Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate fat shames Oxenford geese

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has weighed in on the great goose debate — calling the beloved Oxenford birds ‘fat’ — as council decides what to do with the chubby gaggle.

GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has weighed in on the great goose debate — calling the beloved Oxenford birds “fat”.

Mayor Tate has today slammed the chubby gaggle and suggested locals stop feeding them bread in order to save ratepayer dollars.

“Bread is bad for them … it can actually kill them so the simple solution is — stop feeding them bread,’’ he said.

The comments follow a council decision, announced by Councillor William Owen-Jones to remove 50 of the feral geese from the Coomera River as part of a population control measure.

ACTIVISTS PLAN TO FIGHT REMOVAL OF OXENFORD GEESE

Gold Coast Council is on a mission to rid the coomera river of geese and residents aren't happy about it. Picture: Jerad Williams

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But Cr Tate said controlling their diet could solve the issue.

“We did the same with some black swans at Robina and their numbers settled down again,” Cr Tate said.

“Bread makes the geese fat, makes them lazy and sees them breed more as they know there is an abundance of food.

“So to save ratepayers’ funds in any relocation costs, I have a simple solution — get them off the carbs.’’

The Mayor said he would contact the relevant Council directorate to seek their advice on how to best deal with the issue.

Some of the local geese. Picture: Jerad Williams

Today, council officers at a lifestyle and community committee meeting told councillors that the control measure was stopped after a directive from Mayor Tom Tate following the community campaign.

But area councillor William Owen-Jones at the meeting successfully moved that officers complete an assessment and report back to council on the health of the geese at Oxenford “to ensure that any healthy desexed birds can then been retained at the site”.

Cr Owen-Jones gained the support of all councillors including committee chairman Hermann Vorster who remarked that “its hardly a featherbrained idea”.

Unhappy resident Laura Szkoruda with some of the geese council want to get rid of. Picture: Jerad Williams

Inside the chamber, Cr Owen-Jones told councillors: “One very easy observation here is a lot of people would like us to remove all of the ibis and all of the flying foxes from the area and keep the geese. It’s very difficult to explain to people that two of those three things are actually natives.”

Cr Owen-Jones explained it was a unique situation to have non-native birds in a park.

“This is an attempt to try and strike a compromise with the local community that are partial to the geese,” he said.

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“But I think they’re very keen to make sure they’re actually a healthy flock. I think they actually appreciate the fact that brother and sister geese should not be mating together over a long period of time.

“So the only way you can avoid that is by desexing them. I’m suggesting we should seek advice from the officers on the most prudent way forward — check the health of the birds.”

The Animal Welfare League Queensland, the RSPCA and a number of Logan High Schools have all denied that they will rehome the birds despite suggestions from council that the organisations were willing to take on the gaggle.