Meet the city’s top lobbyist and PR consultant who secretly guided the winners in the council poll

LNP donation queen Simone Holzapfel was the secret campaign manager of the Gold Coast council campaigns for Mayor Tom Tate, Gary Baildon and several other council candidates.

Simone Holzapfel of PR company SHAC in Labrador.

DEVELOPER lobbyist Simone Holzapfel was the campaign manager of the Gold Coast council campaigns for Mayor Tom Tate, Gary Baildon and several other council candidates, it can be revealed.

The Gold Coast Bulletin can also reveal Ms Holzapfel, who personally provided $114,000 in payments to Stuart Robert’s Fadden Forum in the 2013 federal campaign, continues to provide donations to the LNP.

The Shac Communications director and lobbyist is linked to the city’s biggest developments having worked for Sunland, the ASF consortium involved in the Broadwater cruise ship terminal, the Jewel developers and Sheraton Mirage owners.

Mayor Tom Tate with chief-of-staff Wayne Moran and media adviser Simone Holzapfel in the Mayors office.

Rival candidates who lost to Mr Baildon in the fiercely fought Division 7 poll have called on him, Cr Tate and others to remove themselves from voting on Sunland’s controversial Mariner’s Cove twin towers development.

After a 20-year-old political career which included being an adviser to former prime minister Tony Abbott along with Cr Tate, Ms Holzapfel remains furious about being painted as a major backroom player on the Glitter Strip.

Under the existing disclosure rules for council polls, none of the details of Ms Holzapfel’s connections need be revealed.

She has stated she provided the $114,000 from her personal pocket and not from developers for the 2013 federal election to the Fadden MP’s fund to ensure two marginal seats were won by the Liberals.

Sunland’s planned Mariner’s Cove development is yet to be voted on by councillor after dividing voters and candidates during the recent poll.

Ms Holzapfel told the Gold Coast Bulletin: “I’m a person that doesn’t need to be a millionaire. I want to see the best happen for my city and my country. I’ve donated to the party since then. I’m a regular donor.

“My question is: What’s wrong with that? I’m entitled under the law to donate to Liberal Party and any party of my choosing. This demonising of people who donate to the Liberal Party is unfair.”

Former city councillor Susie Douglas and fellow Division 7 candidate Brooke Patterson believe Cr Baildon, Cr Tate and other successful candidates linked to Ms Holzapfel such as new councillor Kristyn Boulton should remove themselves from the Sunland vote.

Ms Holzapfel has had a long-term friendship with Ms Boulton, a former LNP staffer who won Division 4 after obtaining $30,000 from the Fadden Forum provided by Mr Robert, who was her ex-boss.

Updated artists impressions of ASF consortiums plans for the Wavebreak Island cruise ship terminal.

Rival Division 4 candidate Eddy Sarroff last night said the result could have been much different because the LNP was “on the nose” in Biggera Waters or Labrador due to the cruise ship terminal debate.

“Kristyn Boulton’s election result in those areas would have been significantly less had she disclosed $30,000 received from the LNP,” he said.

Ms Douglas told the Gold Coast Bulletin: “I believe any councillor who obtained services from this consultant are compromised. They shouldn’t vote (on these developments) if they have a perceived conflict of interest.”

Cr Baildon stormed off stage during a community meeting after Ms Patterson quizzed him publicly about Sunland and the connections of his campaign manager with the developer.

“I highlighted this during the campaign. It was a concern,” Ms Patterson said last night.

The Gold Coast Bulletin is not suggesting any wrongdoing by Ms Holzapfel from donating funds to the Liberal Party or by working for developers and candidates.

Former Mayor Gary Baildon leaving the community meeting after rival Brooke Patterson asked about the donations to his campaign.

She confirmed working for Cr Baildon and Cr Tate but would not divulge her other council clients.

“I provided advice to a number of people on a commercial basis. That’s for them to say. I can provide my services on a commercial basis,” she said.

Cr Baildon in his funding disclosures has listed $6300 in donations which had included $800 from close friend Frank Goldstein and $5500 from his son Andrew.

Under the Electoral Commission of Queensland requirements for disclosure, he and other candidates do not have to provide details of their spending, which would include the hiring of consultants.

Rivals in the campaign say the Baildon camp launched a “sophisticated” technical blitz in the final 48 hours of the campaign which included text messaging and home telephone alerts to voters in his division.

Riding's proposed $900 million tri-tower project, Jewel, which is planned for Surfers Paradise. Supplied by Ridong

Cr Baildon last night was furious about his family name being dragged into the dispute after “living an honest life”.

“My family has known the Holzapfels for probably 50 years. My wife Kathy’s sister taught Simone at school,” he said. “I don’t see how I have a conflict. Every item that comes before council, if I perceive I have a conflict of interest I will abstain from voting, naturally.”

Cr Tate said he and fellow councillors had an obligation to declare any real, or perceived, conflict of interest on any matter.

“I have been doing that and I will continue to do that. I will always pursue what’s in the best interests for our city,” he said.

Managing the big end of town

SIMONE Holzapfel is at the coalface, putting on a positive spin for the city’s most controversial developers and smoothing out the biggest development disputes.

The lobbyist details registered by her Shac Communications company with the State Government show 13 heavyweight companies on her books in the past three years.

Her listed clients include Wanda Ridong (Gold Coast Development) Pty Ltd, which is building the luxurious $1 billion, three-tower Jewel project at Surfers Paradise.

Last August, Pearls Australasia, owner of Sheraton Mirage and MiiGroup Holdings, retained the services of Shac.

Global Road Technology had become a client in 2013.

By February this year the Coast men who head the Australian company that owns the resort were fighting tax bills worth more than $2 million as their former colleagues in India battled allegations of a $10 billion Ponzi scheme fraud.

Global Road Technology, which had helped create the joint venture with Pearls, was dumped as jersey sponsor of the Gold Coast Titans after defaulting on a six-figure contract.

Ms Holzapfel continues to be the contact point for media obtaining comment from the ASF consortium as it negotiates with the State Government on a hotel-casino development at The Spit.

This, along with the Sunland development at Mariner’s Cove, will determine future heights of buildings in the previously three-level Main Beach commercial and tourism area.

Before resigning from the city council in February 2013, Ms Holzapfel had worked in the office of chief executive Dale Dickson, focusing on major projects including the cultural precinct, city brand, Vision 2020 and the Broadwater Marine Project.

By late 2014, Ms Holzapfel began receiving paid services from ASF as it planned to roll out a new round of community consultation for the Wavebreak Island project.

She told the Gold Coast Bulletin at the time: “I don’t believe there is any conflict of interest, it’s a very transparent process.”

Behind Holzapfel’s rise to Coast power player

SIMONE Holzapfel is from old Southport stock and her two loves are the Liberal Party and this city.

Her family are established Gold Coasters.

Her dad Trevor has known Gary and Kathy Baildon for more than 50 years.

Born in 1972, Ms Holzapfel graduated from St Hilda’s school, then went to Bond University.

She is from a generation of young Coast conservatives who maintain friendships.

She moved interstate and built a CV and a 20-year political career which included eight years as a strategy adviser to Tony Abbott.

She returned to the Coast 12 years ago to be with family and created Shac Communications with public relations consultant Astra Ciobo.

Two years later Ms Ciobo sold out of the company to help her husband, Steve, as campaign manager for a federal election in the Coast seat of Moncrieff.

In 2008 Ms Holzapfel was press secretary for Tom Tate, then a Surfers Paradise businessman, who had assembled the first Liberal team to stand in local government elections.

Ms Holzapfel gained huge knowledge of the development industry after being appointed corporate affairs manager for Leighton Contractors, where she directed the communications strategy for the mining and construction giant.

In 2012 she and her team were considered to be a key factor in Cr Tate’s election victory as mayor of the city.

She worked for Cr Tate as a media adviser and maintains a strong friendship with him.