{"id":169699,"date":"2025-09-26T05:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169699\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T05:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:32:07","slug":"beleaguered-townsville-mayor-troy-thompson-resigns-vows-to-run-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169699\/","title":{"rendered":"Beleaguered Townsville mayor Troy Thompson resigns, vows to run again"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland mayor under investigation over misrepresenting his military, education and business credentials has announced his resignation, but plans to run in the looming by-election.<\/p>\n

Troy Thompson was elected as Townsville’s mayor in April 2024.<\/p>\n

He was suspended by the state government on full pay for 12 months in November, amid an ongoing Crime and Corruption Commission investigation.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson had been under pressure to resign after it was revealed in May 2024 he had falsely declared details of his military record and university degrees.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement posted on social media on Friday, Mr Thompson said he was standing down a month before his suspension period was due to end.<\/p>\n

“This resignation is not an admission of wrong-doing,” he said.<\/p>\n

The resignation comes just a week after Local Government Minister Ann Leahy issued Mr Thompson with a show-cause notice,<\/a> asking him why he should not be dismissed.<\/p>\n

Ms Leahy issued the show cause notice after being briefed by the Crime and Corruption Commission, which has been investigating Mr Thompson for more than a year.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson has maintained he was the victim of political interference.<\/p>\n

“I was elected by 53,956 people with a clear mandate, yet the premier and minister are attempting to use government bureaucracy to overturn that decision,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson said he would run again as mayor, with a by-election expected to be declared.<\/p>\n

“Nothing in the law prevents me from running again,” he said.<\/p>\n

State government stopped from releasing CCC allegations<\/p>\n

Local Government Minister Ann Leahy said there would now be a by-election.<\/p>\n

“The decision of who will be mayor of Townsville is now in the hands of the people of Townsville,” she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Leahy said she was not allowed to release the CCC allegations against Mr Thompson in the show-cause notice.<\/p>\n

“Clearly the people would want to know that information before they go to the polls and it is my view that they deserve that information,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The CCC has specifically restricted me from releasing that information … the avenue for releasing that information sits with the CCC.”<\/p>\n

She stressed the CCC investigation was ongoing.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson had also been provided with a copy of the CCC allegation and could release it if he wanted, Ms Leahy said.<\/p>\n

“I do not make decisions for Mr Thompson but I am encouraging all candidates to be open and transparent,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Leahy said a date for the by-election would be announced next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thee Townsville city council said a special council meeting would be held on Monday to consider voting methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Resignation follows 18-month saga<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson’s resignation follows an 18-month saga about his background and military credentials.<\/p>\n

Throughout the mayoral race, Mr Thompson said he had served for five years with the Royal Australian Corps of Signals and the Special Air Service Regiment.<\/p>\n

He later said he joined the Army two years later than originally claimed, only served with one squadron and was never a member of the SAS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson said his failure to remember his military record accurately was the result of more than 100 concussions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Taken too long’<\/p>\n

Federal MP Phil Thompson said the investigation into Mr Thompson had taken too long.<\/p>\n

“It’s a long time for the ratepayers to be on the hook for someone’s salary when they’re sitting at home,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the veteran community had been upset by Mr Thompson’s inflation of his military record in the lead up to the March 2024 election.<\/p>\n

“No-one likes to hear people who have embellished their service \u2026 a lot of veterans were quite upset and quite hurt by the comments.”<\/p>\n

Mr Thompson said this morning he had already addressed claims he had misrepresented his background.<\/p>\n

“Like anyone, I may have made mistakes or misremembered details from decades ago, but I have always acted in good faith,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland mayor under investigation over misrepresenting his military, education and business credentials has announced his resignation, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38323,43,44,8688,41,39,42,40,110954,110953],"class_list":["post-169699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-by-election","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-resigns","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-townsville-mayor","tag-troy-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}