How (and why) Labor dumped the key call of its own 2032 venue review

Some 100 days ago, not-yet-premier Steven Miles made resetting 2032 Games planning central to his pitch for the top job. Thirty-three days later, he launched a review of venue plans so far.

But upon receiving the draft report, three days before the final document was handed to his government, Miles held a phone call with the Olympics powerbroker whose idea had laid out a different path.

Steven Miles and his deputy, Treasurer Cameron Dick, came to the leadership roles in December promising a revamp of Games planning.Credit: Matt Dennien

We now have a clearer picture of the timeline behind his move to reject the centrepiece call from the review – a new $3.4 billion stadium at Victoria Park.

Much has been made of Miles’ 100-day milestone. The reason? He’s hoping that “tough decision” helps him stay in the job past the election in October.

Dropping in for a half-hour session on ABC Radio Brisbane on Monday, complete with questions from listeners, Miles made it explicit.

“For me, it’s ‘would you like a new stadium, or would you like more housing? Or would you like more invested in hospitals? Or would you like more cost-of-living [relief]?’,” he said.

“And I made the call to spend that extra almost $2 billion on those things.”

The decision took shape a few weeks ago, Miles has said, once it became clear that Graham Quirk, the former lord mayor leading the review, was leaning towards recommending a new stadium at Victoria Park.

Miles instead tasked public servants with looking into an alternative.

Having essentially asked Quirk for the review to help fend off criticism of – or dump – the $2.7 billion Gabba rebuild (which was likely closer to $3.3 billion), the sell was going to be tricky and another option had been ready-made.

“GABBA GAMES OVER” declared a News Corp headline on February 8, weeks into Quirk’s work and two days after Olympic supremo John Coates pitched to the review team – a move Quirk later labelled “odd”.

Coates’ plan was a coat of paint for the Gabba, renos to Lang Park for opening and closing ceremony duties, and a (mostly temporary) upgrade to the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan.

This was what Miles chose. Fast-forward to a fortnight ago, and Miles was saying the government might need time to consider the Quirk review before releasing it.

The following day, Wednesday, March 13, Coates was telling journalists in Sydney that while he would not pre-empt the review, there were two existing athletics venues (at QSAC and the Gold Coast) and he wasn’t expecting “too many surprises”.

By the Friday, Miles had been handed a draft of the review and spoke to Coates by phone “just to get into a bit more detail”, he told the ABC listeners.

“John was on his way to IOC [International Olympic Committee] meetings. He was leaving Saturday night, so I knew I needed to talk to him before cabinet discussed it.”

This was also because, Miles said, any changes needed to be negotiated with the IOC under the 2032 contract and adopting Coates’ proposal “effectively jumped us ahead on the process”.

By Sunday, as Labor’s byelection bruising became clear, detail of the review’s major recommendation began filtering to media in time to be rejected by Miles after cabinet green-lit the plan on Monday.

“I cannot support building a brand-new stadium when Queenslanders are doing it tough,” Miles said. It’s a line he’s relished repeating since – and been joined by LNP leader David Crisafulli, but not Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.

Quirk’s review put the price of 14,000-seat permanent QSAC work at about $1.6 billion. Work on the ageing Gabba was suggested to be $1 billion to push its life beyond 2032, or about half that to do the bare-minimum work needed on it until then.

Then there’s the up-to $500 million price-tag Schrinner put on transport investment needed to make the QSAC option viable and deliver legacy transport upgrades to key sites in nearby southern suburbs, along with the track itself. Call it $2.6 billion to $3.1 billion.

Regardless, Quirk’s review put the current $3.5 billion state share of 2032 venue funding in another light: $456 million a year across the eight-ish years left until the Games.

Crisafulli has pledged a fresh 100-day review should he become premier after the election in 215 days.

And Miles has said he’d consider delaying tenders for QSAC work until the poll, if asked.

A final picture of where things might yet land could still be some time away.