Editor’s view: Queensland, where is the leadership?
Today is a sad day for Queensland. Political cowardice has left us with an embarrassing 2032 Games outcome that will waste $1bn of taxpayer money, writes The Editor.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Today is a sad day for Queensland. Not only has political cowardice left us with a frankly embarrassing 2032 Games outcome that will literally waste $1bn of taxpayer money, but the Premier and his alternative have been exposed as politicians who care more about winning votes than about the future of our state.
Fearing this very outcome, we wrote in this column last Friday about leadership – and about how the best leaders have the courage to make decisions that are not popular at the time, confident that they are the right thing to do.
History is littered with such examples. Indeed, even the recent Australian history of stadiums and sporting facilities provides evidence to support this truth.
Take Perth Stadium, for example – the reason Brisbane is no longer guaranteed a cricket Test match, and why big acts such as Coldplay now bypass our state. Former West Australian premier Colin Barnett had to force the decision through, and then hold the line against constant opposition attacks on it. When it came time to open the stadium, in 2018, Mr Barnett had been replaced by the opposition leader who had so vehemently opposed it, Mark McGowan – who said at the official opening: “This is a magnificent stadium that I think will meet everyone’s desires and fulfil everyone’s dreams.”
Rewind a few decades and we find then-premier of Victoria John Cain having to fight through the mid-1980s for the construction of what is now Melbourne Park, the home of the Australian tennis Open. The opposition at the time, led by Jeff Kennett, criticised the build as a “monument to the premier” that would rob locals of an “irreplaceable parkland, which is part of (Melbourne’s) heritage”.
Today, the second-largest show court at the world-famous facility is named the John Cain Arena.
At Mr Cain’s funeral five years ago, Mr Kennett conceded his opposition to the development had been a mistake. He said: “It is possible that we wouldn’t have the Australian Open without (Cain’s) vision at the time, and his foresight.”
Vision and foresight. These are two attributes that are core to good leadership that our Premier Steven Miles should reflect on today, after his bizarre captain’s call yesterday to not only totally ignore a review of venues he himself commissioned at a cost of half a million dollars – but to green-light the very approach the same review recommended against.
His reason? Short-term politics, pure and simple. Zero vision. Zero courage. Zero foresight.
He explained: “I cannot support building a brand new stadium when Queenslanders are doing it tough.”
But he IS building a new stadium – at a likely cost, according to the review, of $1.6bn. Of that $1.6bn, $1bn will be spent on the temporary seating necessary for the Games to take the venue to 40,000 seats. In other words, it will be $1bn we will waste on a venue that will be pulled down after the Paralympics.
What remains will be a 14,000-seat athletics-only venue at the same suburban site that the 1982 Commonwealth Games were held; a venue so far off the beaten public transport track that every single time it has since played host to concerts or large sporting events it has been a logistic nightmare as spectators queued for hours waiting for buses to turn up at temporary stops to take them home.
Those Queenslanders doing it tough that Mr Miles is appealing to must be wondering what parallel universe they have woken up in.
Meanwhile, the state’s alternative premier, David Crisafulli, did not even have the ticker to turn up after state cabinet’s bizarre decision, to explain what he would do if the LNP – as seems likely – wins power at the October state election.
Instead, he sent out his deputy Jarrod Bleijie – who launched into an extended monologue criticising the delays that Labor’s mishandling of the Games has so far left us with, before revealing that in power the LNP would embark on its own review by asking the independent delivery authority to make the big decisions about venues. Talk about hypocrisy!
This is also not leadership. In fact, avoiding answering the question is even worse than what the Premier has done. At least he showed up!
The International Olympic Committee gave Brisbane a four-year headstart on most other host cities, approving our bid in mid-2021. But almost three years of that four-year headstart have since been squandered. By the middle of next year, we will be no better off. What an absolute bloody shame.
■ All that said, Mr Miles was right to agree to the bulk of the review’s recommendations – including the green-lighting of a new indoor concert venue arena at the Roma Street Parkland.
The Boondall Entertainment Centre is already way past its use-by date. Having a new facility in the inner-city will be transformative for our capital.
Mr Miles was also correct to promise new investment (likely to be about $600m) in an upgrade to Suncorp Stadium, the home of rugby league – by far Queensland’s favourite sport. This is a necessary spend on a venue that is now two decades old, and that regularly sells out its existing 52,500-capacity.
A previous version of this story wrongly said the Boondall Entertainment Centre was built for the 1982 Commonwealth Games
‘Anything goes’: Battlelines drawn over ‘backward’ abortion ploy
Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter has backtracked on his vow to repeal abortion laws – but Queenslanders say they have already had enough of the games. HAVE YOUR SAY
If you want to save democracy, then God save the King
A constitutional monarchy such as ours is ideally placed to make sure that power ultimately resides with the people, not the powerful, writes Susan Carter.