Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner leaves open door to Victoria Park Games stadium
The Brisbane Lord Mayor has put himself at odds with the Premier David Crisafulli after leaving the door ajar to a 2032 Games stadium at Victoria Park.
QLD News
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LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has put himself at odds with the LNP Premier after leaving the door open to a 2032 Games stadium in Victoria Park.
It comes as developer Mirvac did not rule out speculation it had been approached about, or offered to build, a stadium at its abandoned Toombul shopping centre site, which has now been completely cleared ahead of a major re-development.
Mirvac has previously said a mixed-use redevelopment with public green space, bus interchange, office, residential and smaller retail footprint were likely.
But about 40 per cent of the 10ha site probably needed to be set aside for flood mitigation.
“We are continuing to work on our plans for Toombul, as well as having productive discussions with state and local government on the future options for the site,’’ a spokeswoman said.
During a rowdy Council meeting this week, where 15 members of the Save Victoria Park lobby were present, Mr Schrinner said he was not “ruling anything in or out while there is a 100-day review under way’’.
But Premier David Crisafulli repeatedly said during the election campaign that he had ruled out new stadiums as part of his 100-day review into Games infrastructure.
A spokeswoman for Mr Crisafulli said in a statement that the terms of reference for the review included no new stadiums.
“The scope will be as previously defined, including.... use (of) existing venues,’’ the statement said.
Mr Schrinner conceded the “reality’’ that a decision on a stadium location would be made by the state.
“This decision is going to be made by another level of government,’’ he said.
“There’s a proposal to rebuild the Gabba and to build a stadium at Hamilton Northshore.
“All of these have to be looked at but my view is the Gabba won’t work, the Gabba won’t stack up and there’s a reason it fell over in the first place.
“QSAC — I can tell you that definitely won’t work, I think everyone agrees that won’t work.’’
Mr Schrinner said Council had never proposed nor had Victoria Park “on its radar’’, but it was committed to investing in a redevelopment of the park.
In August all three levels of government agreed to pump $120m into a Victoria Park/Barrambin “transformation’’.
It would be almost four times the size of South Bank and feature kilometres of landscaped walking trails, adventure playscapes, water features and public space.
Council has allocated or already spent a total of $40m of the estimated $160m cost.
The remainder was to be funded as part of the South East Queensland (SEQ) Liveability Fund, one of 29 commitments under the $1.8 billion SEQ City Deal.
Save Victoria Park lobby group spokeswoman Sue Bremner addressed Council’s Tuesday meeting in a rowdy session which included loud comments from the public gallery by former Labor councillor David Hinchliffe.
Save Victoria Park has also written to Mr Crisafulli asking for the site to be explicitly ruled out in the terms of reference. They have not received a response.
Ms Bremner accused Mr Schrinner of “playing cat and mouse over the stadium proposal for Victoria Park’’.
“We know straight after the council election in March the Lord Mayor said there was a
‘compelling case’ for Victoria Park as an Olympic Stadium,’’ Ms Bremner said.
“Former Lord mayors Jim Soorley, Campbell Newman, Tim Quinn and Bryan Walsh all came out against the stadium proposal.
“The Lord Mayor remained quiet during the state election campaign when David Crisafulli repeatedly said he was not in favour of a new stadium and did not support the proposal for an Olympic stadium at Victoria Park.
“Our group of concern citizens has been concerned that, just as the Lord Mayor (allegedly) changed his position on Victoria Park after the Council election, the premier might change his mind as well after the state election, or after the 100 day review of the Olympics is completed in February next year.”
Former Labor councillor for the area, David Hinchliffe, accused Mr Schrinner of “cowardice’’ for not raising his views until now.
He also said Council had a responsibility under the City of Brisbane Act to preserve Victoria Park for public purposes.
“It’s a Deed of Grant in Trust, council is the trustee, so to say they have no role is crazy,’’ he said.
“Brisbane is the lowest-ranking city in Australia for inner-city parkland. Our inner city is growing rapidly, so to build on our last major greens places is crazy.’’
However Mr Schrinner told the Chamber Mr Hinchliffe was a “blocker’’ who had spent his time in office opposing major infrastructure including the Clem7 and Legacy Way tunnels.
Labor Opposition Leader Jared Cassidy said the Lord Mayor was “trying to have a bob each way’’.
“It’s very strange of the Lord Mayor to get up and say in one breath ‘I will not rule anything out’ and then rule out the Gabba and QSAC as Olympic stadiums,’’ Mr Cassidy said.
“When will Adrian Schrinner make a decision about what he wants for Brisbane 2032?
“He will wait for everyone to do the hard work and then do a Steven Bradbury at the end to claim the win.”
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