In early 2002 Lawlor and Member for Broadwater Peta-Kaye Croft started a campaign opposing a Gold Coast City Council document titled "Harbour Vision 2020", Lawlor estimated that a petition he started on the issue had attracted 1000 signatures in 10 days. The petitioners opposed commercial development on Wave Break Island, the western foreshore and any reclamation. Lawlor criticised on environmental and engineering grounds any possibility of a new bridge being built to Wave Break Island and a possible cruise ship facility on the island. As a former councillor himself, Lawlor criticised the council on leadership saying that such an important document should not have been left to bureaucrats to write. "The monkeys are taking over the zoo" he said. In March 2002 Lawlor publicly supported a proposal to develop a cruise-ship terminal at the northern end of The Spit, the terminal plan was identified by Lawlor as being in the Seaway and not the Broadwater. Both the Gold Coast Bulletin and local Councillor Dawn Crichlow were critical of the perceived about-face. Later that year the State Government ruled out allowing any bridge across the Broadwater to Wave Break Island. The Mayor Gary Baildon attributed the decision to Lawlor's election commitments and subsequent campaign against Harbour Visions 2020.