Inside story: Behind Mayor Tom Tate’s COVID-19 jab and Gold Coast’s ‘ring of steel’
What was the lead-up to Mayor Tom Tate’s call for a “ring of steel” around the Gold Coast to remove it from lockdown? This was a COVID political jab. Labor has been left stunned.
Opinion
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WHAT was the lead-up to Mayor Tom Tate’s call for a “ring of steel” around the Gold Coast to remove it from lockdown? This was a Covid political jab – and it left Labor stunned.
Early on Monday, Treasurer Cameron Dick made a brief dig about councils few picked up.
“The federal government has dug deep,” he said. “The state government has dug deep. We’ve gone into deficit and have borrowed to help. We’re looking to councils now to do their bit to help businesses in their affected Local Government Areas.”
About to attend his own media conference, Mayor Tate was fielding questions on whether he wanted the lockdown lifted for the largely Covid-free Coast.
A council insider told your columnist: “It must have been on his mind. He’s a bit frustrated about the mixed messaging between the feds and the state. He feels pressure to ease the bleeding in our business community.”
The Commonwealth’s roll-out of the vaccines has been disappointing, so too the state for maintaining hotel quarantine. Frustrated, he was stepping out of line with other councils.
Labor strategists were blindsided because only last Christmas, Cr Tate backed the government’s stance by calling out the poor social distancing on the beaches.
“We don’t want to pick a fight with him, but Tom doesn’t do anything without a reason,” a source said. “He’s far more calculating than people think. He’s giving a big middle finger.”
By Tuesday morning Annastacia Palaszczuk had called the Mayor from her hotel, and from there he pulled back on opportunities to add fuel to his stance. The ring of steel disappeared.
Early the next day the Bulletin contacted the Mayor’s office with a series of questions about what was being done with financial incentives for those impacted by Covid.
The quick response was a small business financial package would be finalised, to be ticked off by councillors. While none of this is perfect, here finally was a positive step forward.
Councillor Tate’s plan for a ring of steel was typically divisive, attracting strong support or opposition. So it is worth contemplating what might happen if he was not sitting in the mayoral chair, how his rivals would have handled the Covid health crisis.
Cr Tate’s closest rival at last year’s poll, Mona Hecke posted on Facebook her disappointment about an “uninspiring mayor who cannot articulate the importance of breathing fresh air”.
“Some critical thinking should be applied to the continued mask mandate when there are no community cases,” she recently wrote. “If it makes you feel safe, wear one but if you want to improve your health and immune system, please get out in nature and take a deep breath of glorious Gold Coast sunshine.”
Another 2020 rival, businessman Brett Lambert called for “the truth”, accusing the government of “brainwashing” people to take a vaccine to fight a “flu-like virus that is 99.94 per cent recovery in natural remedies”.
“But the vaccine is to vaccinate for a Genecide (sic) agenda ... Yes, this is a Crime against Humanity,” he wrote on social media.
Derek Rosborough, who also ran last year, emailed the media, at first questioning Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young because “she was a doctor employed by the Queensland government” and then agreeing about her being cautious on AstraZeneca for younger people.
“Working togethers (sic) actually means you ALL (sic) agree on the same treatment and absolutely when ALL (sic) in the same profession as Doctors,” he wrote.
Virginia Freebody, the mayoral candidate with the most sense of mischief, is posting about the Olympics, taking the occasional pot shot at council but still providing comic relief.
One of her posts includes a photograph of a T-shirt with the words “When this virus is over, I still want some of you to stay away from me”.
Perhaps, in the future, there is a place for personal lockdowns. Just the occasional small ring of steel around us, not from Tweed to Yatala.
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