20 Facts About Tom Tate

Thomas Richard Tate was born on 15 January 1959 and is an 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.

Tom Tate's father was an engineer who met Tate's mother, when building an airport for the Americans in Thailand.

At 11 months of age, Tom Tate's mother took him to Thailand and falsely claimed it was a home birth in order to gain Thai-born citizenship.

Tom Tate's parents separated when his father moved back to Sydney from Thailand in 1970, and Tate joined him a year later.

Tom Tate attended school at Scots College in Sydney where he distinguished himself as a drummer in the school's pipe band.

Tom Tate later pursued higher education and became a qualified civil engineer, graduating from the University of New South Wales in the early 1980s.

Tom Tate worked in the United Kingdom and Australia before joining his father's development company in 1996.

Tom Tate's father bought the Islander Resort Hotel in Surfers Paradise which Tom Tate would go on to manage.

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

Tom Tate was elected Mayor of the Gold Coast in 2012 as an independent without party endorsement, after the previous incumbent, Ron Clarke, resigned in February 2012 to contest the seat of Broadwater in the 2012 Queensland state election.

Tom Tate has achieved more than two-thirds of the preference distribution in each election.

Tom Tate has stated that he does not accept political donations and self-funds his campaigns.

Tom Tate is a life member of the Liberal National Party.

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

In December 2017, Tom Tate filed a defamation lawsuit against the ABC and Councillor Peter Young.

In December 2018, Tom Tate was found guilty of official misconduct by the Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal.

Tom Tate was ordered to undergo counselling and pay a $1250 fine for making "untrue and unreasonable comments" on social media, criticising fellow Councillor Glenn Tozer.

The comments were related to funding Tozer's MBA through a local university, which Tom Tate deemed inappropriate use of ratepayer funds.

Tom Tate has been married to his wife, Ruth, since 1980, and they have four children all residing on the Gold Coast.