THINK TANK: Gold Coast lawyer and businessman John Witheriff shares his vision for the Gold Coast

GOLD Coast businessman and lawyer John Witheriff shares his vision for the Gold Coast which includes better public transport and beachfront dining.

John Witheriff for Think Tank Photo: Kit Wise

John Witheriff was born and raised on the Gold Coast — apart from a high school stint at Nudgee College — and he started his own law firm here at 23. The specialised firm he runs now, Minter Ellison, employs 160 people. The father of three is chairman of the Gold Coast Suns and GoldLinQ and is director of Plenary Schools, a group building schools across Queensland for the State Government. He has previously been a director of Sea World, Energex and SureSmart Water, owner of the Tugun desalination plant.

When governments want their problems solved, they call on Gold Coast lawyer John Witheriff — knowing that if he can’t solve it, it’s probably not going to happen. The Minter Ellison managing partner is also chairman of the Gold Coast Suns and of GoldLinQ, the company responsible for the city’s landmark light rail system. He believes our physical and virtual connections with Brisbane are the key to unlocking a sustainable Coast economy and lifestyle.

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What do you love about the Gold Coast?

When John Witheriff and a group of other passionate locals wanted to start an AFL team on the Gold Coast, powerful bureaucrats told him he shouldn’t waste his time.

It’s the relentless spunk that powered that group to its success with the Gold Coast Suns that Mr Witheriff admires most about his home city.

“I love the attitude of the people who live here — it’s quite a unique attitude,” he said.

“It probably comes from the fact that many people have moved to the Gold Coast from somewhere else.

“Many of them have moved with a belief that they are going to create a new life for themselves.

“It’s that nothing’s impossible attitude that I love about the place.”

What do you think could be done better on the Gold Coast?

“Transport.”

After years of work on the light rail — probably more work than anyone really knows — Mr Witheriff is already trying to do that better. But, he says, it’s not enough.

“I was born on the Gold Coast and I’ve seen it grow, and if there’s one thing that’s as certain now as it was when I was growing up, it’s that people want to live here,” he said.

“People will want to move here and will continue to move here and we have to accept that as a reality.

“For us to maintain a livable city, we’ve got to ensure that we don’t end up building a Greater Western Sydney west of Mt Tamborine and that we have people living where they want to live, which is as close to the beach as possible.

“But we have no more room for roads and we therefore need to invest in transport infrastructure.’’

In your travels, what have you seen being done elsewhere you think could work well here?

Beachfront dining — not on, but right next to, the sand.

“I can’t for the life of me understand why we seem to have this view that it’s all right to put homes and units right near the sand but the public can’t enjoy food and beverages in the same location.’’

If money, time, laws and approvals were no issue, what is one big project you’d undertake today?

There is no contest, Mr Witheriff said — a second highway on Australia’s busiest commuter strip, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

As president of the combined chambers of commerce in 1994, he has already had a crack at this one, joining the advisory board for an M1 alternative.

It never got up, with newly elected premier Rob Borbidge opting to widen the current road to four lanes instead of building a new highway.

The expansion in the 1990s led to an unparalleled boom in the Gold Coast’s economy.

“If there was a second linkage, we would go through a second period of unparalleled boom,” Mr Witheriff said.

What are the conversations Gold Coast movers and shakers should be having?

Now, as we climb out of the depths of the latest economic bust, the city should be pulling out all stops to reduce the impacts of another one.

The keys to that is fighting for a more equal share of public service jobs, to cushion the economic and employment blow when other sectors dive.

“Government industries underpin a regional economy when the core economic drivers disappear, and we don’t have that.”

Secondly, we need to be more seamlessly connected to Brisbane — physically and virtually.

Better transport and communications are vital to move people and their work between the cities.

“You can integrate the two economies and create a robust regional economy,’’ he said.