MP Rob Pyne tables documents about Mayor Tom Tate four years after Gold Coast Bulletin first revealed claims

MAYOR Tom Tate has challenged independent MP Rob Pyne to air claims about his business dealings outside Parliament after the MP lodged a file filled with old claims this week.

Amanda Duncan-Strelec, pictured with husband David Strelec, left, and Tom Tate in 2005, when they were joint investors in a land development at Lavington.

MAYOR Tom Tate has challenged independent MP Rob Pyne to air claims about his business dealings outside Parliament after the MP lodged a file filled with old claims this week.

Four years after the Gold Coast Bulletin first reported on the business dealings and a court dispute involving Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate — independent MP Rob Pyne has tabled a bundle of documents in State Parliament.

Apart from a letter of complaint sent earlier this week to senior Coast police officer Brian Codd, the documents were tabled on Thursday. Mr Pyne has not addressed them.

The letter to Chief Superintendent Codd, which has the writer’s name blocked out, outlines “grave concerns” about an investigation by police on the Sunshine Coast involving Fernando Da Costa.

Queensland MP Rob Pyne dumped the documents in Parliament this week. Photo: (AAP Image/Samantha Manchee)

It warns that “unless the status of my complaint is reviewed and progressed I will be left with no alternative but to hand this complaint to the Crime and Corruption Commission and have the documents tabled in Parliament”.

Art collector Fernando Da Costa — he is mentioned in documents tabled in State Parliament relating to business dealings of Mayor Tom Tate.

The Gold Coast Bulletin, in a special investigation in July, 2013, detailed a decade-long legal drama played out in the NSW and Queensland courts where the Mayor and businesses associates including Mr Da Costa became bitter enemies.

The Gold Coast Bulletin's special investigation into the claims against Mayor Tom Tate when they were first raised back in 2013. Photo: Gold Coast Bulletin

The Gold Coast's Bulletin's special report into the claims against Mayor Tom Tate back in 2013. Photo: Gold Coast Bulletin

The report detailed how the dispute began with a failed property deal in Albury involving Councillor Tate’s former campaign manager Amanda Duncan-Strelic and her husband, David.

Several court cases about the land dispute later focused on an art deal involving a $2 million Picasso and forestry bonds worth about $1 million.

In 2014, Ms Duncan-Strelic after representing herself was found guilty of contempt of court after publishing false and defamatory allegations that Cr Tate had traded in “worthless forestry bonds”.

Judge Bergin stated that ASIC found “there was no evidence the forestry bonds constituted a Ponzi scheme”.

Art Collector Fernando Da Costa inherited an ink sketch by Pablo Picasso.

In a statement, Councillor Tate today said: “The allegations raised have been tested in the NSW Supreme Court multiple times. On each occasion, they have been proven to be false — and without substance. I invite the MP to repeat the allegations outside State Parliament so we can also test these in the Queensland courts.’’