Ratepayers to pay for US and Canadian ‘Olympic’ tour for 10 mayors

Queensland ratepayers will fork out an estimated $120,000 to send a group of mayors and an entourage on a lavish 11-day trip to the US and Canada.

Nine of the southeast Queensland mayors who will travel to Los Angeles and North America to learn about preparing for the Olympics in 2032. Photo: Supplied

Queensland ratepayers will fork out an estimated $120,000 to send a group of mayors and their entourage on a lavish 11-day trip to the US and Canada.

The Olympic fact finding mission will include mayors who railed against expensive overseas tours along with a mayor who has lost her licence for drink driving.

The group will fly to Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles, which is delivering the US’s largest mass transit system ahead of its 2028 Olympic Games.

Mayors and council representatives from Brisbane, Logan, Redland, Moreton Bay, Toowoomba, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Noosa, Sunshine Coast and Somerset will depart this week for the trip which starts on Thursday.

Only Ipswich mayor Teresa Harding declined to take part in the international tour, which has raised concerns about costs and outcomes from three main ratepayer groups and community associations across the southeast.

Ms Harding claimed she could save ratepayer money by “zooming” into various events.

“Ipswich has been through a tumultuous and unique journey in the past, one that was recounted last year through extensive media coverage of the previous council’s international travel,” Ms Harding said.

“Therefore, I made a personal decision not to travel to North America at this time as I felt the Ipswich community may not be ready for this just yet.

 “As a member of the Council of Mayors (SEQ), the City of Ipswich will reap the benefits of this delegation whether we are physically present or not.”

Ipswich mayor Teresa Harding was the only SEQ mayor not to take up the US tour invitation claiming the objectives could be achieved from home. Photo: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier-Mail

SEQ Council of Mayors, a civic body funded by rates from 11 councils, organised the tour for the group which will also include other council officials, to strengthen ties with the US and pick up tips on preparing for the Olympics, set to be held in Brisbane in nine years.

The Council of Mayors said the aim was to assess better transport connectivity ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games along with waste and housing solutions.

A Council of Mayors (SEQ) spokesman said none of the delegation was travelling first class.

Cheap business-class return tickets from Brisbane to Los Angeles cost about $11,677.

The average price of a night’s hotel accommodation in Los Angeles is AUD $200.

“The SEQ Council of Mayors is covering the majority of travel costs for elected members and Council of Mayors (SEQ) officers, estimated at approximately $120,000 for the entire 11-day mission,” the spokesman said.

SEQ Council of Mayors said the trip was a good opportunity to see how host cities were using the Games to deliver long-term advantages for residents and “more importantly, the things they would do differently”.

But Logan mayor Darren Power, who took a hard line stance on overseas trips during his 2020 election campaign, backflipped on his foreign flights policy and will join the tour, according to a spokesman from the Council of SEQ Mayors.

An SEQ Council of Mayors spokesman said Logan mayor Darren Power, who has railed against foreign trips, will be going on the tour. Photo: Courier-Mail

Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio was granted an additional budget, believed to be more than $10,000, to go on the trip, which he said would help southeast Queensland address its population growth and housing affordability crisis.

Redland Mayor Karen Williams was also granted an additional $2000 to join the group, despite being kicked off the Olympic 2032 organising committee last year after pleading guilty to high-range drink driving and crashing a luxury council vehicle.

In December, her council voted to pay the extra $2000 and to extend her US tour by an additional 3400km stop-off to the North Carolina city of Charlotte to visit the U.S. National Whitewater Centre.

Redland council said while in Charlotte, Ms Williams would get a briefing on an emergency services swift water rescue facility ahead of the delegation.

Redland mayor Karen Williams was granted an extension to the North America trip and an additional $2000. Photo: Supplied

“These facilities are global leaders in their respective uses and forming relationships with their operators will provide exciting opportunities for the Redlands Coast white water facility being delivered in Birkdale,” Ms Williams said.

It will be the first overseas trip for Ms Williams since she lost her driver’s licence in August last year after blowing a 0.177 blood alcohol concentration and was barred from leaving the state without permission from the parole office.

Ms Williams, who is expected to regain her driver’s licence this week, is unlikely to be driving while in the US and must have an alcohol ignition interlock device fitted to any vehicle she drives for the next five years.

In San Francisco, the group is expected to visit the manufacturing and test flight facilities of the Boeing-backed WISk Aero company, which already signed a deal with the council of mayors when it showed off its fifth-generation autonomous self-driving air taxis in Brisbane in July last year.

A WISk Aero taxi.

Logan Ratepayers Association president Rod Shaw said the trip was an expensive and futile exercise.

“We can learn nothing from the governance of cities in the US who, with a few exceptions, are wracked by civil disobedience, a breakdown in law and order and homelessness on a grand scale,” he said.

“The streets of San Francisco are an eyesore with homeless people occupying vast areas of the city.

“If Logan council believes it needs some guidance on how to govern its city, it would better spend some time in Singapore instead.”

Other critics of the international trip lodged their concerns on the page of Redlands2030 claiming Redland ratepayers, who already pay the highest rates and charges in southeast Queensland, could not afford to build a $90 million Olympic white water rafting venue.

They also complained that delegates would be able to get detailed information about waste management and housing solutions via online meetings, saving ratepayer money.