More Trouble For Tate

A few weeks ago we mentioned Gold Coast mayoral candidate Tom Tate and questioned the wisdom of the Queensland Liberals in selecting such a character to head their attempt to grab power in Australia's sixth largest city.

Now they must be questioning their wisdom themselves. Tate is in the news again, and not because he runs girlie bars and bikini contests:

A $1 MILLION push by the Liberal Party to seize control of Gold Coast City Council is set to be rocked by revelations that properties owned by its mayoral candidate are included in secret plans to build a casino in the heart of Surfers Paradise.

Beaten to the heart of the story, the Gold Coast Bulletin is reduced to reporting on the news that breaks right in front of them:

But before hopping on the bus the Liberal team was involved in a fracas with a photographer from The Australian newspaper. Mr Tate said he was being 'set up' and refused to be in a photo.

Several of his team including Division 7 candidate Jim MacAnally attempted to intimidate photographer Patrick Hamilton. "Look we just want to focus on getting the job done. There are people trying to set me up," said Mr Tate. "They want to pin me on secret deals with developers and getting money from developers.

... and burying the story in the middle of a silly report on a silly stunt:

Libs plan to end gridlock

LIBERAL mayoral candidate Tom Tate will today unveil his grand plan to fix the Gold Coast's crippled transport system... The Liberal team yesterday caught a Surfside bus from Griffith University to Mudgeeraba to illustrate the extent of gridlock.

If the full story is not front or page 3 news tomorrow, the Gold Coast Bulletin can cease any pretensions it still has to being a 'news' paper.

-- Nick