06/07/2025
Food for thought
🚨Community Alert: A Call for Integrity and Transparency in Gold Coast City Council!🚨
Understanding "Process Corruption" 🌊💔
“Process Corruption”. No brown paper bags, but just as sketchy!
We're taking a stand against the troubling ties between our local government and developers that threaten our precious coastline and community spaces. Let’s break this down because the facts are alarming!
Understanding "Process Corruption" and Its Impact on the Gold Coast Current Context:
Recent discussions about corruption have highlighted a specific form known as "process corruption," which involves manipulating or circumventing official procedures for improper purposes. This type of misconduct does not always manifest in traditional forms, such as bribery; instead, it undermines the integrity of public service and governance, deeply affecting communities.
In the context of the Gold Coast, *Save Our Southern Gold Coast* has flagged alarming issues regarding a lack of transparency and integrity within the local government. Facebook posts from this group have initiated meaningful conversations about public land being appropriated for private financial gain, often with links to developers and local officials, including the Mayor.
🌟 The Light Rail Conundrum:
Mayor Tom Tate is pushing for the Gold Coast Light Rail, which offers a mere 13km of tracks in the ground for $7.6 billion whilst robbing you of access to your beaches, surf clubs, nippers, cafe etc...including the tram itself, as you will not be able to park anywhere near it! What they're really after is not just public transportation—it’s about enabling unwarranted overdevelopment, creating a concrete canyon along our beautiful beaches by delivering underground infrastructure to be able to flush their toilets in the multi-million dollar hi-rise apartments along our beach strip! 🙅♂️🏙️
🚌 Rethinking Transportation
What we genuinely need is heavy rail—a $4.5 billion investment that would service ALL of Gold Coast City and connect us efficiently to Brisbane and the Airport, actually taking cars off the M1! This would create REAL transport solutions without developer influence muddying the waters!
Let’s talk about transportation solutions that ACTUALLY serve our community.
We could implement 500 zero-emission buses (Zeb's) for under $0.5 billion! These buses could zip through our neighbourhoods, providing every Gold Coast resident efficient access to heavy rail, all without the strings attached to developer influence.
So let's compare:
Light rail stage 4 @ $7.6 billion = 13 km of tracks of slow LR only servicing the GC Highway and damaging our coastal corridor by littering it with a hot concrete canyon full of multi-million dollar apartments, making Tate's developer mates millions whilst robbing us of access to our amenities and taking a whopping 1 hour & 50 minutes to get from our northern suburbs to our beautiful southern beaches or GC Airport.
OR
Heavy Rail & Zeb's @ a combined $5 billion = fast and full GC City transport + intercity connections to Brisbane and our airports, making way for the development of affordable housing in our east-west corridors. This system enables our northern suburbs to reach our southern beaches or GC Airport in just 29 minutes.
🏖️ Heritage Matters:
Take a close look at Kirra Pavilion, a heritage-listed beachfront property. It was developed into a restaurant called **Siblings**. But who owns Siblings? 🤔 The link runs deep: Mayor Tom Tate is the uncle of Jarryd Kyle and TJ Ciani, raising serious questions about a possible conflict of interest. This cannot go unchecked!
🌈 Rainbow Bay Surf Club - A Closer Look
Rainbow Bay Surf Club is under scrutiny with potential conflicts of interest on its board. The club’s secretary is actually a *Gold Coast City Council Planner*—how’s that for a conflict? And who is the developer closely aligned with the Rainbow Bay Surf Club? Meet Baptist Romano.
Romano is a key player in numerous development initiatives across the Gold Coast, and his ties to the Surf Club have raised serious eyebrows. Are we looking at the next Burleigh Pavilion-style development on our shores? We need to ask ourselves—what’s the real agenda here?
Other possible public land grabs for private gain:
1) Multiple Spit projects...to view those, please visit the Save Our Spit Association's page.
2) Carey Park arena development...which developer could be interested in this style of development? Billy Cross with his UFC interest?
3) Kurrawa Beach Bars...which developer is suited to this public land grab...Australian Venue Company, known for hospitality development?
4) Burleigh Pavilions...once a vibrant community hub, has transitioned towards catering primarily to commercial interests, including restaurants and nightlife, effectively privatising public space for profit.
5) Kirra Pavilion has now been transformed to make way for Mayor Tom Tate's nephews to open their restaurant named Siblings.
6) Rainbow Bay Surf Lifesaving Club with the damning conflicts becoming more apparent.
DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE?
BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE!
🚌 Rethinking Transportation:
Let’s talk about transportation solutions that ACTUALLY serve our community. We could implement 500 zero-emission buses for under $0.5 Billion! These buses could zip through our neighbourhoods, providing every Gold Coast resident efficient access to heavy rail, all without the strings attached to developer influence.
Let’s not forget the struggles we face: *low water pressure in Palm Beach due to excessive high-rise constructions* and the issues Tallebudgera Surf Club faced when it couldn’t open because it didn’t meet fire safety water pressure requirements! 🚒💧 This is a clear sign that we need better planning, not development for profit! Our wastewater treatment plant is at capacity, yet GCCC want to fool you into thinking we need the urban renewal underground urgently, along the GC Hway....THE DEVELOPERS NEED THIS URGENTLY NOT US!
GCCC needs to fix the water treatment plant to start with to stop sewerage spills/releases into our beautiful waterways. We do not agree with the overdevelopment of multi-million-dollar apartments. We need affordable housing to cater for the workers in our tourism sector, which GCCC keeps claiming is our bread and butter!
Why do tourists come to the Gold Coast? It's because of our beautiful World Surf Reserve Beachs, our pristine State Significant Creeks, our beautiful hinterland. ARE GCCC KILLING THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG??
📣 The Transparency Crisis:
We’ve requested business cases for Light Rail Stage 1, 2, and 3, as well as post-completion reports for the earlier stages, through RTI & FOI requests, with no documents provided. The responses were "either the documents don't exist or they cannot locate them"! WHAT IS GOING ON? Are they hiding something?
It’s time for us to demand INTEGRITY and TRANSPARENCY from the Gold Coast City Council! 💪🏽🔍
This is OUR community, and we won’t let it be sacrificed for developer profit! Join the conversation, and let’s hold our leaders accountable! Please spread the word, share your thoughts, and let’s protect our Gold Coast together. Follow Save Our Southern Gold Coast! 🌊✊🏽
For further information on "Process Corruption" please Google Michael West Media, an independent Journalist.
Do you think we have "Process Corruption"? Please let us know what you think below.
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