It’s time Queensland lived up to its Olympic pledge

It all could have been so different, so grown up. So competent.

Instead, the delivery of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games has descended into farce, and it can all be traced back to a broken promise.

The Olympic schism between Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk could so easily have been avoided.Credit: Matt Dennien

That promise, made to the International Olympic Committee before Brisbane was awarded the Games, was for a cross-government Olympic Co-ordination Authority, a body that would – theoretically, at least – take the politics out of the Games’ delivery.

“It is anticipated the OCA will be established as a government entity with Australian, Queensland and local government representatives,” the Brisbane bid team assured the IOC in 2021.

“It will have the capacity to co-ordinate the activities of all Australian and Queensland government departments and agencies with responsibilities for Games-related matters.

“This shared governance model will ensure public authorities have full oversight of all Games projects, from the planning, scoping and design phase through to contracting, construction and delivery.”

An artist’s impression of the redeveloped RNA Showgrounds.

It was a broken promise that seemed to catch Deputy Premier Steven Miles unawares in March, when he erroneously claimed no such promise was made.

And it’s a broken promise that came back to bite the Palaszczuk government in spectacular fashion last week, when Sports Minister Stirling Hinchliffe’s botched announcement of an RNA Showgrounds upgrade drew condemnation from key project stakeholders.

In announcing a partly funded $137 million upgrade, Hinchliffe effectively extorted Brisbane City Council and sports bodies into stumping up $91 million. It takes some chutzpah to announce that kind of commitment from third parties, with whom no agreement has been reached.

Seizing on Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s public support for an upgrade to the RNA so the Brisbane Lions and Queensland Cricket could still host games while the Gabba was in the midst of its $2.7 billion upgrade, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk ramped up the pressure.

“The Brisbane City Council needs to step up … You don’t go and do photo ops and not stump up the cash – I’m sorry, it doesn’t work like that,” she said.

Brave words for someone who rode the Matildas bandwagon harder than just about any politician in the country during this year’s World Cup, yet failed to follow up those photo ops with any meaningful investment in the game.

And rather than forcing Brisbane ratepayers to stump up the cash, all that was achieved was Schrinner resigning from a key Olympics planning body and dropping his council’s support for the Gabba redevelopment.

It’s not hard to talk, people.

The way the Palaszczuk government has run roughshod over the Olympics is more than a little ironic when you consider the complete lack of enthusiasm from the premier and her colleagues when south-east Queensland mayors first floated the idea of hosting the Games.

Then, the Olympic bid was seen as a means to promote local infrastructure development, international recognition and trade.

There have been criticisms the legacy focus has shifted from transport links to multibillion-dollar stadiums bookending the CBD. Those criticisms aren’t entirely unfounded.

That’s one of many reasons why a cross-government OCA with full oversight of Games planning and delivery is so desperately needed to get the planning back on track.

One can’t help but think that had such an authority been established, the farcical events of the past week would have been avoided.

And, even before Brisbane was awarded the Games, the need for such a body was made abundantly clear.

From the moment Palaszczuk unilaterally declared the Gabba would be rebuilt rather than a modular stadium at Albion that would be downsized after the Games, the die was cast.

The announcement came out of the blue and blindsided the federal government, suggesting unilateralism is Palaszczuk’s MO when it comes to the Olympics.

That is an untenable trait when all three levels of government have such a vested stake in delivering the Games.

Brisbane was given an incredible 11-year lead-in to plan and deliver the 2032 Olympics. Nine of those years remain.

There is still a luxury of time, but that won’t last long. A course correction is essential if Brisbane is to pull this one off.

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