April Breakfast

Guest Speakers:

• Allan Hambleton - Fraud Research Centre
• Sam Stewart - Stop the Gold Coast Quarry Spokesperson

Allan Hambleton
Fraud Research Centre

Allan Hambleton has been a successful Auditor and Chief Financial Officer during his career. After graduating from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, he began his career with a Big 4 accounting firm as an auditor. He received most of his experience working in Victoria, Queensland and California. During his career he took a strong interest in preventing embezzlement and fraud in business operations.

He is author of the books Beware the Bookkeeper and 101 Lessons from Embezzlers. These books are very helpful for business owners and managers in knowing what to look for and how to prevent embezzlement and fraud in their business operations.

He began giving fraud prevention seminars in California in 1997 and was the first business to do so. He has now brought his educational program to Australia and we look forward to having Allan discuss with us how we can identify risk and reduce both internal and external fraud in our business.

Sam Stewart
Stop the Gold Coast Quarry Spokesperson

Sam is a Tallebudgera Valley resident, who’s past includes Asia Pacific Managing Director Ubisoft Entertainment and who has worked in the computer games Industry for 21 years.

He worked in the APAC region and lived and operated across Australia and New Zealand, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand consulting to European game publishing companies. He also has vast experience as head of publishing roles in Australia and NZ.

Sam, as head of the Stop the Gold Coast Quarry will present to us his concerns including:

Location: Proximity to existing residential areas, (Old Burleigh Town, Reedy Creek, The Observatory, Kingsmore, West Burleigh, Tallebudgera, Tallebudgera Valley, Elanora, Mudgeeraba and Bonogin). Proximity to and impact on local schools. (St Andrews, Tallebudgera, Ingleside, Christian College and Kings. It is in the centre of a “Biodiversity corridor” that reaches from Burleigh to Springbrook. The area Borders Old Coach Road, Tallebudgera Creek Road and Chesterfield Drive. It is 541 Acres in size (256 football grounds)

Construction: 11.8 Million tons of material (all types)to be removed, prior to the establishment of a fixed plant. That would mean 1,180,000 truck movements (20 ton trucks) introduced into our environment (around 200,000 truck movements per year)

Operation: 6am to 6pm, 6 Days a week, 52 weeks a year, for at least the next 40 years. Based on 2 million tons per annum output, 200,000 truck movements (20 ton trucks) per year, 3846 per week, 641 per day, 53 trucks per hour. Maintenance will be outside these hours of operation (possibly 24 hours a day)

Health : Air Quality through dust particles, Silica (carcinogenic), Noise, loss of environment and native fauna (and carbon offsets). Increase in Greenhouse Gases in the area and region.. Diesel emissions (carcinogenic), and pollution. Road Safety concerns due to increased traffic.

Transport: “Access to and from the site is proposed by Old Coach Road, which connects the site to the Pacific Motorway via an existing interchange to the north. However, Boral understand that the Gold Coast City Council are currently investigating the development of a new road corridor, using parts of Old Coach Road, to link Tallebudgera Creek Road from beyond the east of the site with the existing Bermuda Street / M1 Pacific Motorway interchange to the north of the site (the “future connection road”).”

The Group believes that ”the residents of the area’s most affected by this project had no prior knowledge of this proposed activity. Yet it is clear that many processes had already been initiated at various levels. The ability to challenge this activity through the courts is not possible, we have been advised. The potential impact on the existing communities is considerable, at the residential, educational, livestock and wildlife levels”.

Sam and his action group believe this activity is not in the best interests of the southern Gold Coast, its residents or the environment.