The Gold Coast’s Tom Tate is one of Australia’s most gladiatorial mayors. He once charmingly likened a corruption watchdog investigation to having “someone telling you it’s raining while standing behind you and pissing down your back”.

Tate, it appears, has recently discovered the Macquarie dictionary, given his use of big words like “extraneous” and “appropriate due diligence” in a submission blasting Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission, published this week.