Dutton and Tate dodge Cyclone Alfred Scomo style

As the Gold Coast was ravaged by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and GC Mayor Tom Tate did their best to avoid the disaster zone, writes Darren Crawford.

IN SCENES reminiscent of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s family vacation to Hawaii during the deadly 2019 bushfires, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate both decided to dodge ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in the past week and abandon their constituents to their collective fates.

“I don’t fill sandbags, mate”

It was reported that Dutton flew out of his seat of Dickson on Tuesday 4 March to Sydney, desperate to attend a fundraising dinner at the Vaucluse mansion of billionaire hotelier and serial wage thief Justin Hemmes, at which over $500,000 was raised for the L-NP Coalition.

When the story leaked the next day, Dutton went into panic mode, cancelled the rest of his fundraising appointments and hurriedly arranged an interview with the Nine Media-owned Brisbane Radio 4BC on Wednesday 5 March. Amongst the softballs thrown at him, Dutton said he was “going to help his elderly aunt do some sandbagging” but offered no assistance to his local community.

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Dickson is the most marginal seat in Queensland and Dutton is holding it by less than 2 per cent. His ALP opponent, Ali France, has been everywhere in the electorate – filling sandbags, helping the elderly, preparing shelters – since ex-TC Alfred was announced.

Similarly, while Dutton was flying out of Southeast Queensland, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew in and has been there ever since helping coordinate the Federal Government’s disaster response with LNP Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, their bipartisanship a stark contrast to Dutton prioritising a $500,000 gift from Hemmes.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, baby (literally)

As for Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate (a Life Member of the Queensland LNP), when the warnings were first announced, he was nowhere to be seen.

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates stepped up in his absence and as Chair of the Disaster Management Unit (DMU) for the City of Gold Coast, became the face of the city’s response. From the outset, Ms Gates was clear in her communication, avoiding any emotional clichés in her afternoon briefings with the media and was obviously allowing the DMU and CEO Tim Baker to get on with their jobs of preparing to protect the city as best as they could.

As reality started to set in about what was coming, whispers that Mayor Tate was on “personal leave” attending the National Rugby League (NRL) opener in Las Vegas with his wife, Ruth, started filtering through. As the cyclone’s crossing looked imminent, there was still no sign of Tate and social media sites were flogging him for it.

For Tate, missing out on a disaster of this size must have been killing his ego and whether he misjudged the impact of Alfred or Donna Gates’ wonderful performance under pressure, he failed to appear publicly on any platform, and his spin doctors went to work for him.

First, there were the excuses — yes, he was in Vegas, however, every plane he tried to catch had “mechanical issues”. The social media pundits weren’t buying it. Then, right on cue on Saturday morning (8 March), the Gold Coast Bulletin printed a two-page spread interview with City of Gold Coast Councillor Mark Hammel, who will replace Ms Gates as Deputy Mayor in April 2025.

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The man who will be king exposed

For Cr Hammel – the man who will be king – the interview appeared to be a very shallow and poorly timed attempt at relevance on his part, as Ms Gates’ leadership shone throughout the week, effortlessly highlighting Mayor Tate as the bumbling, crass, egotistical buffoon that he has been in past emergencies.

In the aftermath of the 2023 Boxing Day storms that devasted much of the northern end of the Gold Coast, Mayor Tate had accused the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) of failing to warn the city of the impending storm (BOM had produced numerous warnings in the lead-up).

During the cleanup, the Mayor’s office doctored up a picture of Tate in front of fallen trees with the line, ‘You won’t be forgotten or left behind. We have a plan, we’re coming to help!’ which was then presented as a full-page City of Gold Coast advertisement in the Gold Coast Bulletin on 8 January 2024.

With the local elections being held later in March 2024, it was seen as blatant electioneering on the public purse, let alone the lie that Tate would be doing any of the heavy lifting let alone the planning.

"Hi, my name is Tom and I'm here to help... myself get re-elected" (GCB 8 January 2024)

Unlike Tate, during ex-TC Alfred, Ms Gates hasn’t worn hi-vis with a title emblazoned across it. She didn’t pick any fights with other departments, first responders or government officials, or blame the BOM for anything. Nor did she use the disaster for political gain. Unlike Tate, she just got out of her team’s way and let them get on with it.

ALP equals WE while L-NP equals ME (and it’s always someone else’s fault)

Back in 2019, former PM Morrison responded to his critics at the time, by stating, “I don’t hold a hose, mate”.

In the 5 March interview, when asked if he would help with local preparations in Dickson, Dutton stated that everyone needs to be “personally responsible”, but refused to respond whether he will help publicly or not. Dutton then accused Albanese of “campaigning” instead of “governing”. It’s clear that Dutton’s tin ear for events happening on the ground has never been duller — “water lapping at their front door” anyone?

For an Opposition Leader sitting on a 1.7 per cent margin in his own electorate and wanting to be prime minister of Australia, Dutton really needs to lift his game and start filling sandbags — or at least pretend to.

Drawing on Scomo's valued experience in dodging all responsibilities, it was easy for Tom to pull the trigger and hide from Alfred (Image: SOSA 2025)

As for Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, social media has been excoriating him for days for blaming successive airlines as having “mechanical failures” over a three-day period as the reason why he couldn’t get back in time. If four NRL teams could manage to get over 200 players, coaches, managers and officials to Australia from Vegas by Wednesday of last week, then why couldn’t the Tates find a way?

The social media class has also supported Gates and her exceptional leadership in his absence, which has highlighted Tate’s “Captain’s Pick” of Cr Hammel to replace Gates as the next Deputy Mayor as being redundant. Cr Hammel, having hitched his wagon to Tate is now on a hiding to nothing.

One could almost think that this “me over we” mentality of the LNP is party policy. However, during the past week, Crisafulli has worked hand-in-hand with Albanese in a bipartisan fashion to look after everyone impacted, regardless of what political colour they wear.

Now that’s good governance, which is a lot better than the outright lies served up by men like Dutton and Tate when they are caught out, simply because to them, it’s always someone else’s fault.

Darren Crawford is a surfer, environmentalist, sports coach/administrator and academic. He is also vice president of Save Our Spit Alliance. You can follow Darren on Twitter @Darrencanplay.