Mayor Tom Tate says council ready to make artificial reef work despite Government pulling out

MAYOR Tom Tate says Council is ready to make the an artificial reef work, despite a state Government move to cancel negotiations.

MAYOR Tom Tate says the council is determined to create a dive site on the Gold Coast, despite a State Government move to cancel negotiations to secure HMAS Darwin.

Councillor Tate today asked for the Palaszczuk Government to commit $8 millon to the project.

Federal MP Stuart Robert has accused the State Government of deliberately misleading the city by failing to say it was no longer interested in bidding on one of the three available frigates.

Mr Robert told the Bulletin he learned late last week that the Queensland Government had written to the Ministry of Defence to cancel the bid in January, despite ongoing lobbying in the past six months.

State Tourism Minister Kate Jones said scuttling HMAS Darwin would cost $30 million. Mr Robert said it would cost $10 million.

Cr Tate said the Gold Coast City council has committed $2 million to the project and wants the State Government to tip in $8 million.

Failing to reveal any further details on just how he plans to fund the project, Cr Tate said the project would be shovel ready.

HMAS Darwin began her final passage into Darwin Harbour on Wednesday, November 1, 2017. After 33 years of service and more than a million nautical miles, the warship has farewelled her namesake city before decommissioning. (AAP Image/Lucy Hughes Jones)

“The Government just needs to give us eight million and we will make it all happen. There are a lot of secret herbs and spices and I don’t want the colonel ringing me yet,” he said.

Mayor Tate said he did not know of the State Government’s decision to write to the Ministry of Defence in January to say it was not interested in bidding for one of of three available frigates. He blamed it as a “one-off bureaucratic bungle”.

The Mayor, who had been in discussions with Mr Robert and the State Government over the past six months, said the cancellation had not been raised by either side.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate believes an artificial reef can still be achieved off the city. Picture Glenn Hampson

“I didn’t know anything about it, otherwise I wouldn’t keep lobbying. The federal member Stuart Robert did the same, we were talking to the State Government.

“Either way, I’d rather have said what happened, if they see fit as we do in southeast Queensland that this is something we should do. It is a mere $8 million dollars,” he said.

“The way I look at it, I just want to think positive and ask her (the Premier) can we do it, can we put $8 million on?”

Mayor Tate said only the three tiers of government had been involved in the lobbying efforts.