Exclusive poll: Queenslanders back 2032 Olympic Games bid

As southeast Queensland’s 2032 Games bid gets serious with a delegation heading to Olympic headquarters, the state has backed the campaign in an exclusive Courier-Mail poll.

QUEENSLANDERS are strongly backing a 2032 Olympics bid, with an exclusive The Courier-Mail poll revealing the majority of people in Brisbane and the regions support the plan for a Sunshine State spectacular.

But, controversially, the results also revealed majority support for calling it the Queensland Olympics (52 per cent), compared to the Brisbane Olympics (23 per cent) and the southeast Queensland Olympics (9 per cent), bucking the tradition of naming the four-yearly Games after its host city.

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According to The Courier-Mail/YouGov poll of 1000 Queenslanders, 59 per cent support the Olympics bid, with backing almost identical across the capital (60 per cent), the southeast and regional Queensland (both 58 per cent).

The strongest backers of the bid – so far pitched as SEQ 2032 – were Labor voters (64 per cent), with LNP voters not far behind (60 per cent).

Australian Games legend Sally Pearson said Queesland has a once-in-a-generation chance to secure a home-turf Olympics that would inspire kids to take up sport for decades to come.

Pearson, who was inspired as a teen by watching Cathy Freeman compete in Sydney, said Queensland needed to go for gold and secure the world’s biggest sporting event.

Her backing comes on the eve of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk leaving with Queensland Olympic bid leaders for an extended meeting with IOC boss Thomas Bach in Switzerland.

Pearson said watching Cathy Freeman star at the Sydney Games inspired her teenage dreams to compete on the track.

Australia's greatest modern-day track and field athlete Sally Pearson celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's 100m Hurdles at Hampden Park during the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014

Having a Queensland Games would give young kids something to aim for ahead of 2032, she said. It would also be a massive home-ground boost for those competing, while those watching – as she did in 2000, following every minute of the Sydney Games – would form the next generation of sportspeople.

“I was lucky enough to compete in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and that was sensational,” Pearson said.

“You walk out on the track and every single person is barracking for you.

“You feel so proud.”

Pearson said Queensland had the perfect climate for spectators and could use the Games to showcase its tourist attractions to the world, as well as setting up great sports infrastructure for generations to come.

“It will inspire kids. It will be huge,” she said.

To coincide with the exclusive poll, city-shaping specialists Ubris created an artist’s impression of what a central Brisbane Olympic Stadium could look like for T he Courier-Mail.

The artwork takes into consideration information suggesting the IOC wants to move away from overblown and under-used white-elephant stadiums and facilities.

As Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk prepared to pack her bags to fly to the meeting at IOC headquarters in Lausanne next week, she said the Olympics could have a hugely positive impact on the state.

“I’m going there with an open mind to hearing what they have to say,” she said.

“This is probably the most important meeting we’ve ever had in that we’ve been invited by the (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, to actually go over and ascertain the full impact of having an Olympic Games in 2032.

“It’s back-to-back briefings.

“It will have a huge impact right across our regions if we get it right.”

The IOC invited Ms Palaszczuk and Federal Government and Southeast Council of Mayors delegates MP Ted O’Brien and Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson, as well as Australian Olympic Committee head John Coates, to discuss a bid on Tuesday.

Under changes to the Olympic process, cities no longer make expensive head-to-head bids for the Games. The IOC has also signalled that it wants to move away from costly Games that leave massive white-elephant buildings. Instead it wants proof that a city or region will be left with a positive legacy.

The bid was first mooted by the Council of Mayors as a way of bringing forward road and rail spending to end the congestion that Federal Government Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge says is costing Brisbane alone $4 billion a year.

Mr Coates, meanwhile, said he was “very encouraged” by the three levels of government working together.

“Bringing the Olympic Games to Australia for the third time represents a very real and exciting opportunity for Australia, and Queensland in particular,” he said.

URBIS artists’ impression of a Brisbane Olympics stadium. Credit: URBIS

BID OPENS ROAD TO JOBS

THE 2032 Olympics bid would bring forward desperately needed roads and rail improvements for southeast Queensland, Games backers say.

The plan, which was first mooted by the SEQ Council of Mayors in 2015, would give impetus to the City Deal currently being thrashed out by councils and the State and Federal governments to create and build a list of essential infrastructure.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s representative at the IOC meeting on Tuesday, Fairfax MP Ted O’Brien said the Olympics could go far beyond sport. “The Olympics would allow us to show our sporting prowess and our beautiful natural environment but it also gives us the opportunity to create the infrastructure we need,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The Olympics would establish a firm deadline for building the infrastructure we need.

“We would need to commit to construction immediately.

“It would be a massive stimulus to the economy but it would provide the connectivity assets we need for generations to come.”

Council of Mayors representative to the IOC meeting, Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said the focus of the Olympics proposal was to create a drive for critical transport and digital infrastructure.

“We have always believed a Games could be an amazing opportunity for our region, Queensland and the nation,” Cr Jamieson said.

“The IOC recognises that a southeast Queensland Games is compact enough to deliver an outstanding athlete experience, while taking advantage of the many venues that already exist across the region.

“The IOC want to see future Games that deliver on its recent reforms and changes, while maintaining the Olympic experience for its athletes.”

The need for a City Deal — which will set infrastructure, economic development and liveability priorities and funding models — was the number one point in an action plan developed from The Courier-Mail’s Future SEQ campaign last October.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with IOC President Thomas Bach and Australian Olympic chief John Coates

INVITATION TO OLYMPIC FUTURE

IT’S an invitation too good to refuse — talking to the most powerful person in the organisation behind the biggest sporting event in the world.

In a visit choreographed almost to the minute, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will lead a delegation from all three levels of government to see International Olympic Committee boss Thomas Bach at the sporting body’s Swiss headquarters.

On Tuesday morning, Ms Palaszczuk, the Federal Government’s Olympic representative Ted O’Brien MP and Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson will be greeted by Mr Bach at the glittering IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

Standing in front of the media, there will be handshakes and greetings before the delegation is escorted inside for hours of briefings on what the Olympics means, and needs.

The State Government is at pains to point out the IOC invited the delegation to Lausanne, not the other way around, and that nothing will be decided until the number crunching and cost-benefit analysis being done in William St comes back at the end of the year and shows a Games will benefit Queensland.

Insiders say the Olympics have changed.

They say the IOC no longer wants the legacy of the Games to be abandoned white elephant stadiums and glaring red bottom lines on host city balance sheets.

Instead, it wants taxpayers and ratepayers to be able to point to better roads and rail transport, the jobs they created and a cultural and sporting infrastructure that lives far beyond the short weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.