the top job to 2028. He addressed the controversial hiring of Pastor Sue Baynes to his staff and his priorities: light rail to the airport and Olympics infrastructure. “I feel I’m very much in touch with what the Coast needs. The fire still burns strongly.”
THE first thing noticed was the Hawaiian shirt. Bold, brassy, colourful – in many ways a template for the way Tom Tate would run his political campaign.
It was 2004 and Tom Tate was the then president of the Surfers Paradise Chamber of Commerce.
As the proprietor of a Surfers Paradise hotel, Cr Tate had grand plans for the city’s entertainment precinct and he was keen to run for the local division.
We put a mock crown on him and ran the photo – King Tom. He ran and lost, a few times, before taking stock and setting his sights on the Mayoralty.
On April 28, 2012, he was elected Gold Coast Mayor and has been re-elected in 2016 and 2020, with widening margins.
I was editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2012 when Cr Tate was elected. We backed his candidacy but the honeymoon soon ended.
We locked horns on a few things and then one day I just banned him from the paper. The headline on the front page said, Banned, with a photo of Tom.
Just like that. No more Tom. It lasted two weeks until developer Soheil Abedian acted as UN secretary-general and we brokered a peace deal and he was back on the front page.
Now, he’s running again in
He shamelessly puts the Gold Coast first in everything he does. Now, Cr Tate has his detractors, and there are many
2024, as revealed in the Bulletin today.
The thing that endears Cr Tate to those who know him is his passion for the Gold Coast.
He shamelessly puts the Gold Coast first in everything he does. Now, Cr Tate has his detractors, and there are many.
The Crime and Corruption Commission did a shake down on him and came up with nothing. He went after CCC chair Alan Mcsporran, describing him as a power drunk fool. Mcsporran is now gone. Cr Tate remains.
His legacy is already secured, yet at age 63 he wants to go around again, which would mean another six years in the role, stretching to 2028.
Of course, it hasn’t been all beer and skittles. His ill-fated attempt at a cruise ship terminal continues to be a source of frustration.
Then there’s the recent controversy over hiring a socalled spiritual adviser – as a “councillor adviser” on his staff – whose views are radical, at best. Some within the community are questioning Cr Tate’s judgment. In typical fashion, he shrugs it off, but it will cost him votes in 2024.
But Cr Tate remains a
popular figure. If he runs in 2024 and serves his full term, he’d be the Gold Coast’s longest serving mayor. Arguably, he’s had as big an impact as the legendary Sir Bruce Small, who was Mayor from 1967-73.
“Someone said to me in the United States, I would be viewed as being in my prime as far as my age is concerned,’’ he said. “I feel as though I am very much in touch with what the Coast needs and the fire still burns strongly.
“(Wife) Ruth and I love serving the people and realistically, age doesn’t even
come into my thinking right now.’’
Cr Tate is fit and healthy, after surviving a cancer scare a few years ago. He cites reducing rates as a major policy achievement and ending council dysfunction.
I believe his biggest achievement is HOTA.
Cr Tate had enormous passion for that arts precinct project and made it a reality.
It is now the city’s heart and soul. Plans are now underway for a 220-hectare “greenheart’’ that extends from Robina to Merrimac. In an era where politicians say one thing and
do another, Cr Tate brings conviction and passion.
He once told Greenies that if they didn’t like his policies, not to vote for him. That’s a ballsy thing to do and it goes without saying that the conservation movement don’t like his pro-development stance.
But the Gold Coast has grown and matured under Cr Tate’s leadership. It has matured into a world-class city and the future looks bright.
He brings energy and passion to the job. You can’t really ask for more than that in a city leader.