Clock ticking on start of 100-day Olympic venue review
The long-awaited panel to decide on Queensland’s Olympic venues will be in place by next week, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie confirmed while on a site visit at one of the stadiums expected to make the list.
The confirmation came as the government on Friday gazetted changes to ministerial responsibilities to remove certain aspects of Games planning from Bleijie in preparation for the new authority taking over.
Speaking at the Sunshine Coast Stadium in his electorate of Kawana, Bleijie said that change was imminent.
The clock is ticking for the start of the 100-day Olympic venue review.
“By the end of this month, we’ll have a co-ordinate, independent co-ordination authority set up with seven panel members who will be doing the 100-day review,” he said.
The LNP announced its plans for a 100-day review days after former Brisbane LNP lord mayor Graham Quirk handed down the results of his 60-day review.
Then-premier Steven Miles commissioned the Quirk review in response to a community backlash against the cost of the $2.7 billion Gabba rebuild, which was to be Brisbane’s main Olympic stadium.
Quirk instead recommended a new stadium at Victoria Park – a recommendation quickly rejected by Miles in favour of a temporary stadium at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.
Brisbane was given an unprecedented 11 years to prepare for the 2032 Games. Almost a third of that time has passed since the International Olympic Committee awarded Brisbane the Games in 2021, leading many in business, sport and political circles to lament a squandered advantage.
“The reality is, in Sydney 2000 – the best Games in the world – they had less time than we do at the moment, so I’m very confident we’ve got the time,” Bleijie said on Friday.
Bleijie said any decisions about venues would be left to the independent panel, but still made his feelings known about one of the planned venues in his patch.
“It’s no secret that I’ve had concerns about the Kawana indoor centre, where the Sunshine Coast Council and the former Labor government had placed it, because of the displacement of the Kawana Dolphins [rugby league club],” he said.
The proposed stadium upgrade and indoor arena in Bleijie’s Kawana electorate. The arena plan has attracted his ire because it would displace a rugby league club.Credit: Sunshine Coast Council
The site of the proposed 6000-seat arena at Kawana, next to the outdoor stadium, was announced almost two years ago.
It was met with opposition from Sunshine Coast LNP politicians Ted O’Brien, the federal member for Fairfax, and state Maroochydore MP Fiona Simpson, who both argued for Olympic basketball to be leveraged to build a convention centre in the new Maroochydore CBD.
“Since I’ve announced the 100-day review, which will commence in a couple of weeks, I’ve had community members contact me about that, and that’s why we’ve included all these minor venues into the 100-day review,” Bleijie said.
“We’re leaving it to an independent panel now.”
Another gazetted ministerial change has seen Tourism Minister Andrew Powell take responsibility for the declaration of major events at government-run stadiums from Sports Minister Tim Mander. Suncorp Stadium, and other venues, are increasingly used for tourist drawcards, such as concerts.