As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, March 20

On the campaign trail last month, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner was reluctant to back the proposal for a Victoria Park stadium, saying the council was “beginning to create Brisbane’s biggest new park in 50 years”.

Today, a re-elected Schrinner said there should be no “net” loss of parkland in Brisbane.

This can be achieved, he said, even if a stadium is built at Victoria Park.

A new stadium would occupy 10 per cent of the park’s 64 hectares and would be built on land that already houses the Victoria Park golf complex.

“We know there is state-government-owned land around Victoria Park that could potentially be contributed to the park so that we can offset any loss of that 10 per cent,” Schrinner said.

“At the moment there are major construction sites for Cross River Rail happening nearby … there could be some of that land given to council.

“Transport and Main Roads own[s] land just adjacent to Victoria Park, which we’d love to see added to Victoria Park. That’s a sizeable parcel.”

That’s where we leave the posts for today.

And what a day it’s been, as the fallout from the state government’s call to refuse advice on venues for the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032 continues to echo.

First, the premier denied a report he was looking into the possibility of cancelling the whole shebang.

The man leading the organising committee, Andrew Liveris, has essentially said “get on with it”, while Olympic swimming champ Cate Campbell has joined the chorus of people criticising the Miles government’s decision not to build a stadium from scratch in Victoria Park.

But not everyone disagrees with the idea of sprucing up the relatively tiny QSAC stadium, in Nathan. “The scaled-down Games plan for Queensland’s stadiums was the only decision that could be made,” writes Peter FitzSimons.

FitzSimons would butt heads with freshly re-elected Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner on the matter.

But it wasn’t all fun and Games today.

Rudd was roasted by a truculent Trump, it’s goodbye to Godfreys, and the Broncos are preparing for a grand final rematch with the Panthers - minus some of their biggest names.

We’ll return with a live blog on Thursday.

Teenage prodigy Shalom Sauaso will make her Super W starting debut, having been named to line up on the Queensland Reds’ wing against the Western Force on Saturday.

The 16-year-old came off the bench in her side’s 32-21 defeat to the Fijiana Drua, scoring a try in her maiden top flight appearance, and Reds’ five-eighth Carys Dallinger declared she had the makings of a player the Wallaroos could build around to clinch a maiden World Cup in the future.

“She is one of the most insane kids I have ever come across. She’s exceptionally talented, can kick, pass, run – she can do it all,” Dallinger said.

“She’s honestly just a rare talent. She takes things with a grain of salt, and then you show her something and she picks it up straight away.

“We’ve got some young talent coming through that are definitely contenders for either the 2025 or 2029 World Cup.”

Broncos coach Kevin Walters has refused to rule out a reunion with former prop Tevita Pangai jnr, but declared the club were confident in the forward depth at their disposal.

Ahead of his return to the boxing ring on Saturday night, when he takes on Raphael Su’a in Ipswich, Pangai jnr admitted he would be open to an NRL comeback less than 12 months after leaving the Bulldogs and expressing his desire to attain world super heavyweight glory.

While Walters was confident with what he had in his ranks – as the likes of Xavier Willison and Ben Te Kura continue to develop – he confirmed Brisbane would remain open to a homecoming for the one-time State of Origin middle.

“We’re comfortable with our forward depth at the moment. I know that Tevita is sitting there and playing Queensland Cup [with Souths Logan], we’re aware of that, so we’re just holding our cards at the moment,” Walters said.

“But who knows what happens in the future. If that does happen and he does get here it would be good to see him playing some good footy here.

“We don’t rule anything out, the future is unknown for us.”

On the campaign trail last month, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner was reluctant to back the proposal for a Victoria Park stadium, saying the council was “beginning to create Brisbane’s biggest new park in 50 years”.

Today, a re-elected Schrinner said there should be no “net” loss of parkland in Brisbane.

This can be achieved, he said, even if a stadium is built at Victoria Park.

A new stadium would occupy 10 per cent of the park’s 64 hectares and would be built on land that already houses the Victoria Park golf complex.

“We know there is state-government-owned land around Victoria Park that could potentially be contributed to the park so that we can offset any loss of that 10 per cent,” Schrinner said.

“At the moment there are major construction sites for Cross River Rail happening nearby … there could be some of that land given to council.

“Transport and Main Roads own[s] land just adjacent to Victoria Park, which we’d love to see added to Victoria Park. That’s a sizeable parcel.”

Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell has joined the chorus of people criticising the Queensland government’s decision not to build a stadium at Victoria Park.

“This is a case of politics getting in the way of progress,” she told Nine’s Today show this morning.

Bronze medalist Cate Campbell during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.Credit: Getty

“We are really squandering an incredible opportunity by all this bickering, by short-term visions, by the government looking for ways to keep themselves in a job as opposed to what will actually be good for south-east Queensland.”

Reds centre Isaac Henry has been cleared of an ACL rupture, however he will still miss the rest of the Super Rugby Pacific season.

It is just the latest chapter in a heartbreaking run for the 24-year-old, whose career has been stalled time and again through foot surgery and hamstring issues before he announced his comeback for the Queensland Reds against the Chiefs in round 3.

Isaac Henry will look to recover in time for the 2025 campaignCredit: Getty

He underwent surgery on a ruptured patella tendon, and will look to recover in time for the 2025 campaign.

“Obviously it’s going to be a long-term knee injury, and we’re all absolutely gutted by that,” Reds assistant coach Zane Hilton said.

“He’s a tough guy, he’s come back from a lot of other injuries before, and we’ve got no doubt that we probably still haven’t seen the best of Isaac. He’ll get back on track and we’ve got no doubt that our off-field staff, as well as all of us, are all behind him, and we’ll look after him and get him back to where he needs to be.”

Brisbane’s re-elected lord mayor has questioned the state government’s decision to choose the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (formerly QEII stadium) in Nathan as its main Olympic venue.

Standing in Victoria Park this morning, Adrian Schrinner said: “The first question that needs to be asked is: ‘How do we get people to and from QSAC?’”

The Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.Credit: Google Earth

The centre neighbours Mount Gravatt Cemetery and Griffith University’s Nathan Campus.

“The [state] government hasn’t put any funding aside to provide transport options for QSAC,” Schrinner said.

He said about $400 million to $500 million would need to be spent to provide adequate transport in and out of QSAC, in addition to the $1.6 billion needed to refurbish the stadium for the Games.

That would pay for an additional station on the council’s new Brisbane Metro busway and an extension of the busway, he said.

“Suddenly you’re getting the numbers adding up,” Schrinner said.

“Ultimately, the question rightly needs to be asked: is this decision the right one? I’m keen to hear from the wider community on this as well.

“If we don’t get it right now, we will lose the opportunity, going forward.”

A festival in the state’s south will introduce pill testing this month, a little more than a year after the Queensland government announced it would pursue the move.

The long-awaited step was an effort to help reduce drug-related harm or deaths, alongside a wider move to shift to a more health-focused response to illicit substances after years of largely quiet work on the issue.

Now, the Rabbits Eat Lettuce electronic music festival near Warwick – about 160 kilometres south-west of Brisbane – will feature the service when it runs over the Easter weekend.

Two people were found dead in their tent at the festival in 2019, after which then-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would travel to the ACT to examine the territory’s pill-testing trial – the only other Australian jurisdiction now operating such a scheme.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, set to detail the milestone today, told the ABC a fixed-site pill testing service would also open in Bowen Hills in April, with a second site to follow.

Re-elected Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has today thrown his support behind an Olympic stadium at Victoria Park, despite his previous reluctance to back the idea.

When asked about the proposal – first touted by former South Bank chairman Steve Wilson – last month, Schrinner was against any venue that would reduce the parkland.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner celebrates his re-election on Sunday with Deputy Mayor Krista Adams.Credit: Cameron Atfield

“The reality is, we are already beginning to create Brisbane’s biggest new park in 50 years,” he said. “As far as I am concerned, this is the plan for Victoria Park.”

So what’s changed?

Schrinner was re-elected as Brisbane’s lord mayor on Saturday. He says he was briefed on Graham Quirk’s independent review of planned Olympic venues on Monday afternoon.

“The review looks into great detail at all the different options that were considered and it makes quite a compelling case for Victoria Park,” he said this morning.

Schrinner noted the review said a stadium could be built on 10 per cent of the 64-hectare park.

“I know cost of living is a challenge for people. It’s something that we are really conscious of as well. But in 10 or 20 years’ time, will we look back on this decision and say that it is the right one, or will we say we should have gone with Victoria Park?” Schrinner said.

“If you look at the experience in Sydney, if you look at the experience in Melbourne and Perth … they built major stadiums in parkland areas. They were controversial at the time …

“But looking back, overwhelmingly, people agree it was the right decision and the right location.”

The 2032 Games venue review is, again, a big topic in state parliament. Nine reported last night the government sought advice about the “potential cost and legal fallout” if it cancelled the event, at a cost of $500 million in compensation and $3.5 billion in lost federal funds.

Seizing on this, the LNP has quizzed Premier Steven Miles during question time, asking him to confirm the reports and suggesting such advice had been presented to cabinet on Monday.

“The only government that I’m aware of that has ever sought formal legal advice about cancelling the Games … was those opposite, when they sought to cancel the Commonwealth Games,” Miles said.

He went on in later responses to questions to suggest the LNP was “too scared to stand up to Graham Quirk”, who Miles handpicked to lead the review which suggested a (rejected) $3.4 billion stadium be built at Victoria Park.

The premier again criticised the LNP and its leader David Crisafulli for not outlining a position on the new stadium proposal and suggestions the party would instead leave that call to an incoming independent delivery authority.