‘Don’t screw up’ Olympics: convention boss warning

ASM Global boss Harvey Lister says Brisbane needs to do better and avoid “screwing up” the global event in 2032 while a former government minister calls for bravery in decision making.

The boss of Australia’s largest convention and exhibition company and a former senior Queensland Government minister say Brisbane is under pressure to avoid “screwing up” planning for the global event only eight years away.

ASM Global Asia Pacific chairman Harvey Lister and former Labor minister Kate Jones told a Property Council panel in Brisbane that political decision making and planning laws needed to improve ahead of the event.

Mr Lister, whose company runs the city’s Suncorp Stadium and the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, said past events such as Expo 88 showed the way while Ms Jones said there had to be “bravery” in political decision making.

The comments come ahead of Monday’s release of a review of the Brisbane Olympic’s masterplan by former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.

The 60-day review of the multibillion-dollar Olympic infrastructure program was ordered by Premier Steven Miles in January to allay community outrage over early cost blowouts and criticism of the planning for the Games, including a total rebuild of the Gabba.

“I’m incredibly optimistic that we’re going to run a great Olympic Games,” Mr Lister said. “The Olympic Games isn’t the most difficult event in the world to run and the organisation is incredibly good at transferring knowledge from city to city.”

ASM Global executive chairman and CEO Harvey Lister.

Mr Lister said the city had grown in confidence after the 1982 Commonwealth Games and World Expo 88. “There is a lot of ambition out there among people who want to contribute and participate and volunteer and do things,” he said.

“And they want us collectively not to screw it up. And that’s the bit that we have to focus on because we haven’t done terribly well yet.”

Ms Jones said Brisbane had one chance to get it right and agreed with a suggestion there may be a need for a new authority to deal with restrictive planning regimes.

“We want to be a world-class city capable of hosting the largest event in the world, but that means we’re going to have some difficult decisions to make,” said Ms Jones, who served as a minister for innovation, tourism industry development and Cross River Rail in the current Labor administration. “I know there is nothing worse than a former politician commenting on current politicians, but I think that there is a space for bravery.

“We don’t have the luxury of the past to let things happen or to politically protect some suburbs We can’t stumble our way through that. We need to call on all leaders at all levels to have deliberate decision making in consultation with industry.”

“We have one chance to get this right and if we leave it to political day-to-day decision making, we’re not going to get there.

“We actually do have some of the strongest planning rules in the world here, but it’s how we use them and the political will to use them in the right way. But as Harvey said there is a lot of pressure not to stuff it up over the next eight years.”