Thomas Richard Tate is an Australian businessman, property investor and politician who is the current mayor of the City of Gold Coast. He was first elected on 28 April 2012 and re-elected on both 19 March 2016 and 28 March 2020 with more than two thirds of the preferential vote. The Gold Coast mayor is directly elected by residents and is the only councillor who doesn't represent a specific Gold Coast Council division; and is the principal representative of the City of Gold Coast and its policies. Gold Coast City has a budget of $1.7 billion annually, the second-highest of any municipal government in Australia, and is the second-largest local government area in Australia, employing a staff of over 3,500.
Personal life
Tom Tate was born in 1959 in Vientiane, Laos, to a Thai mother and an Australian father. His father, Warwick, was an engineer who met Tate's mother, Prapai, when building an airport for the Americans in Thailand. At 11 months of age, Tate's mother took him to Thailand and falsely claimed it was a home birth in order to gain Thai-born citizenship. His parents separated when his father moved back to Sydney from Thailand in 1970, and Tate joined him a year later. Tate attended school at Scots College in Sydney where he was a drummer in the school's pipe band. A qualified civil engineer, Tate graduated from the University of NSW in the early 1980s. He started his career in the construction industry, but transitioned into tourism and hospitality when he moved to the Gold Coast to manage his family's Queensland properties, including the Park Regis at Southport. Tate has been married to his wife, Ruth, for 39 years, and they have four children. His father died on 19 January 2015 after a long illness, and his funeral service was held at the Scots College Chapel in Sydney. Tate is bilingual and speaks two languages fluently – English and Thai – with limited elementary proficiency in Laotian.
Business career
Tate worked across the world before joining his father's development company at the age of 35. In 1992, Tate Sr bought the in Surfers Paradise, where Tate managed the refitting of the building. In 1993, he took over management of the Islander and turned it into one of the city's most successful resorts. Notably, during the Asian economic downturn in the late 1990s, he offered hotel rooms for $2/night, leading to the 1999 'off-peak price war'. In 2012 he sold the Islander Hotel Resort for $26.5 million.
Political career
Tate was elected mayor in 2012 as an independent, after the previous incumbent, Ron Clarke, resigned in February 2012, having announced his nomination as an independent candidate for the seat of Broadwater in the 2012 Queensland state election. Tate had two previous attempts at the mayoralty before his successful attempt, including as an endorsed Liberal candidate in 2008. His re-election saw a significant increase in his primary vote, from 37% in 2012 to 63.86% in 2016. On the 28th of March 2020, Tate won a 3rd term as mayor, receiving 55.73% of first preference votes and 66.93% after the distribution of preferences. He is noted for his claim that he does not accept political donations and self-funds his campaigns.
CCC investigation
In September 2017, Tate was the main focus an ABCFour Corners investigation and resultant program titled All That Glitters. The report was compiled and presented by Walkley Award Winning ABC journalist Mark Willacy and looked into claims that Mayor Tom Tate had possibly acted inappropriately in his role as mayor. After the program aired Tate filed legal action against the ABC as well as a separate claim against a fellow City of Gold Coast Councillor, Peter Young from Division 5. In the lawsuit, Mayor Tate claims that he had been defamed by the reporter and by his fellow councillor. On March 2, 2018, Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission, the state's government authority for investigating official corruption in all tiers of government and public services, announced it would be investigating Mayor Tom Tate as part of a broader investigation into City of Gold Coast Councillors on matters relating to decision-making by some sitting councillors. In May 2018, The Crime and Corruption Commission announced it would be widening its investigation into Tate after further unsubstantiated allegations of official misconduct were received. In April 2019, almost two years on, Tate was cleared over corruption concerns.
