Premier seeks meeting with PM to lock in Brisbane Olympic bid

A potential bid for southeast Queensland to host the 2032 Olympic Games has taken another step forward with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk seeking talks with Prime Minister Scott Morrison over support for a tilt.

A POTENTIAL bid for southeast Queensland to host the 2032 Olympic Games has taken another step forward with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk seeking talks with Prime Minister Scott Morrison over support for a tilt.

Tourism Minister Kate Jones yesterday told 500 industry movers and shakers at The Courier-Mail’s Future Tourism lunch that Ms Palaszczuk has written to the PM “in regards to how do we work together and really understanding what their commitment is”.

She also confirmed that International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has invited Ms Palaszczuk to the IOC’s Lausanne headquarters in Switzerland for further discussions in September.

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It came as Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates emphasised that SEQ will be the only Australian contender for the global sporting spectacle and urged the crowd at Howard Smith Wharves: “The 2032 Olympic Games is there to win.”

The Star Entertainment Group chairman John O’Neill, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller, Spicers Retreats founder Jude Turner, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, Tourism and Events Queensland chief executive Leanne Coddington, demographer Bernard Salt and Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gshwind. Picture: Mark Cranitch

As The Courier-Mail reported yesterday, rule changes to go before the IOC on June 26, will allow a Future Host Commission to recommend a 2032 host to be named as soon as next July – 12 years before the event.

They will also broaden the host criteria from individual cities to multiple cities, regions, states or even countries.

“Under these reforms, the Games adapt to the city, not the city to the Games,” he said. Mr Coates said SEQ was the only region in Australia with the “requisite climate, population and sporting infrastructure to host a summer Games in July/August’’ as mandated by the Olympic movement.

“What needs to happen next is for the Queensland Government to commission an economic assessment based on the plan outlined in the Olympic Games Feasibility Study (commissioned by the SEQ Council of Mayors).”

A leadership group of Mr Coates, the Premier and Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner would then set the vision and review venue masterplan options and costs.

Mr Coates detailed how a deal with the NBC network in the US, delivering the IOC $US2.3 billion ($3.3 billion) every four years up to and including 2032 would help ensure an SEQ event broke even. Reforms have already slashed $US4.3 billion ($6.2 billion) from the budget for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by using existing and temporary venues, shorter rental periods and other measures.

Last year’s Commonwealth Games showed that Queensland had a proven ­capacity to stage major international events.

“The rest of the sporting world know we are a safe bet,” he said.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates detailed how a deal with the NBC network in the US, delivering the IOC $US2.3 billion ($3.3 billion) every four years up to and including 2032 would help ensure an SEQ event broke even. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Mr Coates said hosting the Games would ensure a boost for tourism.

“Once an Olympic city, always an Olympic city and an attraction to conference organisers and individual visitors.”

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said aiming for the 2032 Olympics was a big ambition.

“Success will change the city irrevocably. It will mean changes to roads and rail, to arts and culture, to retail and restaurants. Hosting an Olympics is an opportunity which stretches way beyond the parameters of a 14-day sporting contest,” Mr Miller said.

Leading demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt, who conducted exclusive research for our Future Tourism campaign, said that the ethnic shifts in Australia’s population from an Anglo base to an increasingly Asian one created tourism ­opportunities.

But while overall visitor numbers were rising, Queensland’s market share against NSW and Victoria had slipped due to the international “studification” of the southern states. That meant we were also missing out on a “Baby Boomer bump’’ of visits by the parents of overseas tertiary students.

He called for the Sunshine State to expand air routes to cities in China and other Asian cities to promote a “hop, hop, home’’ strategy of encouraging the relatives of international students to visit southeast Queensland and the tropical far-north or Whitsundays on their way back.

Destination Brisbane Consortium chairman John O’Neill said the group’s $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf precinct in the CBD was “the opportunity of a lifetime”.

Tourism and Events Queensland chief executive Leanne Coddington said the recent launch of ScUber – the world’s first rideshare submarine was part of an effort to create positive sentiment around the Great Barrier Reef amid claims it was dying.