Editor’s view: Time to seal the deal on 2032 Games funding

It has been almost a full two years since former PM Scott Morrison agreed to go 50-50 with the state in crucial Olympics infrastructure. But today, a Games funding deal remains in limbo, writes The Editor.

Last year’s federal election result suggests that the former prime minister was wrong about a few things. But he is totally right when it comes to his views about the unexplained failure so far of the Palaszczuk and Albanese governments to establish a joint state and federal agency that would have oversight of – and so provide public confidence in – the infrastructure required for our 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.

It has now been almost a full two years since Mr Morrison agreed to go 50-50 with the state in funding the crucial infrastructure required for the Games. It was not only a critical deal in terms of funding, but the locked-in partnership between the two key levels of government was a key reason the International Olympic Committee granted the Games to the Brisbane bid.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Sadly, that goodwill has since unravelled – with the Palaszczuk government at a state level not willing to share the decision-making, and the federal Albanese government busy both redefining what the agreement was and desperately scared of the politics of the Gabba redevelopment in the middle of a heartland seat it lost to the Greens at last year’s election.

There are whispers that the two sides are still so far apart that the deal could be that the state goes it alone on the $3bn-plus rebuild of the Gabba (and so shielding federal Labor from the controversy over having to relocate the East Brisbane State School) while the national government takes over responsibility for the proposed Brisbane Arena at Roma St. The remaining billion dollars or so in other spending, it is understood, is still set to be split equally.

But none of that has yet been confirmed. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. It was only this week that we revealed the timetable for the 17,000-seat Brisbane Arena is very tight as it is with the Cross River Rail build stretching out, and the Gabba rebuild must be ready to go literally the day after the Ashes Test at the end of 2025.

That means both must be fully designed, scoped and signed off within the next three years. And yet it has already been almost two years since we won the bid and we are still exactly where we started.

Enter Mr Morrison, who staged a rare intervention into the politics of the day by telling The Courier-Mail on Wednesday that: “It’s so important for the Olympic Games to be above the argy-bargy of federal and state politics, and to realise the great opportunity the Games presents. This means sharing control and sharing funding, and I hope both sides live up to their end of the deal.”

We agree. This standoff has gone on far too long. Brisbane was given a golden opportunity by the IOC when it granted us the Games in July 2021 – an 11-year runway, four years longer than the standard.

And yet it appears we have managed to squander the first 20 months of that, at least when it comes to the decision-making over the two key new venues that will form the heart of our Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Courier-Mail then joins Mr Morrison in urging both Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to get this deal done – as a priority.