Gold Coast Mayor a no-show after big Comm Games boast

Just days after announcing a bold bid to host the next Comm Games, the Gold Coast Mayor made a mysterious last-minute withdrawal from a media conference with the Premier to promote the Brisbane Olympics.

Just days after announcing a bold bid to host the next Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has made a mysterious last-minute withdrawal from a media conference with the Premier to promote the Brisbane Olympics.

Councillor Tate sent the sporting landscape into meltdown on Thursday when he offered to step in and salvage the 2026 Commonwealth Games after Victoria’s farcical withdrawal.

However, his plan, which would rely on support from the State and Federal governments, has not been embraced by either level of government.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate earlier in the week. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Cr Tate was due to speak at a media conference on the Gold Coast on Saturday to mark the nine-year countdown to the 2032 Olympics, but his mysterious absence triggered a flood of questions about his Commonwealth Games proposal.

A spokesman for Cr Tate said the Mayor was a “late withdrawal” due to a massive workload since arriving back in Australia on Wednesday and insisted it had nothing to do with the Commonwealth Games controversy.

Asked why the Mayor was not at the media event, which unveiled the Olympic Rings and the Paralympic Agitos logos, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said “you can ask him”.

“I don’t run his schedule,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said she had not spoken to Cr Tate since he announced his play for the Commonwealth Games, but she emphatically shot down the proposal.

“Everyone shares Tom’s enthusiasm for the Gold Coast and he is very passionate about this city and the opportunities for this city,” she said.

“However, there is no appetite in the State government or the Federal government to do another Commonwealth Games here.

“We are 100 per cent focused on the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“It is absolutely not possible (to stage the 2026 Commonwealth Games).”

Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe echoed Ms Palaszczuk’s comments.

“I was with Tom Tate on the gold coast yesterday and made it clear to him that we’ve got a really amazing event, a global event these Olympic and Paralympic games in 2032 that were 100% concentrated on,” Mr Hinchliffe said.

“Frankly I agree with the Deputy Mayor Donna Gates on the Gold Coast where she said earlier on Tuesday that the idea of trying to pick up the games was ludicrous.

“She said quite sensibly that it’s too late for us to try and pick up the pieces and pull this all together.

“I understand Tom’s enthusiasm, he’s always been a great booster for the Gold Coast but I said to him directly yesterday that this isn’t on.

“A larger event, a mega event like the Commonwealth Games at such short notice it not going to be done the way we would want to see it done, the way we did do it in 2018.

“I’ve got to make sure that we are focused on what we should deliver and can deliver as part of our commitments to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic games.

“Adding a last minute, hobbled together Commonwealth Games is not that.

“Having been a Commonwealth Games minister, playing the role that I’m playing now in supporting the government in delivering the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2032, I know the difference between these major events.

“They are worlds apart.

“I think anyone who suggests that what’s happened in Victoria in the last week has an impact on what we’re doing with the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic games simply doesn’t understand how this works.”