Macleay Island’s Gayle Nemeth ready to crack whip and take on Redland mayor Karen Williams in 2024 race

A bay island whipmaker, who has had a ‘gut full’ of island residents being ‘screwed over’ has thrown her hat in the ring to run as Redland city’s next mayor.

Macleay Island whipmaker Gayle Nemeth, left, will take on Redland mayor Karen Williams, right, in the next local government election on March 30, 2024.

A bay island whipmaker, who has had a “gut full” of island residents being “screwed over” has thrown her hat in the ring to run as Redland city’s next mayor.

Macleay Island’s Gayle Nemeth will run as an independent candidate taking on current Mayor Karen Williams in the 2024 battle for the $192,410-a-year job.

Ms Nemeth, who has lived on the island for 36 years, claimed Redland City Council had ignored island residents and “screwed them” over promises to build safe parking at the mainland ferry terminal.

She said the final straw that prompted her to take on the challenge and join the gruelling electoral race was a council decision this week to delay building a multistorey carpark at the Weinam Creek ferry terminal until 2025.

“The car park was supposed to be built by now and yet they are still delaying and breaking promises,” Ms Nemeth said.

“The council has decided today to put a three-day limit on the designated ferry terminal parking at Moore’s Road which will mean elderly islanders will have to catch a ferry to the mainland to move their car every three days.

“The council has lied to island residents about what they were going to build and when — and have scaled down the number of parking spots to 1500 which is not even enough at the moment.

“The council is approving more and more developments on the islands but has done nothing to provide more infrastructure, such as sewerage or parking, and it is going to get worse.”

Macleay Island whipmaker Gayle Nemeth has decided to join the Redland City Council mayoral race. PHOTO: Supplied

Ms Nemeth, who headed the vocal Our Parking Spot group which lobbied for secure parking spaces at Weinam Creek ferry terminal in 2011-2015, was also the chair of the local Redland LNP branch.

She resigned from that post and later from the party after the local LNP member Peter Dowling was publicly shamed over photographs of him putting his penis in a glass of red wine.

Ms Nemeth said she was appalled that Ms Williams decided to recontest her post after her 2021 public campaign to leave her role as mayor and run as the candidate for the federal seat of Bowman.

She said if she wins and does not bring about better conditions for bay island residents in the first two years, she will not take a salary.

Whipmaker Gayle Nemeth. PHOTO: Supplied

“I was angry to hear that Karen Williams did not want the job of mayor in this term and was happy to try for a federal seat,” Ms Nemeth said.

“I will be devoted to this community and will work to ensure that Weinam Creek does not become Redland’s South Bank.

“I will also work to stop the residential development of the city’s other ferry terminal at Toondah Harbour, which will just destroy the environment and the Redlands.

“I will also work to ensure equity for the bay islands, where the council has changed the goalposts on where people can build in relation to water bores.”

The race for the city’s mayor went up a notch in January when Victoria Point resident Jos Mitchell announced she would be a contestant in the March 30 2024 contest.

It is likely that by running, Ms Nemeth will split the conservative vote which was stretched at the 2020 election when Mayor Williams was returned with a slim 0.9 per cent margin two-party preferred against Claire Richardson.