Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to take this opportunity to raise a concern that I have with the conduct of Gold Coast City Council in relation to the awarding of tenders for the Aqua Splash fun park in the Broadwater on the Gold Coast. Disappointingly, Gold Coast City Council has seen fit to apparently ignore its own guidelines around local procurement

Its guidelines state that if the business is located on the Gold Coast it should be given a weighting of 15 per cent, being the successful tenderer. In this case they've made a decision based not on the location of where the business is—which is in the Broadwater on the Gold Coast which is 100 per cent in the Gold Coast City Council area—but rather where the registered office for the business is, which is with their accountants at Mount Gravatt.

I think this is a very interesting sleight of hand, and the reason I raise this particular topic is that it directly affects constituents of mine—Matt and Kirsten Divine. They've spent the past five years building the AquaSplash fun park on the Broadwater from scratch. It was an idea conceived by them, and initially they approached the Gold Coast City Council back in 2013. They've spent the past five years developing and refining this concept over that time for an inflatable obstacle course in the Broadwater where more than 100,000 people go from the end of September through to the end of March.

Importantly, as a result of the council's decision, this business has now relocated from the Gold Coast to the open arms of the Redcliffe city council and they have reopened a new AquaSplash fun park at Woody Point. But the point remains: why has the Gold Coast City Council ignored its own guidelines and given a licence to operate this fun park to a new operator who we now know actually has no idea about what he's doing? He actually approached Mr Divine and said, 'Can I pay you to be a consultant to help me set up my new park properly.' And we found out also that not only did council not have the courtesy to contact Mr Divine; he found out through one of his suppliers because they thought that the contract for the extension of the lease had been sorted.

I cannot believe that an organisation like Gold Coast City Council didn't have the courtesy and the professionalism to let business people, such as the Divines—who have put so much time, effort, sweat and tears into building what was regarded as one of the best inflatable fun parks in the Southern Hemisphere that attracts 100,000 people a year—know they weren't the successful tenderer. Mr Divine had to find out from one of his suppliers.

Interestingly, his supplier also advised that the person who was the successful tenderer approached him about replacement equipment for the water park and the supplier said to him, 'That equipment that you're planning to put in the water park won't work. It doesn't meet the standards. You have to use this other particular equipment.' On that basis alone, the proposal should not have got to first base with council, because it didn't comply with the requirements of the equipment required. I call on the Gold Coast City Council to reverse this decision and reinstate the lease to AquaSplash Gold Coast and the Divines.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:24