Editorial: Qld must learn from Victoria’s Games debacle

Every time you decide to hold a sporting event outside the host city you dramatically escalate the cost of the Games, writes the editor.

Former Victorian Labor premier Daniel Andrews

As Infrastructure Minister Jarrod Bleijie this week puts the finishing touches to his plan for venues for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, he must consider the lessons from Victoria’s embarrassing move to cancel the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

A parliamentary inquiry into that debacle has been held, and Mr Bleijie really should get himself a copy of that inquiry’s interim report, and turn to page 37. It is there he will find the summary of evidence from the chief executive of that doomed event, Jeroen Weimar.

Mr Weimar explains that the single decision that killed Victoria 2026 was the political one made by then premier Dan Andrews to distribute the events across the state – to prop up Labor-held electorates. That decision saw the operational costs (so those above and beyond the price of venues) blow out from a worst-case $2bn to $3.2bn.

“What drove these costs were having not one but five host cities, requiring significant duplication of infrastructure and services,” Mr Wiemar told the inquiry.

“(Further), the use of smaller, regional cities … meant less existing infrastructure and service capacity, including things like labour force, accommodation and hospitality options (and) significant transport and security costs arising from such a large geographical footprint.”

He even helpfully provided an example of why this was so: “If you were arriving as Team Wales, you would be arriving at Melbourne Airport and then breaking your team into four components depending on sport, moving them to four different villages and then having to support those teams in four quite different locations.

“What that meant for the organising committee, but also for the individual teams, was a significant duplication of costs.

“We would have had to have four or five uniform and accreditation centres. We needed five volunteer centres to manage the volunteering process. We needed additional resources to support the teams and country delegations. None of that is impossible, and we had a plan to deliver that, but that sheer duplication does introduce additional cost.”

This experience should be a red alert for Mr Bleijie, Premier David Crisafulli – indeed, the entire state cabinet – ahead of their historic meeting next Monday where they will approve the plan for how they want the Games in 2032 to work.

The key lesson is that you can spread the cash for venue builds far and wide, but every time you decide to hold a sporting event outside the host city – Brisbane – you also dramatically escalate the cost of putting on the Games, and you also add a lot of challenges – and so add to the risk of being embarrassed on the global stage.

It is understood that the LNP government has been looking for ways to ensure more sports can be spread across the state, so that voters in the regions – to whom the Crisafulli administration owes its life – can share in the glory.

But the embarrassing debacle that saw Victoria cancel its plans to host the Commonwealth Games – that has seen taxpayers there literally hand over $200m for Glasgow in Scotland to instead host the event in 2026 – shows what can happen if the politicians get too involved, because all politicians care about is getting elected and staying elected.

Considering all of that, Premier Crisafulli would do well to reflect on his own experience when weighing up over the next week whether the political benefits of spreading events across the regions outweigh all those very real risks.

The Ingham-raised Mr Crisafulli shared with the audience at The Courier-Mail’s Future Brisbane event last November: “I was a country kid in ’88 when a thing called Expo rolled into town in Brisbane.

“It made me feel proud to be a Queenslander – and I was living at the other end of the state.”

TREASURER PLAYING CATCH-UP

Cyclone Alfred hit Queenslanders hard, but spare a thought for its impact on one of our own: federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Before Alfred made his long journey south, the Logan-based Mr Chalmers would have assumed the election campaign would kick off in early March – meaning he’d get to skip his budget preparations.

But Alfred had other plans, and the delay caused by the Prime Minister not wanting to call the election that weekend means there will be a budget on March 25.

While we’re not suggesting that this has caught the dedicated Mr Chalmers on the hop, he wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t feeling the pressure. But while Alfred put him in this mess, it might also help him out of it. Mr Chalmers has played up the impact of the cyclone (a $1.2bn hit to economic output) and has been selling the government’s response to natural disasters as a key element of his fourth budget.

Mr Chalmers said yesterday: “Recovering and rebuilding from natural disasters will be a key influence on the budget that … I will hand down in eight days’ time.”

Let’s hope there is more to come, though. Aussies, particularly in the southern states’ battleground seats, will be looking for more than that.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here