Parents of Somerset College receive legal threats from school chairman Tony Hickey

The high-profile chairman of a top Gold Coast private school has threatened parents with legal action amid “false” accusations of a lack of transparency over the school’s $30m construction program. Read what else he said

The high-profile chairman of a top Gold Coast private school has threatened parents with legal action amid what he calls “false” accusations of a lack of transparency about the school’s $30m construction program.

Somerset College chairman and retired lawyer Tony Hickey, 68, has also written to parents, providing “facts and information” about the concerns, which he described as “false and without merit”.

A proportion of funds for Somerset’s board-approved $30 million building program were paid to Hickey family company One PM Group, for project management services.

Mr Hickey has been a director as far back as 2003.

Parents have criticised the school’s transparency, complaining about a lack of specific information on how One PM scored the contract, worth 1.75 per cent of the project cost.

Multiple Somerset parents have contacted the Bulletin directly raising concerns, providing their names but asking they be withheld from publication.

At least two parents have been slapped with legal threats in the past fortnight, with some repeating the concerns in a social media chat group.

Their concerns had also been circulated via an anonymous email which, as reported, was not viewed by Gold Coast Bulletin staff until after the story was published.

Screenshot from former Hickey Management website showing Tony Hickey, Jordan Hickey and James Davidson, now with One PM Group, which was founded by Tony Hickey.

In a new note to parents this week, Mr Hickey said the “Bulletin article of last Thursday, originated with an anonymous letter”, the note said.

Mr Hickey’s note to parents described the anonymous email as “a highly personal, slanderous and hurtful attack upon myself and my family”.

In the 1468-word email, Mr Hickey assured them the college was “governed by its Board in accordance with, among other things, its Constitution and legislative requirements”.

Somerset’s constitution, as lodged with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, says a person was only eligible for election or appointment as a director if they had not already served for four continuous terms of three years.

A letter from Scott Eustace of Hickey Lawyers in response to detailed questions for this story said: “Mr Hickey welcomes and encourages community comment and feedback through appropriate channels, which are founded in transparency”.

“As such, Mr Hickey will not engage through the media,” it said.

Somerset College Chairman Tony Hickey embraces outgoing headmaster Craig Bassingthwaighte

Somerset receives more than $16 million in government funding each year, as well as more than $30 million in fees from families and other private sources.

The college announced a school fee increase of almost 13 per cent for 2025, reaping at least an extra $3.9 million in revenue.

It’s easily the highest school fee increase of any top performing private school on the Gold Coast.