The ten Gold Coast political controversies of 2018 is a theme park roller coaster ride
Controversy has been at every corner of the Gold Coast this year, from the feud of Black Swan Lake to a nine-month-old baby’s death to the sale of the Bruce Bishop car park. Here are the Coast’s top ten political controversies.
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HOW did the Gold Coast rate in 2018 regarding political controversy?
The year started with a political bombshell following revelations of the Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into the Gold Coast City Council. Controversy was at every corner.
Councillors argued about the filling in of Black Swan Lake, the sale of the Bruce Bishop car park and use of public land by the State Government to progress a planned casino resort.
The discovery of a body of a nine-month-old baby on a Surfers Paradise beach put the spotlight on the Department of Child Safety. Police had to defend budget cutbacks and staffing levels.
Federal MP Stuart Robert made a comeback only to be in the headlines about expenses.
The year ended as it had begun — a complaint which divided the council.
THE CRIME AND CORRUPTION COMMISSION INVESTIGATION
In March, The Bulletin reveals the CCC is investigating six matters relating to Mayor Tom Tate.
The probe includes allegations of conflicts of interest, misuse of authority, and making false and misleading comments over issues including the sale of council-owned Bruce Bishop carpark in Surfers Paradise and the filling in of Black Swan Lake at Bundall to provide extra parking for the Gold Coast Turf Club.
One complaint alleges Cr Tate failed to fully disclose a material personal interest involving the Waterglow high rise development on the Surfers Paradise Bowls Club site owned by his companies.
Council chief executive Dale Dickson’s recent contract extension and his role in the proposed sale of council land next to bowls club to the Tate group is also under scrutiny.
Cr Tate vowed to clear his name saying the allegations were “fallacy and fantasy”. Mr Dickson said he would “welcome an independent investigation regarding my personal conduct by the CCC”.
TOM TATE AND DAWN CRICHLOW FIGHT ABOUT A SOUTHPORT CASINO
In September, The Bulletin revealed Southport was the State Government’s favoured location for the $1 billion Gold Coast Tourism Hub.
Carey Park in front of Australia Fair was a leading potential site.
Mayor Tom Tate flagged a casino in this area — much of it is a car park — in 2017 after the Government rejected ASF’s plans for an integrated resort on The Spit.
But area councillor Dawn Crichlow and a protest group successfully opposed it, citing the long-term leases for the bowls and croquet clubs.
In late November, councillors led by William Owen-Jones sought to prevent the Government from developing such publicly-owned land for the GTH. Consider private land, they said.
But a majority backed the government on moving forward with the second casino licence — a backflip on the Southport position.
This time round Cr Crichlow only gained support from councillors Owen-Jones, Glenn Tozer, Gary Baildon, Kristyn Boulton, Daphne McDonald and Peter Young.
It is the first time Labrador-based councillor Boulton, who has several clubs in her division, has joined councillors voting against the Mayor.
BLACK SWAN LAKE
Residents protested outside full council meetings during 2018 in a bid to get councillors to overturn their decision to allow the Gold Coast Turf Club to fill in the “borrow pit”.
The Bulletin in February revealed the Turf Club would be required to pay the city council just $1 a year under a licence deal to use the area once it was filled in.
Cr Crichlow later admitted she would have changed her vote on filling in the lake had she known.
Surfers Paradise-based councillor Gary Baildon had previously convinced a majority of councillors — including his Southport colleague — that the lake needed to be filled in for extra parking for the Gold Coast Show Society.
By early December the trucks began arriving again and much of the lake was filled in.
Two men and a woman were arrested during a protest as they managed to run through the opened gates.
The issue continues to divide the community. Supporters said the lake was not toxic and it supported numerous species of birds. Death threats were made to Turf Club leaders.
Mayor Tate said he was considering legal advice, alleging a racist slur was made against him on a community group’s Facebook page.
At the last council meeting a packed gallery of residents turned their back on him during his mayoral address.
Outside the meeting, he was dismissive of their efforts. “Mate, there’s 40 people (protesting). There’s 600,000 people (living in the city) now,” he said.
POLITICAL SILENCE AFTER DEATH OF NINE-MONTH-OLD BABY GIRL
In November, The Bulletin reveals police calls to Child Safety went silent in the lead-up to the body of a nine-month-old baby being found washed ashore at Surfers Paradise.
The shocking discovery has the city asking questions of itself. Who was responsible? How could this have been prevented?
A Bulletin investigation tracked the lead-up to the baby’s death, how DOCS ignored repeated police calls for back-up forcing officers transferring the youngster and her family across the border.
Only hours later the baby was allegedly tossed in the Tweed River by her father. Her body washed up on Surfers Paradise beach two days later.
Despite police elevating the urgency of the case, DOCS only listed it as “concerned inquiry of the child”.
A probe on the Department found more than 40 children were left to fend for themselves in volatile families because Child Safety kept their files with staff who had left DOCS years ago.
In this political storm, with calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Child Safety Minister Di Farmer remained silent.
The Premier when asked a series of questions cited child protection laws and the continuing investigation by NSW police.
COP THIS AND COP THAT
In October, during fiery parliamentary sessions about policing on the Gold Coast, the Opposition accused the Government of being “caught out on a big lie”.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Police Minister Mark Ryan were accused of broken promises and revelations the Coast has been short-changed 88 cops.
With an election looming a year ago, when the Bulletin was running its Grim Blue Line series on police numbers, the Premier promised the Coast would get 44 additional officers.
The Coast district police allocation in June 2016 was 886. That figure dropped to 846 in June last year and dipped again to 841 just six months ago. The Premier told parliament during Question Time the number was now 842.
“They have been caught out on a big lie,” Mudgeeraba MP and LNP frontbencher Ros Bates said.
The Bulletin learned the police budget was to be cut with some funds shifted to Logan. The city’s top officer was transferred to Brisbane to fill a gap.
The reporting has caused anger among the city’s top police who have gone to lengths to say numbers have increased when considering “approved strength” and all the back-up squads were included.
Mr Ryan said the approved strength of the Gold Coast police force was 1015 and “the actual number is around 1054”.
Mr Ryan said Labor’s election commitment for 44 extra police was across four years.
“We keep our commitments. And over four years the officers will be delivered here.”
PHONE HOME STUART ROBERT
In August, newly minted Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert hit back at “smears” and told The Bulletin he was fully prepared for his new role.
The Fadden MP has been recalled to the ministry by Prime Minister Scott Morrison more than two years after being sacked by the then-PM Malcolm Turnbull over his alleged links to China.
“I don’t come to this blind, I’ve got a strong running start coming from business and spending the past few years reading all of our treaties,” Mr Robert said.
But Gold Coast-based Labor Senator Murray Watt questioned Mr Morrison for reviving his friend’s career.
“I was a bit surprised to see Stuart Robert back in the ministry, given how scandal-prone he has been over the years.
“But he is Scott Morrison’s flatmate in Canberra, they are very close friends and I think again that is a good example of Scott Morrison just repaying close friends rather than looking for the best talent,” he said.
Two months later Mr Robert was making headlines for charging taxpayers an average of close to $2000 a month to cover his Gold Coast home’s internet bill.
His monthly bills were 20 times higher than the average cost of data provided to other politicians’ homes, averaging $1845 during the latest six months of expenses.
He later said he had repaid $37,975 of “excess usage charges” in home internet bills footed by taxpayers.
ROCKY LIGHT RAIL ROAD FOR MICHAEL HART
In September, Burleigh MP Michael Hart is missing from state parliament. The Bulletin reveals he is on a pre-booked holiday in Canada, on a railway trip.
State Development Minister Cameron Dick calls on “Rocky Mountains” Hart to resign. Colleague Mark Bailey tweets a mock-up postcard.
The Transport minister said the LNP was in disarray on whether light rail should go south to the airport and now in turmoil because Mr Hart was “holidaying in the Rocky Mountains”. “Arrogant, lazy, betrayed his constituents. He should resign,” he tweeted.
Mr Hart had responded to the Bulletin by texting “no comment mate”.
Fast forward to December, light rail surveying showing residents wanting it go south to Burleigh and the airport, and Mr Bailey takes another swipe.
Mr Hart accuses him of spreading “bullshit” about him pushing for a light rail route that would help his business interests and mates.
“This is bullshit Bailey used about me with the brewery. It’s just absolute crap!
“I’ve been talking about light rail going in that direction (heading west to Varsity Lakes) for 12 years. This is absolute crap.”
Mr Hart during a Twitter war of words accuses Mr Bailey of being involved in the preselection of Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon, the Minister’s partner.
Ms Scanlon who maintains she got preselection on her own merits says Mr Hart is playing personal gutter politics.
MAYOR FOUND GUILTY OF MISCONDUCT
In March, The Bulletin in a report only reveals hinterland-based councillor Glenn Tozer moved that the CEO, Dale Dickson, provide a preliminary assessment of the complaint to the Local Government Director-General.
A month earlier, Cr Tate had successfully stripped Cr Tozer of a council allowance to complete a business degree, saying it “did not pass the pub test”.
Cr Tate raised the issue at full council and gained majority support from councillors despite several colleagues backing the Mudgeeraba-based councillor.
Councillor Tate told councillors that the study of the MBA course at Bond University should not be reimbursable expenditure under the provisions for the Mayor and councillors. He later launches a fresh attack on Facebook.
The Bulletin in December reveals a tribunal found the Mayor guilty of misconduct after it ruled his comments about Cr Tozer were not honest or impartial.
Writing on his Facebook page on February 28, Cr Tate accused Cr Tozer of not being transparent about a Master of Business Administration at a Gold Coast university, alleging ratepayers were funding most of it.
The post included “as the pub testers would say ‘Stop the rorts!’” and “it’s another nose in the trough by a politician”.
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But the tribunal, which interviewed the Mayor and Cr Tozer and also considered comments by Cr Tate at a full council meeting, found “the allegation of misconduct is sustained”.
“On the whole of evidence before it, the Tribunal is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Cr Tate’s conduct in placing Facebook posts was not honest and not impartial,” the tribunal’s finding said.
“His description of the conduct on those posts, his failure to inform the public that Cr Tozer’s claim was within the budget allocation advised to him as available and his failure to inform that it was approved by the CEO within the terms of Expenses policy, demonstrate this failure of honesty and impartiality,’’ it said.
The Mayor has to attend counselling and pay a fine of $1250 to the council.
“I still vehemently disagree with the tribunal’s findings,” he said.
MARK BAILEY, MEAGHAN SCANLON AND THE ROMANCE OF THE M1
The Bulletin in September, after some persuasion, got this private couple to reveal their start.
Mark Bailey is the State’s Transport Minister who represents the South Brisbane electorate of Miller. Meaghan Scanlon at 24 last year became Queensland’s youngest female MP after winning the Coast marginal seat of Gaven.
Their lives divided by the M1 which Ms Scanlon needs to be upgraded to hold her marginal seat.
“We met in Broadbeach. I was born on the Gold Coast, at Broadbeach in Moana Park. It’s funny. I went to Broadbeach State School. We were meeting with a range of other people in a cafe there,” Mr Bailey said.
This was in 2016, a work visit to the Coast, and the conversation just flowed, neither having met before being in the same Labor Left faction.
“I was a lawyer at that time. I was working at the firm,” Ms Scanlon adds, recalling that their relationship got off to an easy, casual start.
“We saw each other again at a function, and we started talking more to each other there. I certainly noticed Meaghan there,” Mr Bailey said.
In December in their respective roles they were visiting work sites on the M1 upgrade between Mudgeeraba and Varsity. The Minister who loves road works mentions to Ms Scanlon that at the next site they will see some “extraction”.
Ms Scanlon has been most outspoken on social issues like abortion and disabilities.
Machinery is removing bridges and pushing gravel to create foundations for new pylons. He is taking photographs. She smiles at him. They are respectful of each other and their passions.
LNP LEADER DEB FRECKLINGTON AND THE BROADWATER SHARK
Deb Frecklington as the new leader of the Opposition visited the Gold Coast as early as February this year.
She talked about growing up attending a country school, later boarding school and joked about being a female working as a mens’ suitor in her first job.
Her background and everything about her personality suggests this is not a politician the LNP will need to hide away when campaigning on the road.
But her appointment made significant changes in the pecking order of LNP on the Coast.
Cancel leadership aspirations for John-Paul Langbroek and Rob Molhoek, who is being dogged by his links to natural therapies company which the tax office continues to chase. Meanwhile Ray Stevens, who was close to Tim Nicholls, remains on the sidelines.
Ros Bates who is the party’s main attack dog in the parliament is the Coast LNP leader.
Then there is David Crisafulli, who removed sitting MP Verity Barton in the preselection battle for Broadwater.
So in the final session of parliament, where not much Gold Coast is being discussed, the Government use Mr Crisafulli as bait by focusing on leader Ms Frecklington’s future.
Mr Crisafulli declines to comment after the Government’s two parliamentary attack dogs — Kate Jones and Cameron Dick — continued to taunt him about his leadership ambitions.
Ms Jones says: “He only has one thing on his Christmas wish list: ‘If only I could be leader.’ He is working on it. We know it.”
Mr Crisafulli does not have the numbers, and the numbers are not been counted. And the Opposition reacted a little too much to the story.
But the MP jokingly referred to as “the shark” needs to be watched, carefully.
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