Behind the Gold Coast’s fast-growing anti-Trump Tower petition
Local social campaigners started a petition opposing the proposed Gold Coast Trump Tower on January 16; it has already amassed more than 120,000 signatures.
On Tuesday, February 24, it was announced that the Trump organisation signed a deal with Altus property developers for a 91-storey tower on the Gold Coast.
The joint Change.org petition – started by local Craig Hill and anonymous campaigner CK – and called Stop the Proposed Trump Tower Development on the Gold Coast now has 123,255 supporting signatures.
Craig Hill said the petition represented the teachers, tradies, hospitality workers, students, parents, small business owners, long-term locals, and visitors “who love the Gold Coast’s fundamentally Australian culture”.
Craig Hill, a Gold Coast teacher, journalist and political candidate for the Legalise Cannabis party, says the petition’s primary objection to the tower is the Trump name, one that is associated with Donald Trump’s felony convictions, sexual abuse allegations and history of bankruptcies.
“Multiple independent fact-checks and financial reporting describe six Trump-linked corporate bankruptcies (mostly in casinos/hospitality), a pattern of over-leverage, aggressive deal-making, and leaving others to hold the bag,” Hill explains.
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He adds that cities around the world where Trump-branded developments were reported as drivers or symbols of luxury-led upheaval were met with communities describing displacement pressures, price escalation, and inequality. Hill lists off New York, Atlantic City, Vancouver, Toronto, Pune, Gurgaon, Panama City, Scotland and Ireland as examples.
Hill elaborated on the issues the Trump Tower would cause, including the intrusion on Schoolies Week’s youth safety precinct, the impact on already strained road and transport capacity and whether the Gold Coast even has the capacity to supply essential services to a 91-storey, 340-metre tall tower.
“If council is even considering this project, we need transparent answers on the full infrastructure bill: which roads and intersections will be upgraded, how pedestrian and disability access will be improved, what additional public transport or active-transport links will be funded, and how construction traffic will be managed for years,” Hill explained.
“Just as importantly, we need proof that essential services can cope – electricity supply and substation capacity, potable water, sewerage and stormwater, and resilient internet and mobile coverage for a dense high-rise precinct – without quietly shifting costs onto ratepayers and taxpayers or compromising safety and reliability for the existing community.”
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Hill and CK have reached out to the CMFEU, ETU, Plumbers Union, AWU, AMWU, Master Builders Queensland and the QMCA with the hopes of getting the project black banned.
The petition organisers have also written to elected officials, including Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate, Queensland member for Surfers Paradise John-Paul Langbroek, federal member Angie Bell, senator Murray Watt, and Greens leader senator Larissa Waters, calling on them to represent the community response to the project.
Hill has also contacted three former independent federal parliament candidates and Gold Coast activists who have expressed a willingness to help: Stewart Brooker, Michelle Faye and Belinda Jones.
“In addition, we have been approached by a Victorian law firm offering to help us raise money from law firms around Australia, and a Brisbane barrister who is helping us to find a local lawyer who may be willing to act pro bono if we can’t raise funds,” Hill adds.
Though Hill and CK have not received responses from any elected officials as of yet, Hill adds that Drew Pavlou, a right-wing political activist, has made his opposition to the cause clear.
“He started a rival petition about two days ago to make the Trump Tower 1,000 metres tall. He posted it in response to mine,” Hill says.
The petition, which has 72 signatures and is titled Build Trump Tower Gold Coast Even Higher – At Least 1000 Meters Tall was shared by Pavlou on X in the comments of Hill’s update on his own petition.
“Please sign and share to annoy Australian communists,’ Pavlou said in the post.
“Maintain the rage, that’s our slogan,” Hill adds. “We can be firm without becoming the thing we oppose. We don’t need threats. We don’t need abuse. We need pressure, transparency, and democratic accountability,” Hill added.
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