Kylie Lang: Annastacia Palaszczuk should be ashamed over Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games

Annastacia Palaszczuk should hang her head in shame for all of the time her short-sighted government wasted, squandering opportunities for Brisbane 2032, writes Kylie Lang.

Annastacia Palaszczuk should hang her head in shame. It makes me furious to think of the time her short-sighted government wasted, squandering opportunities to ready Brisbane for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This week things hit a new low when the International Olympic Committee had to give organisers a year’s extension to deliver the in-principle sports program.

Instead of nominating sports seven years before the Games, as is conventional, Brisbane now has until 2026 to do so.

Why? Labor excelled at dithering and dumb ideas, and without any decision on venues, it is impossible for the Brisbane Organising Committee to meet the usual deadline.

If Palaszczuk had not developed a tin ear and an inability to read the room – including that of her own party which wanted her gone before the unions forced her out – Queensland might find itself in a different position.

She might watch footage of herself, all masked up and appearing joyous in Tokyo when Brisbane was announced the host city in 2021, and question if she could have done more.

Where have those four years gone?

I’ll tell you: down the toilet.

But don’t expect any mea culpa moments from a woman whose final years in office were marked by a pursuit of red carpets.

I can’t see any admissions of guilt making it into the book she’s said to be writing that will quickly find its place in the discount bin at Dymocks.

This is a woman who, in January this year, had the audacity to criticise the lack of Games progress.

I nearly spat out my coffee when Palaszczuk told the Today show she was “absolutely shocked”.

“If I was at the IOC at the moment, I would be saying, ‘what is going on Brisbane?’” she said.

“When I left, we had a plan, we were sticking to the plan and the tenders would have been out now for The Gabba.”

Then-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk looks at artist impressions of a Gabba rebuild plan for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Picture: Dan Peled

Never mind that the cricket and AFL were against the “plan”.

They’re not rugby league.

Palaszczuk, who saw fit to appoint herself Minister for the Olympics (and after public condemnation, also the Paralympics), told national television the Victoria Park option was “absolutely ridiculous” and “it’s got no transport”. Wrong.

But the biggest clanger was this: “Frankly, I’m pretty annoyed about how it’s turned out.” The gall!

Do I hold Annastacia Palaszczuk fully responsible for the current embarrassing state of Brisbane’s readiness? No, but close.

Enter Steven Miles, who as default Premier promised a cut-price Games.

Members of the Brisbane 2032 delegation, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, then-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner, and Senator Richard Colbeck. Picture: Toru Hanai/Getty Images

What a joke to suggest upgrading the white elephant that is QSAC in Nathan – where the transport is actually rubbish and the closest landmark is a cemetery.

Meanwhile, through all this incompetence and procrastination, we have a Lord Mayor who has stood firm and embraced a bold vision.

Adrian Schrinner did not play the LNP card with the previous state government and maturely tried to work as a team. Palaszczuk made this impossible when – the week before she was booted out in December 2023 – her government tried to, in Schrinner’s words, “extort Brisbane ratepayers for tens of millions of dollars for a new RNA stadium”.

Victoria Park is the favourite to be the home of the Olympic stadium. Picture: Archipelago Architects

If you recall, this idea was so the AFL and cricket could be housed in a temporary facility during construction of Palaszczuk’s pig-headed Gabba rebuild.

Schrinner continues to look at the bigger picture – as did the independent review committee which Miles commissioned only to crazily reject its key finding – and see merit in a new stadium at Victoria Park.

Location is paramount, and if there are building challenges such as tough bedrock, as a geologist claimed this week, surmount them.

Perth did with Optus Stadium, and you only have to look at Melbourne and its terrific venues so close to the CBD to understand why Victoria Park makes sense.

We need this stadium – irrespective of the Games.

On Tuesday, LNP Premier David Crisafulli will unveil a final blueprint on Games infrastructure at The Courier-Mail’s Future Brisbane lunch, following his 100-day independent review after winning office in October.

There is no more time to waste.

Pony up and get on with it. Leave a legacy of which we can be proud, and generations can enjoy, or risk being known as the worst host city in living memory.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail
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