Mayor’s Message – Spring Edition 2025

WORDS: Tom Tate - Mayor PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

The Gold Coast is rapidly evolving to become one of the greatest lifestyle cities in the world.

Protecting our lifestyle while still welcoming more than 12,000 new residents annually requires sensible planning and record capital works expenditure.

In this financial year, Council will spend $1 billion on capital works projects as we work to stay ahead of the city’s population growth curve.

As the second largest local government in Australia, Council has responsibility for delivering the infrastructure and services our residents, visitors and businesses need while also strategically planning for our future needs.

As Mayor, my focus remains on providing world class facilities such as libraries, community centres, pools, sport centres and playing fields.

Frontline services are key to delivering great community amenities for residents and our 13 million annual visitors. This means maintaining 3200 kilometres of roads as well as providing world-class water, waste and sewerage infrastructure, modern cycleways, maintaining 3200 parks and 600 playgrounds.

While we continue to invest record funding in delivering the city’s essential requirements, we must also plan for our future needs. Projects such as Robina Greenheart and the Advanced Resource Recovery Centre at Stapylton will ensure our city continues to open new parkland space as well as dealing with landfill and recycling challenges.

We are also dedicated to ensuring at least 51 percent of our city is covered by green and open space. This includes protecting and enhancing the City’s 13,950 hectares of natural areas. In recent years, the City has purchased an additional 320 hectares to increase and connect this natural environment network, helping local plants and animals thrive.

From an economic perspective, unemployment remains low with the City’s economy growing by almost 70 percent in the past 13 years ($30 billion in 2012-13 to $50 billion in 2025-26). The key to this growth has been diversifying our economy.

Over the last decade, our economy has diversified with industries such as health and knowledge, screen, marine and advanced manufacturing providing more local jobs. With 80,000 registered businesses, our job market remains strong and we are currently rolling out programs to attract investment in areas including space technology, six-star resorts, tertiary education and light manufacturing.

Thanks to tough decisions over the past decade, our budget position continues to be strong, setting up a bright future for all.

Tom Tate – Mayor