Flashback: Five of the Gold Coast’s most colourful political players

The Gold Coast has had more than its fair share of colourful politicians and would-be politicians down the years — we recall five of the standouts

The late Brian ‘Shep’ Shepherd, a mayoral aspirant at Surfers Paradise back in 2004. Picture: Paul Riley

IT’S been a big two weeks in politics, with a new Prime Minister, new ministers and lots of change in the nation’s capital.

And the Gold Coast has done well, with three members in the ministry pool and a renewed focus on securing funding for the light rail’s second stage.

It’s serious stuff but the Gold Coast is a city known for its unique, larger-than-life political characters who had lit up the scene and are remembered decades later.

Brian Shepherd

Shep, as he was known to friends, became known as the “mayor with flair who never got there” because of his seven attempts to enter City Hall between the mid-1980s and early 2000s.

The colourful event promoter and Surfers Paradise Chamber of Commerce boss was known for carrying his own soapbox to stand upon while campaigning.

He was known for declaring “I’ve never seen the world looking so bright” and was a popular sight on the Coast for many decades.

Mr Shepherd’s final tilt at City Hall occurred in 2000 when he was defeated by incumbent Gary Baildon. He died in late 2013 after a long period of illness. News_Image_File: Former Gold Coast councillor Kerry Smith (right) and her daughter Mia.

Kerry Smith

Few councillors are better remembered than lawyer-turned-politician Kerry Smith.

The eccentric Kerry attempted to enter politics in the late 1980s on an anti-monorail platform but was finally elected in 1991.

She was a close ally of Southport’s Dawn Crichlow and the pair were known for their antics, including buying then-mayor Lex Bell a pet pig named Oink. Kerry even bought a rabbit during a trip to Canberra with Cr Crichlow and brought it back to the Gold Coast in violation of existing laws.

Despite police threatening to charge her, Kerry was able to keep the rabbit by negotiating for it to be used by a Broadbeach school for educational purposes.

Kerry left office in 1994 and is today understood to live overseas, still in contact with Cr Crichlow as recently as this week. News_Image_File: John Bradford MP for McPherson pictured in 1998. Picture: David/Crosling.

John Bradford

Federal Gold Coast MPs are almost all uniformly members of the Coalition and initially John Bradford was no exception.

John was elected in 1990 to replace Peter White as the MP for McPherson and served through the Liberal Party’s early 1990s nadir in opposition under the leaderships of John Hewson, Alexander Downer and eventually John Howard.

However, following Howard’s 1996 election win, Bradford fell out with the prime minister and resigned from the Liberal Party in 1998 to join the Christian Democrats.

He promptly lost the 1998 election and was last seen in 2008 contesting the Gold Coast mayoralty.News_Image_File: Elvis impersonator Dean Vegas said he would hang-up the jump suit if he was elected as mayor.

Dean Vegas

An Elvis impersonator for mayor?

That was the pitch Dean Vegas put forward during his three campaigns at the city’s top job between 2004 and 2012.

Dean put himself up as a serious candidate and secured a great deal of support, riding on a wave of anti-city hall sentiment. However, he has since ruled himself out from running again in 2016. News_Image_File: Christian Jocumsen.

Christian Jocumsen

For a city that has had a stripper run for mayor, it is hard to imagine anything more unusual.

But Christian Jocumsen ran for mayor multiple times through the 1990s on a nudity platform, hoping to secure 100 metres of The Spit for nude bathing.

He first attempted to seek office in 1991 but was unable to stand because he was not on the electoral roll. Mr Jocumsen made several further attempts but never won the mayoralty.