The only question that matters about Mayor Tom Tate’s security hire

There is one question that matters about news a bodyguard has been hired for Mayor Tom Tate. And it’s not the one that has got tongues wagging.

There is only one question that matters in regards to a security guard being hired to assist Mayor Tom Tate.

It’s not who is paying for him. It’s not whether he’s a long-time friend of Mayor Tate or not.

The only question that matters is why, after more than 12 years in office, this has now become a necessity.

The fact that it has speaks to a coarsening of public debate that has been bubbling up in Australia for a number of years and has reached a very public crescendo with ugly anti-Israel protests.

Social media has much to do with it, allowing a toxic brew of conspiracy theories to bubble over, even about relatively minor local matters.

It’s turbocharged up a small crackpot subset of society, the kind that screams “corruption” over every decision they don’t agree with. The kind that thinks lifesaving vaccines are being foisted upon them for sinister reasons. The kind that see police officers as some kind of nefarious agents of the deep state of their imagination. That see journalists as mouthpieces for all of the above.

A bodyguard has reportedly been hired to assist Mayor Tom Tate. Picture: Glenn Campbell.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought this poison to the surface and it has lingered ever since.

At the height of restrictions, then Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young were subject to frightening threats. A Gold Coast man was later convicted of sending multiple chilling messages, which included calling the leaders “scum” and saying he would “personally wipe you from the face of the earth.”

Worse again was the Wieambilla shootings of Constables Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow and local man Alan Dare in December 2022 by a bunch of unhinged conspiracy theorists.

Now in Sydney and Melbourne we have property being vandalised, Christmas events cancelled and protests outside synagogues by people who want to bring their views about the Middle East to the streets of Australia.

In Townsville on Saturday, two Israeli backpackers were subjected to a vile anti-Semitic rant from a shopkeeper who called one of them a “dirty, filthy, f*cking Jew”.

Tellingly, the shopkeeper appeared unrepentant when approached on the matter by reporters from the Townsville Bulletin this week. Such behaviour, it appears, is becoming normalised.

It’s terrifying and unacceptable, bringing echoes of history’s darkest days to Australia, so long happily immune from such hateful madness. Imagine how members of our Jewish community must feel in this environment?

Anti-Semitic graffiti on a car in Sydney last week. Picture: Aymon Bertah.

Now we hear that our Mayor here on the Gold Coast has been forced to take on a bodyguard due to unspecified threats.

It is dreadful that we have reached this point.

One of the many great things about Australia is the accessibility of our local politicians.

MPs, even state government ministers, can often be seen at roadsides or shopping centres, taking time to make themselves available to voters. Speak to any of them and they will say these opportunities to connect with locals are invaluable.

The darkening mood puts all of this under threat.

This column is very sorry to hear that the Mayor has been advised to take steps to ensure his safety. No issue that comes across the Mayor’s desk – or indeed that of any council figure – could possibly justify physical threats.

Who cares about the details of how the Mayor’s security is arranged. That’s a secondary concern.

What should really worry us is the trends that have made such arrangements a necessity.

Follow @keithjwoods