Council votes for 2032 Olympics after marathon meeting

Brisbane is officially on-board the Olympics after a marathon secret meeting that won over all but one city councillor.

Brisbane is officially onboard the Olympics after a marathon secret meeting that won over all but one city councillor, Green Jonathan Sri.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said winning the 2032 Olympics – which could be just months away if the bid work progresses well – would put the eyes of half the world on Brisbane.

The Olympic bid is gathering pace with the detailed proposal expected to go to the International Olympic Committee’s future host commission then the IOC with hopefully a full vote in July.

Cr Schrinner said Brisbane City Council had now officially backed the proposal and now other partners in the Games push – the State and Federal governments and the AOC and backed by the SEQ Council of Mayors – were expected to do the same.

The AOC and partners are racing to complete IOC paperwork and questionnaires in time for a host commission meeting in less than two months, AOC boss John Coates, who addressed councillors, earlier told an influential Committee for Brisbane lunch on Friday.

Fears that information over potential venue sites could impact property prices in selected suburbs meant the details of Tuesday’s councillor briefings were kept strictly confidential, with media and the public barred from attending.

Some of the potential Brisbane Olympics venues. Photo: Courier Mail

Independent Nicole Johnston had proposed a bipartisan committee to oversee Brisbane City Council’s part of the proposal but it was knocked back. Cr Schrinner said he had promised all councillors would be part of the Games.

In June 2019, The Courier-Mail and sister SEQ mastheads officially backed the bid with front page editorials and has continued to fuel the push for the 2032 Games and the billions of dollars and 100,000 jobs it promises for Queensland.

The SEQ Council of Mayors proposed a Games bid to fast-track public transport with a feasibility study which gathered momentum on the back of The Courier-Mail’s Future SEQ campaign that warned the southeast risked grinding to a halt as major roads hit peak congestion by the early 2030s as the population grew from 3.5m to 5.5m people.

Brisbane secured preferred candidate status in February, meaning the IOC is talking exclusively to our organising committee.

The proposal is expected to go to the host commission in mid-May, and all going well, could go to a full IOC vote in July to decide whether Brisbane gets the Games.

Mr Coates warned last week that while the Games team were working hard, it’s “not a done deal”.

Lord Mayor Schrinner said the vote was a “strong result”.

“Brisbane City Council voted yes to the jobs that will be created, yes to the opportunities this will bring to our city, yes to the opportunity this will bring to our region and our state and yes to the bring forward and fast tracking of infrastructure and investment in our region that will service the needs of a growing population,” Cr Schrinner said.

“It’s a very exciting day.”

President of Paralympics Australia Jock O’Calloghan, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, AOC President John Coates and (top L to R) Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, Minister for Tourism Industry Development Stirling Hinchliffe and Council of Mayors director Mark Jamieson after the Future Host Summer Commission named Brisbane as the "preferred candidate city" to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Cr Schrinner said, if successful, Brisbane could be named Olympic hosts as early as July.

“We are hoping that a decision will be made in the two days before the Olympic Games in Tokyo that Brisbane is successful in our proposal,” Cr Schrinner said.

Green Cr Sri said he was concerned the costs would outweigh the benefits.

“Sure, hosting the Olympics will create some temporary jobs, but it will likely also put significant upward pressure on housing costs, with local renters evicted as their homes are turned into short-term accommodation for tourists, and homeless people are forcibly moved out of sight,” Cr Sri said.