‘Tone deaf Tommy’: Mayor’s response to public spat sparks mixed reaction

Mayor Tom Tate’s joking response to a fiery showdown with a local business operator has sparked a mixed reaction online. Find out what he claimed about her lux car which has people talking.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate is facing backlash after joking a small business owner - confronting him about being absent during the cyclone - could have got a ticket for “parking illegally”.

Mayor Tate, on Triple M Gold Coast’s Breakfast Show on Thursday, was addressing a viral video featuring ESPL owner Bianca Holgate, who confronted him under the Surfers Paradise sign, criticising his absence from the city during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

He also claimed in the colourful radio interview that Ms Holgate - who shouted at him “where the bloody hell are you?” on the Surfers beachfront this week - drove off afterwards in an expensive Range Rover.

The Mr Tate comments made in jest have sparked a fresh round of feedback and questions about whether his responses are appropriate.

“Where the bloody hell are you?” Holgate demanded before storming off and honking her horn as she drove away in her Range Rover. In the lead up to that comment, she had said to him: “Do you know what we have been through? Do you want to hear my heart, because I have a story for you.”

Triple M Gold Coast’s Liam Flanagan said: “You got bailed up yesterday on the beachfront down at Surfers. Obviously a local business owner, Bianca Holgate - she was understandably emotional.”

In response, Mr Tate said: “I said give me your name and contact or wait for me. When the media finish (sic) I’ll talk to you. And then she went off and got into a $340,000 Range Rover. You know why I know it’s $340,000? Because I bought Ruth one.”

Amid laughter, he jokingly said he could’ve given Ms Holgate a parking ticket but opted not to.

“So I’m going, okay, I don’t know what she’s stressed about, maybe she’s stressed because she parked illegally. I wasn’t vindictive, I could have took (sic) a photo of her plate and the parking bit and flicked it over to my CEO, but I didn’t do that because – we’re compassionate,” he said.

The video has divided opinions online amongst social media users. Some saw the humour, while others accused Tate of being “tone deaf.”

“Yes, flex how much money you have while everyone else is struggling,” one user commented.

Another wrote: “Tone deaf Tommy.”

Another said: “He talks a lot of crap and this was cemented in him not bothering to come home to hold the fort during Alfie (ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred).”