Tom Tate

Thomas Richard Tate is a Laotian-born Australian businessman, property investor and politician who is the current mayor of the City of Gold Coast.

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 New South Wales 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.

During the Asian economic downturn in the late 1990s, he offered hotel rooms for $2 per night, leading to the 1999 'off-peak price war'.

In 1992, Tate Sr bought the Islander Resort Hotel in Surfers Paradise, where Tate managed the refitting of the building.

In 1993, he took over management of the Islander.

Tate worked across the world before joining his father's development company in 1994 at the age of 35.

Tate joined the Liberal Party in June 1999, and later its successor − the Liberal National Party − when it was formed in 2008.

Tate had two previous attempts at the mayoralty before his successful attempt, including as an endorsed Liberal candidate in 2008.

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.

He was elected mayor of the Gold Coast 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.

His re-election saw a significant increase in his primary vote, from 37% in 2012 to 63.86% in 2016.

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.

In 2015 he sold the Islander Hotel Resort for $26.5 million.

In September 2017, Tate was the main focus of a ABC Four Corners investigation and resultant program titled All That Glitters.

The report was compiled and presented by Walkley Award winning ABC journalist Mark Willacy and investigated claims that Tate had possibly acted inappropriately in his role as mayor.

The ABC report covered conflict of interest concerns, alleged council secrecy and the conduct of councillors and the mayor, questioning the integrity and legality of conduct within the council on specific major issues including development and the proposed oceanside cruise ship terminal for the city.

A day after the program was broadcast on national television, Tate banned ABC journalists from attending his press conferences in the local council chambers.

At the time, the Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the program raised valid concerns about the integrity of the council, stating, "I think there were concerns about conflicts of interest, I think there are concerns about the nexus between developer donations and councillors voting ... we take those issues very seriously."

In December 2017, Tate filed a lawsuit against the ABC and his fellow Councillor Peter Young citing his allegations that the program and the named parties had defamed him.

A representative of the ABC stated at the time, “Following a mediation process the legal action brought by Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate over the ABC’s September 2017 Four Corners program All That Glitters has been discontinued.

The program remains online with an Editor’s Note added.

There has been no apology.

No damages have been paid.

The ABC has agreed to pay the mediation costs.”

An Editor's Note was published alongside the video and story reading, "In September 2017, the ABC broadcast this 4 Corners report, All that Glitters. Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate commenced defamation proceedings against the ABC in relation to the report. He was concerned that viewers would understand it as accusing him of corruption. Mr Tate strongly denies any corrupt conduct, either on his part or that of the Council. The ABC wishes to make clear that the 4 Corners report did not contend that Mr Tate was corrupt or had acted unlawfully."

On 2 March 2018, Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC), Queensland's state 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 the City of Gold Coast titled Operation Yabber, investigating 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 allegations of official misconduct were received.

In July 2019 Tate was ordered to pay 90 percent of the ABC's legal costs for legal argument in preparation for his defamation claim against the national broadcaster after he sought to amend his statement of claim midway in the proceedings.

In December 2019, Tom Tate withdrew his lawsuit against fellow Councillor Peter Young.

In July 2021 a Deed of Settlement was reached between Tate and the ABC in which resulted in no adverse findings against the ABC.

On 28 March 2020, Tate won a third 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.