John Coates is the Olympics hero Brisbane needs

Leaders we can look up to are few and far between these days – and we in Queensland have had an unfair share of duds. So I’m calling it: John Coates is a hero, writes Kylie Lang.

Leaders we can look up to are few and far between these days – and we in Queensland have had an unfair share of duds. So I’m calling it: John Coates is a hero.

The man who championed Brisbane’s bid for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games is now our champion – rescuing the Gabba from the wrecking ball in a taxpayer saving of $2.7bn and, with it, quite possibly the neighbouring and much-loved East Brisbane State School.

As one of Brisbane’s first big brick state schools, construction beginning in 1898, the Wellington Road institution has a rich heritage and it’s no surprise locals have been fighting hard to save it.

But as happens too often – in the name of “progress” rubber stamped by out-of-touch politicians and mindless bureaucrats – buildings with character and history get torn down.

The fate of this school remains to be seen, with the 60-day review of Games venue infrastructure, led by former lord mayor Graham Quirk, ending in March.

But what this week’s flexing of Olympic muscle by Mr Coates brings is a welcome reboot, one that puts the Games back in the good books.

It should never have fallen out of favour in the first place.

Olympic Boss John Coates in the AOC offices in Sydney. Pic: John Feder/The Australian.

As great cities like London and Barcelona have shown, the legacy of the Games can be transformational – and ultimately, it’s residents who are the big winners, with improved urban environments and infrastructure, increased sports participation and countless economic benefits.

What a disgrace – and an embarrassment – then that Brisbane’s journey to 2032 was thrown off course by an arrogant premier who made a captain’s call on the Gabba with the apparent ease of ordering an Aperol spritz in Italy.

Much to Mr Coates’s dismay, Annastacia Palaszczuk decided the venue should be rebuilt – never mind displacing the AFL or cricket (they’re not rugby league, after all).

This wasn’t her first odd captain’s call – another was appointing herself Minister for the Olympics and (oh, if I must) Paralympics. And who could forget her 2018 crack at renaming a Suncorp Stadium stand after her late Labor mentor Terry Mackenroth?

She backflipped on the stand after a week of public outcry and added Paralympics to her title after almost a year but the Gabba rebuild has been on the cards since April 2021.

Ms Palaszczuk’s overdue departure from politics in December didn’t end the Gabba debacle, with dithering ongoing in One William Street.

Meanwhile, the chorus of dissent remained loud among sports administrators, players and fans – and the East Brisbane school community and other stakeholders including Brisbane City Council, led by Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.

Premier Steven Miles recently distanced himself from his unpopular predecessor on the Gabba matter – no doubt realising he was on a hiding to nothing – but taking a decisive stand was left to John Coates.

Speaking candidly without political obfuscation, the International Olympic Committee vice-president said the Games were now “on the nose in Brisbane” due to failures by the state government and Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee to promote venue upgrades. And he demanded scrapping the Gabba rebuild in favour of holding the opening and closing ceremonies at Suncorp Stadium and athletics at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (formerly QEII Stadium).

This pragmatic, fiscally responsible move is a no-brainer but, thanks to another Palaszczuk vanity project, we are now left playing catch up as 2032 hurtles towards us.

Mr Coates revealed this week that plans to demolish the Gabba were not in the government’s initial Games bid. The venue was pitched as existing infrastructure, to be upgraded for cricket and AFL in the interim.

The Gabba fiasco – solely of the Labor government’s making – must now end.

As Andrew Liveris, Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee president, noted on Thursday, “we need to move forward post haste”.

“I lament the loss of time, and the distraction that has taken a little away from the amazing accomplishment of winning these Games,” he said.

Sydney-based Mr Liveris, who listens “very carefully” to Mr Coates, said it was the Queensland Government’s responsibility to deliver venue upgrades to meet the needs of a growing local population.

He’s right, of course, but it speaks volumes that it took another Sydneysider in straight-shooting John Coates to blast the Gabba rebuild to infinity and beyond.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

[e-mail]