TATE TOWN: Tom Tate and Tozer's very big week

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TATE TOWN: Tom Tate and Tozer's very big week

Independent Australia
08 Dec 2025, 10:30 GMT+

It has been a busy week for Australias most colourful politician, Gold Coast City Mayor Tom Tate, the subject of this publications close to ten-year-long,detailedTate Town investigation.

First, Tate tried to recoup $441,000 from the Gold Coast Council he heads for a failed defamation action he launched against the ABC and a fellow councillor. Then, when news broke in the media, he changed his claim to just $100. Why he made this bizarre move is unclear, butthe Council nevertheless unanimouslydecided to declineiton Tuesday (2 December). Unanimously, that is, apart from one councillor,Glenn Tozer. As it happens,IAspoke to Councillor Tozer earlier on Tuesday outsideCouncil Chambers. The interview, which we filmed, was interesting.

Also, over the last week, Tom Tatedefended his decisionto travel to Italy, at ratepayers' expense,to be a torchbearer at the 2026 Winter Olympics. His decision was not only criticised because the Gold Coast is not known to be a hub of winter sport, but also because he hasspent$103,957 on international travel over the last financial year.

Only one other Councillor travelled overseas last financial year, jetting off to California and London, at a cost to Gold Coast residents of $18,914Glenn Tozer.

(Well show our interview with Tozer, discuss its circumstances and reveal more about Councillor Tozer later in this article.)

Thirdly, Mayor Tate suffered a humiliating defeat when an obscure judicial officer called the Body Corporate Adjudicatoroverturnedhis owninterim injunctionin Tate'sfavour. As readers of the Tate Town investigation on this publication would be aware, through his Crackerjack style acquisition of the community-owned Surfers Paradise Bowls Club, Tate acquired a floor of an adjacent apartment block, the Surfers Plaza Resort.

In 2023, he attempted to turn this floor, via a Guatemalan business associate, intopods accommodation, providing budget accommodation for 270 backpackers in a building containing only 146 units. This radical change was initially declined by the Council, but later approved after the Mayors associate appealed the decision to thePlanning and Environment Court.

(The troubling, if not scandalous, circumstances of how this approval came about will be discussed in a subsequentIndependentAustraliaarticle to be published in the next few days. As will many other issues relating to the Surfers Plaza Resort connected to Tom Tate, which involve matters of significant concern and, indeed, alleged criminality. Keep watchingTate Townupdates, shown on the right-hand corner of theIAhomepage.)

Regarding the Adjudicators decision, Tate and his associate, Alfonso Abril, had appealed a decision by the Resort Corporate of the Surfers Plaza Resort to increase their share of the expenses after the pods business had left the building, virtually uninsurable. Not only virtually uninsurable, but in fact actually uninsured for 17 days in July 2024 a massive risk for other residents. Eventually, after that desperate time, the body corporate was able to secure Lloyds of London as an insurer of last resort, but only after theannualpremium had increased from $71,708 a year to $704,727 an increase of 883%.

Both Tate and Abril complained about the severity of the increase, which would have involved them needing to pay 64% of the updated premium, on the basis they couldnt afford it. Abril claimed it would put hisTequila Sunrisepods businessout of business, and Tate claimed the increase in costs would therefore leave him without a tenant and cause significant financial damage to him.

In overturning his interim injunction, AdjudicatorRon Miskinissaid that since Abril was merely the lessee operating the business, his concerns about the damage to his profitability were irrelevant to his decision. Irrelevant, since the responsibility for the added costs to other body corporate ownerswas the sole responsibility of the owner of the unit who had granted Alfonso Abrilthe lease to operate his pods business: Mayor Tom Tate.

Adjudicator Miskinis then turned his attention to Tates claim about the financial harm an adverse decision would cause him:

The Mayor and his associate, Abril, have since instigated legal action to appeal this decision. More details about that in subsequent Tate Town updates on the murky goings on at the Surfer Plaza Resort, which will be published onIAsoon.

The last key take from Tom Tates eventful week was the approval by the Council to spend $1.1 million of ratepayers money to further evaluate the feasibility of building a Cableway into the World Heritage-listed Springbrook National Park in the Citys hinterland. This proposal was approved by Council on Tuesday, seemingly Tates sole victory in an otherwise humiliating week.

There are many things we could say about this proposal, but since we have already done so exhaustively this year in various Tate Town articles, culminating in adetailed 16-minute documentaryreleased a few months ago, we will merely say it is unfeasible.

We know this because the proposal has been examined exhaustively in the four previous attempts to get it off the ground over the last 30 years andwas rejected every time. Hence, the Councils approval of it on Tuesday would appear to be a pointless, flagrant waste of Gold Coast ratepayers money.

As it happens,IAwas at a rather small rally on Tuesday morning at the Council Chambers, organised by local environmental groupGecko. They had conducted a much larger rally a few months earlier, where they were locked out of the Council building, which we also reported onHERE, but this one was more focused.

As it turned out, City Councillor Glenn Tozer came down to chat to concerned local citizens and certain media at this rally, the only Councillor who did. For this, he should be applauded.

Independent Australiatook the opportunity to ask Tozer some questions about the Cableway and a few other matters. It was an arguably rancorous and somewhat bewildering exchange, though not to anywhere near the same extent as this publications famous Chicken Danceinterviewwith local state MP and former Gold Coast MayorRay Stevenson the same topic in 2016.

You can view theIAinterview with Tozer below, in whichIAprovides additional commentary.

One detail in this interview deserves special explanation, however.

IAasked Tozer why the Council was even considering this proposal and planning to spend more ratepayers money after it had been rejected every time before. He said he had voted against"in most instances" (though not inallcases!)and this is doubtless true. But it should be noted that he is a politician and his electoral district encompasses the Springbrook area. Naturally, this tourist development would be unpopular with electors in his district, so this is hardly a sign of great virtue.

What should also be noted asIAalluded to in the interview is that Tozer, in his more than decade-long stint as Councillor so far, almost always votes in favour of Tom Tates proposals. Just as he did this week in the matter of Tates defamation action.

But Tozer is far from the only one who yields to Tate on nearly every front. Practically the entire Gold Coast Council does the same. And this is one of the reasons the Gold Coast is in such a desperately undemocratic state and isarguably the centre of corruption in Australia as a whole. Which is whyIndependent Australiauses its scarce resources to investigate, so exhaustively, Tom Tate and his colourful Town.

FollowDave Donovanon X/Twitter@davroszand [email protected],and Independent Australia on [email protected], X/Twitter@independentausand FacebookHERE.