Jack Dempsey loses 14,000 votes since 2016 mayoral victory

The one-time police minister and two-term mayor’s popularity slide in the eyes of Bundaberg voters can be traced through a series of damaging missteps in the controversy-ridden years leading up to the 2024 election.

Jack Dempsey’s popularity slide in the eyes of Bundaberg voters can be traced through a series of damaging missteps made through the two years leading up to the 2024 election.

The headline result from the 2024 mayoral election is voters’ stunning rebuke of two-term mayor Jack Dempsey.

With 84 per cent of the votes counted in Bundaberg, Mr Dempsey is on track to receive about 25,000 votes.

This is about 10,500 votes fewer than he received in the 2020 election, and about 14,000 fewer than he received when first elected in 2016.

Among the reactions from voters posted on social media, themes of council’s transparency, accountability and overspending on large projects loomed large as the reasons for Mr Dempsey’s loss.

Perceived overspending on large projects such as the $76m Bundaberg Aquatic Centre loom large in public comments on the reasons for Jack Dempsey’s loss in the 2024 mayoral election.

“Removal of a iconic pool to build another one that cost $80m (sic) … was not needed when you could have spent (funds) fixing the other one and adding more things for families to do around town,” said Anthony Welby in a Facebook post.

Friends of Anzac Memorial Pool president Jann Edwards, who led the campaign to save the venue before it was demolished a day after the Department of Environment and Science recommended it for heritage listing, welcomed Ms Blackburn’s election as a return to more open community consultation.

She said she believed Ms Blackburn would bring with her “transparency and accountability”.

These concerns resonated with a poll conducted by this publication during the campaign asking readers to nominate the issues they wanted council to focus on as a priority.

Transparency was the top-rated issue, nominated by 28 per cent of respondents, followed by reducing rates.

Both concerns were key aspects of Ms Blackburn’s election platform, with the freshly minted mayor saying the result was a rebuke of the previous council by voters.

Helen Blackburn said her convincing victory was a rebuke of the previous council by voters.

“I think it comes down to the three things that people have been saying over and over and over again to myself and other candidates, and that is that they want transparency, accountability and community consultation,” Ms Blackburn said on Sunday, the day after polls closed.

“And that’s not what they were getting, so I think the mandate is there for a new council to come together and provide that to the community.”

Mr Dempsey was not available comment, and by Wednesday he had removed his Facebook page entirely.

Jack For Hinkler

After a landslide victory in 2016, and a convincing win over Ms Blackburn in the 2020 mayoral election, the first chinks in Mr Dempsey’s armour began to appear in the context of his failed run as the Member for Hinkler in the 2022 federal election.

About one year prior to the May 2022 election, Mr Dempsey created a highly paid role for his chief of staff, former council executive officer of communications and editor of council-owned website Bundaberg Now Michael Gorey.

The first chinks in Mr Dempsey’s armour began to appear in the context of his failed run as the Member for Hinkler in the 2022 federal election, when it was revealed his chief of staff was involved in his election campaign.

Suspicions that Mr Gorey was involved in Mr Dempsey’s campaign, possibly in contravention of legislation precluding a councillor adviser from any activity relating to a councillor’s campaign for re-election, were confirmed when it was revealed that he had registered the Jack For Hinkler campaign website more than 12 months before Mr Dempsey announced his intention to run in the May 2022 election.

Mr Gorey said at the time that his involvement was done “in his own time” and “with his own resources”.

The presence of Mr Gorey returned during the recent campaign when Australian Securities and Investments Commission records surfaced showing Mr Gorey, who had donated $500 as an in-kind gift for web hosting services for Mr Dempsey’s campaign website, was still registered as the primary contact for Bundaberg Now.

Mr Dempsey described the claim, first raised by Marc Hummer from the Bundaberg Regional Ratepayers Association, as a “media stunt”, and referred to his own claims that Ms Blackburn was still president of the BRRA according to Office of Fair Trading documents.

“This petty claim based on an administrative oversight is a media stunt and I hope the media who think this is newsworthy also report Ms Blackburn’s leadership of BRRA and her connection to Mr Hummer,” Mr Dempsey said.

Council said that the failure to remove Mr Gorey from the ASIC listing was an oversight following his resignation from council in August 2022, but memories of Mr Dempsey’s federal tilt were piqued when Mr Gorey’s replacement, Amber Lutter was seen accompanying Mr Dempsey during the 2024 campaign.

Michael Gorey's replacement, Amber Lutter, was seen supporting Mr Dempsey during the 2024 campaign, which Mr Dempsey said was done on her own time.

When asked if receiving assistance from Ms Lutter could have potentially been in breach of the same legislation potentially infringed by her predecessor, Mr Dempsey used the same “in his own time” explanation.

“Like anyone that goes on leave, it’s up to them how they choose to use their time,” he said.

Bundaberg Aquatic Centre

More than any other issue, voters’ memories of the demolition of Anzac Pool to make way for the $76m Bundaberg Aquatic Centre was the cornerstone of views of Mr Dempsey’s council as being characterised by a lack of transparency and community consultation.

Statements by CEO Steve Johnston in November 2023 that he had not needed council’s approval to proceed with the demolition of Anzac Pool appeared to contradict his claims made while the demolition was underway that councillors had approved the demolition.

Voters’ memories of the demolition of Anzac Pool to make way for the $76m Bundaberg Aquatic Centre was the cornerstone of views of Mr Dempsey’s council as being characterised by a lack of transparency and community consultation.

Heritage advocates including Ms Edwards were incensed when, soon after the start of the campaign, Dempsey ally Jason Bartels said the pool was “ageing infrastructure” that “was never going to meet the criteria for heritage listing”.

His claim appeared to directly contradict a letter obtained by former councillor Mary Walsh, a vocal critic of Mr Dempsey, from the department of environment and science explicitly recommending to the heritage council that Anzac Pool be entered in the heritage register as a state heritage place.

Jason Bartels’ claim directly contradicted a letter obtained by former councillor Mary Walsh from the department of environment and science explicitly recommending to the heritage council that Anzac Pool be entered in the heritage register as a state heritage place.

Ms Blackburn kept transparency on the agenda during the campaign when she claimed the popular Rowers on the River function centre was earmarked for demolition in order to make way for the state government’s East Bundaberg Flood Levee project.

“The community is feeling there’s a distinct lack of transparency here,” Ms Blackburn said.

“It’s shrouded in secrecy at the moment, it’s another one of those things that we have no transparency around what would happen to the building.”

Helen Blackburn kept issues of transparency and community consultation on the agenda when claiming the popular Rowers on the River function centre was earmarked for demolition.

Council and Mr Dempsey denied that there were any plans to demolish the building, but the damage to Mr Dempsey’s electoral prospects was seemingly done through the reaffirmation of failures around transparency and community consultation.