‘Gunslinging’ watchdog destroyed mayors, says Tate

The last mayor standing after probes by Queensland’s corruption watchdog has taken aim at its chair over the human cost.

Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Alan MacSporran rode into the Gold Coast like a gunslinger out of a Hollywood western, the Gold Coast Mayor said yesterday.

In an exclusive interview with The Saturday Courier-Mail, Tom Tate said the CCC had unfairly destroyed the lives of three mayors whose cases remain unresolved.

Cr Tate was himself cleared of corruption allegations after an 18-month investigation.

He said the community had every right to question why the cases had dragged on.

Some investigations against the mayors stretched back six years, and longer, he said.

Cr Tate stressed he was not speaking on behalf of the council and was not reflecting in any way on the nature of the charges against the three.

He had no inside knowledge of the evidence, and was speaking out only because delays had caused great suffering.

He said the investigations had also claimed the marriages of two of the ex-mayors, Luke Smith from Logan City and Andrew Antoniolli from Ipswich.

A third former mayor, Allan Sutherland from Moreton Bay, was charged by the CCC with two counts of misconduct in 2019, and is still waiting for his day in court.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has come out swinging at the CCC chair.

Cr Tate said Mr Sutherland had been “around the kitchen” with the CCC several times in the past.

Those matters had been resolved in Mr Sutherland’s favour, he said.

The CCC turned up the heat on local authority figures after disgraced former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale went to jail for official corruption, extortion and perjury.

Cr Tate, 62, is still at a loss as to why the CCC came after him in the first place.

He said he was independently wealthy, so any idea he was marching around town collecting brown paper bags was implausible.

Nevertheless, Mr MacSporran had arrived on his door like “a gunslinger” and “the biggest sheriff in town”.

“(MacSporran) made a public statement saying, ‘Right, we’re coming to the Gold Coast!’, as if to make out there was something terribly wrong here,” Cr Tate said.

“It was disrespectful, not just to me but our councillors.

“I know they have to do their due diligence – but don’t boast about it.”

Cr Tate said the watchdog “had searched for a needle in a haystack and didn’t find one”.

In a report to Parliament, it concluded there was no corruption in his council.

Cr Tate said he was investigated for receiving secret commissions.

“(My wife) Ruth and I are blessed with our wealth,” he said.

“We worked hard. I am not that smart, but the ball has bounced the right way and we have made the money on the Gold Coast.”

CCC chair Alan MacSporran has brought down three southeast Queensland mayors.

He was especially concerned with the health of Mr Smith, whose case continues.

Mr Smith was elected in 2016 and dismissed with seven councillors in 2019 after he was accused of corruptly receiving a boat from a Chinese developer, SKL Cables.

At the time, the firm was seeking approvals to build a hotel at Springwood in Logan.

A hearing was told Mr Smith ran for the council on a pro-development ticket and made no secret of his desire to see a “second CBD” in northern Logan.

The Crown claims his personal enrichment from the SKL deal was the ulterior motive.

Mr Smith denies this.

“After six years under investigation, (Mr Smith’s) life is destroyed,’’ Cr Tate said.

“Justice delayed is justice denied.

“I say to the CCC: It’s time to shit or get off the pot.

“I’ll get pinged by the Office of the Independent Assessor for using that phrase, but English is my second language, and they can blame the Aussies for teaching me those words.”

Cr Tate’s mother was Thai and his father an Australian.

The OIA is a secretive state government unit that can indeed investigate “obscene or offensive language” by councillors. It has the power to refer councillors to a tribunal.

Cr Tate said he also fears for the health of Mr Antoniolli, whose conviction on fraud charges for spending council funds at charity auctions was later overturned in the District Court in Ipswich.

Former Logan mayor Luke Smith

In his appeal, Mr Antoniolli’s legal team said the purpose of the community fund was “to support a range of grants, donations, bursaries and scholarship programs for eligible community organisations”.

In his findings, Judge Dennis Lynch said the magistrate Anthony Gett erred in ignoring that Mr Antoniolli at no point acknowledged he had done anything wrong by bidding on charity auctions or supporting payments from the community fund.

Mr Antoniolli claimed it was accepted practice at the council to buy charity auction items with council donation funds, and that the spending had been authorised by two council chief executives.

Mr Antoniolli is still not in the clear, however.

The prosecution has lodged an appeal against Justice Lynch’s decision.

Mr Sutherland’s case is set to return to court in April for a directions hearing.

Mr Sutherland served as the mayor of Moreton Bay from 2008 before he was accused of wrongdoing in office and suspended.

The Courier-Mail reported one of the charges relates to a property he owns at Paradise Rd, Burpengary.

The Crime and Corruption Commission charged Cr Sutherland with two misconduct offences. He previously said he intends to fight the charges.

Former Ipswich mayor Andrew Antoniolli

Brisbane Magistrates Court was told the CCC brief against Mr Sutherland was “very complicated” and at least 16 witnesses may be called.

The Australian reported that two state cabinet ministers, Treasurer Cameron Dick and Police Minister Mark Ryan, were listed as witnesses.

Cr Tate says he will now push ahead with the development of an apartment tower on a 5000sq m block of land he owns in Surfers Paradise on the site of a defunct bowls club.

He had put the project on hold during the CCC investigations.

“I land-banked it instead of pursuing things,” he said.

“Maybe that did me a favour. Land values have skyrocketed.”

Cr Tate was about to lodge a development application for 500 apartments.

Mr MacSporran declined to be interviewed, however his spokesman said the CCC chair rejected any assertion the investigations into Cr Tate were inappropriate or disrespectful.

The spokesman confirmed the CCC investigations into Cr Tate had not identified criminal behaviour.

However it said: “The investigation identified corruption risks, and a CCC report to Parliament recommended stricter governance around the role of political advisers.”

Former Moreton Bay Mayor Allan Sutherland