Tom’s Gold Coast Vision Statement

WORDS: Mayor Tom Tate PHOTOGRAPHY Brian Usher - www.usherusher.com

It’s pretty simple: “to grow our economy so families stay together, and we retain our reputation as one of the great lifestyle cities of the world”

Key to our city’s social and economic future is a stable economy, along with the preservation and protection of our incredible green and open space.

Green space is vital for our flora, fauna and families, especially when future population growth estimates will see the Coast reach one million people inside the next 15 years.

Council’s City Plan and associated State Government regional plans legislate that at least 51 percent of our city’s footprint must remain as green and open space.

Council strongly supports that target and today, we are within one percent of achieving this objective.

Currently, we have around 13,000 hectares of green and open space under conservation, including 2,300 parks and playgrounds.

In the last three financial years, Council has been actively buying more land to add to our green footprint. We are also developing the 320-hectare GreenHeart project, extending from Robina to Merrimac.  This will be the “Central Park” of our city with sports fields, event spaces, hiking trails, wetland experiences and picnic areas for all to enjoy.

I know future generations of Gold Coasters will relish Council’s investment in open space and the natural environment including the city’s 55 km of open beaches.

Turning to the economy, my key objective has always been to broaden our economic base so we can ride out national and global economic headwinds.

In 2012 when I was first elected mayor, the coast was struggling to find its economic legs, post the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The city had two cranes in the sky, families were being separated as people looked interstate or overseas for work, and the property market was flat.

With the support of councillors, we put in place an ambitious plan to broaden our economy. In 2012, tourism and construction were the two key pillars driving our economy. Yet the GFC had hit them hard.

Through strong partnerships with the private sector, aviation industry, events companies, tertiary education providers and state and federal governments, we have built a vibrant and resilient economy.

Today, our economic drivers are tourism, construction, marine, film, health, medical research, major events, light manufacturing and sport. This has seen our local economy grow from $30 billion annually in 2011-12, to $41 billion today – a 30 percent growth.

Today, the largest employment sector in the city is health and medical research.

This is great news for families as a decade ago, it was not uncommon for bright young Gold Coasters to “look down south” for a high-paying career in those fields. That “brain drain” – to cities like Melbourne, Sydney or even London and New York – was bad for our city’s social fabric – and our economy. It separated families and saw our city lose its future leaders.

To combat this, Council partnered with the state and federal governments, as well as the private sector, to create a Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP).

The precinct at Parkwood is a partnership with Council, Griffith University, the State Government and Gold Coast Health.

Spanning 200 hectares, the precinct is a global business destination for high-tech industry development, research collaboration and jobs. Today, 16,485 people work at GCHKP.

Annually, the precinct attracts $10 million in external research, and we are formally recognised as the No.1 innovation faculty in Queensland.

To date, around $5 billion of infrastructure has been delivered across the precinct. This is supported by two major hospitals (GC University Hospital and GC Private Hospital) as well as the Institute for Glycomics and 95 hectares of green space and parklands.

The Griffith Gold Coast campus is a hive of learning and innovation with 16,300 students studying there, as well as 1,553 staff.

The evolution of this precinct underscores why a broader economy pays dividends for the wider community.

Another key industry sector showing substantial growth is our arts and cultural community.

In 2014, when the first stage of HOTA was taking shape, I distinctly recall Melbourne-based critics claiming the Gold Coast was a “cultural desert”.

That struck a negative chord with me as like other locals, I knew we had a thriving cultural community – yet we lacked a cultural heartland.

From 2014 until today, HOTA has emerged as a unique art and cultural space, set on 18 hectares of open space and featuring a magnificent lake and enticing gallery.

The city is the sole investor in HOTA but if I have my way, that will change as we prepare a business case to lobby the state and federal governments to support the next stage – a 1600-seat Lyric Theatre.

HOTA is a community asset just like a library, pool or sports hall and its place in our Gold Coast “story” has been rich and rewarding.

Major global film producers, as well as our Australian Academy Cinema Television Awards (AACTA) have been attracted to HOTA.

The city’s thriving film industry is piggybacking off our emerging position as an arts and cultural destination. I hope those Melbourne critics are sipping a lukewarm latte on a rainy Victorian day.

Art and culture aside, I have long held the view that we can become one of the biggest and brightest destinations for major events and festivals.

To achieve this, Council has streamlined its focus on the events space by creating a single entity – Experience GC – to deliver major events, as well as our local festivals and carnivals.

Events bring ‘new money’ to our city and support our 78,000 registered businesses.

Expect to see a suite of announcements around new major events, concerts and sports carnivals throughout 2024.

As we look to invest more across a range of industries and projects, it’s important council keeps a check on its own financial health.

When I was first elected in 2012, the city debt was approaching $860 million, rate increases were regularly well above CPI and councillors were being ridiculed for in-fighting and bloc-style voting.

Those days are well behind us. Today, our projected 2024-25 debt will be around $490 million, the city has kept every annual rate increase at, or below, CPI, and we have built more than $2 billion in new community assets (between 2012-24).

As a comparison, Brisbane City Council’s debt is $3.2 billion.

We also boast an unemployment rate around one percent below the state average. Not bad for a city that was on its knees 12 years ago.

As mayor, I strongly believe that with confidence comes investment and with investment comes jobs.

The future is ours to shape and we will do that with the support of residents and our vibrant business community.

Welcome to Team Gold Coast.

TOP FIVE CHALLENGES

1. Ending landfill. As a city, we must win the war on waste – and we can. It will require a strategic investment in an Advanced Recovery and Recycling Centre (ARRC). This facility will produce an income stream for ratepayers, putting downward pressure on rates and seeing 97 percent of our waste reused. Council will further consider this initiative in 2024-25.
2. Increase public transport. Public transport is a state responsibility but council is willing to play a part in the expansion of public transport providing it gives the community greater choice to get out of their cars and onto reliable transport modes. It starts with light rail and includes all forms of transport – ferries, buses, better cycleways and pedestrian paths. It remains one of our greatest challenges.
3. Fire ants. Again, a state responsibility but every Gold Coaster must learn to identify these pests and report them. The risk is enormous if they get out of hand.
4. 2032 Olympics and Paralympics. To me, this is not about the 16 days of sport but a chance to leverage new community assets including sports venues as well as rail and road connectivity right across the SEQ region. The Olympics is a chance to promote our region globally, as a place to invest, host conferences and visit. The sport will happen and records will be set. Let’s focus on legacy and ‘new investment’.
5. Accommodating future ‘Gold Coasters’. We welcome new residents and our City Plan recognises that we must create world-class places for people to live. Given greenfield sites are extremely limited across the coast, we have to maximise future residential development in well-designed low, medium and high-rise projects as well as redeveloping traditional home sites to accommodate duplexes (where the City Plan allows). Importantly, this new accommodation needs to be serviced by reliable public transport to reduce the number of vehicle trips needed.