Tom Tate’s promise to Gold Coast ratepayers: you will not have to fund this

Mayor Tom Tate is promising ratepayers they will not tip in one cent for the building of his planned oceanside cruise ship terminal after councillors expressed concerns that money could be diverted from much-needed road upgrades.

MAYOR Tom Tate is promising ratepayers they will not tip in one cent for the building of his planned oceanside cruise ship terminal.

Councillors are privately voicing concerns that money could be diverted to the special project rather than to much-needed road upgrades, as the Mayor prepares his draft budget.

But Cr Tate today said: “Ratepayers will not be asked to fund construction of our oceanside cruise terminal.

TENSIONS RISE WITH SPIT MASTERPLAN

The Spit master plan — the options report, showing the area around Sea World.

“Council officers are working on finalising our business case which will go to the State Government, once the State has finalised its Spit masterplan.”

The Government expects to complete the masterplan in July, enabling council to put up its business case for state and federal approvals.

“Once that is achieved, we will go to out with a worldwide expression of interest for a consortia to build and operate the terminal. No ratepayers’ funds will be needed for the actual construction,” Cr Tate said.

“The proponent will then enter a long-term lease with the city to operate the terminal for several decades. That’s how these projects work so I make it clear, ratepayers are not building the terminal but will be long-term beneficiaries.’’

STATE GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF JUMPING SHIP WITH CST

The oceanside CST site at Philip Park. Pic by David Clark

The costs to ratepayers to get the project shovel-ready are tipped to be $7.4 million to $10.45 million.

A confidential consultant report to council prepared in March 2017 noted the city had the cash reserves to help with some of the expenditure for construction.

But there was currently no committed finance to build the project, and some of those reports speculated on the possibility of exploring the option of a public-private partnership on the design, build and financing.

A council insider this week told the Bulletin: “Councillors are asking whether the city is putting away $400 million for the offshore cruise ship terminal, or any other project ahead of traffic solutions across the city.”

Traffic congestion at Coomera on the Pacific Motorway. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT.

However, a week after a majority of councillors failed to back up the Mayor’s congestion-busting taskforce plan, Cr Tate talked up fixing roads.

The council’s annual budget survey had been running for several weeks and people were making it clear that road congestion was the number one issue, he said.

“More than 850 have responded with the top three priorities being roads, traffic and transport,” Cr Tate said.

“I need everyone to log on and have their say as this survey plays a major part in shaping our budget.

“Councillors are also running their own social media surveys and I trust they will bring that information to the table when we discuss the 2019-2020 budget over the next three months.’’

The key challenge in delivering $1.5 billion city budget in mid-June was ensuring any state road upgrades occurred at the same time as local road upgrades, Cr Tate said.

“There is nothing worse than seeing a local road upgrade completed and traffic flowing again, only to have a state upgrade start shortly after, in the same area.’’

Cr Tate said he expected the council would spend at least $110 million on road works in 2019-2020.

The online survey is at: gchaveyoursay.com.au/budget19-20. It closes on March 15.