George St Beat: Shock twist could spark $2.5bn Games arena bidding war
One of the centrepieces of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues could become the subject of a 2.5bn bidding war, despite one seemingly comfortable frontrunner.
QLD Politics
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If Brisbane’s entertainment king Harvey Lister has any concerns about the potential bidding war over who will manage the $2.5bn Brisbane Arena earmarked to be built for the 2032 Games, he’s not showing it.
Lister’s ASM Global has long been in the hot seat to take control of the new major Brisbane venue, adding to the company’s extensive portfolio, which also includes Suncorp Stadium.
In a twist move, however, a consortium led by Live Nation Entertainment also recently emerged as a late contender, and has been busy spruiking its interest.
But at Tuesday‘s Committee for Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic event – at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, also managed by ASM Global – Lister was adamant he would be triumphant.
In a discussion with Paralympian Michael Dobbie-Bridges, who said Lister‘s company “may manage”, Lister quickly interjected – ”will manage”.
And really who can blame him for his confidence – given the arena was his ripping idea in the first place.
DOROTHY D’OH
A rare leak of the state government’s Question Time strategy has this week revealed, unsurprisingly, that a lot of it involves “attacks” on the Opposition.
Tuesday’s Question Without Notice run sheet seemingly fell out the back of a truck and into the hands of the Opposition — where it was then posted to social media by the LNP’s Jarrod Bleijie.
The document outlines a total of 13 Dorothy Dixers, which minister will answer them, the topic and the Labor MP tasked with asking the pre-prepared question.
Of those, 11 are labelled “LNP attack”.
Mr Bleijie labelled the insight into Labor’s strategy as “disgraceful” as the “sole focus is attack” instead of governing.
The whole purpose of Dorothy Dixers is to promote government policy or criticise the Opposition.
In the end, the leaked document provides good insight into how the sausage is made and only affirms that a lot of Questions Time is ultimately pointless and adds no ultimate value to democracy.
GREETINGS FROM GIBRALTAR
Speaker Curtis Pitt was away from Parliament this week to attend a meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, which is effectively an organisation of elected democracy nerds.
The venue? Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory which shares a border with Spain and is nearly an eighth of the size of the North Queensland tourism haven of Magnetic Island.
Which is a significant change of scenery for Mr Pitt, who appeared in a Seven News segment this week for a story about the not-so-secret tunnel underneath parliament that was never completed.
One eye-catching detail of this segment was Mr Pitt’s outfit — an Office of the Speaker embossed hoodie. It’s not a crime to do democracy in comfortable clothing.
This exclusive state parliament merchandise is a far cry though from the usual fair available at the gift shop, which includes gin, wine, stubby coolers, jigsaw puzzles, and reusable coffee cups.
JOE’S BIG WALK
Speaking of the Speaker, we want to give a shout out to fill-in Speaker Joe Kelly, who walked a massive 596km from Taroom to Brisbane to raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease.
The Greenslopes MP took two weeks to do the huge 690,090-step hike with his brother, Vince, which means they walked about 40km every day. Very impressive.
Mr Kelly’s parents both died of Parkinson’s disease. He and his brother began their journey in Taroom, which was their mum’s hometown.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Opposition Leader David Crisafulli were among those who cheered the brothers on as they made it to the finish line in Brisbane.
The pair helped raise more than $50,000 for Parkinson’s Queensland.
And after the long trek, Mr Kelly – who is deputy speaker – took the Speaker’s chair in state parliament this week, while Mr Pitt was out of town.
He kept the place (mostly) in order during Mr Pitt’s absence.
BAILEY GOT BEEF
Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s ongoing war with the always-vocal CFMEU over the Cross River Rail doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
Which made an awkward misspeak by the Minister in parliament this week even more unfortunate.
Greens South Brisbane MP Amy MacMahon asked Mr Bailey about his CFMEU beef, noting the union has called his management of the project “dysfunctional” and asking, “what is the minister’s response to the CFMEU’s calls for him to be replaced?”
But during his answer the Minister – more than once – proudly boasted “the safety record of the Cross River Rail project is well below industry standards”.
It appears his frontbench colleagues alerted him to the bungle afterwards, with him later returning to his feet to clarify he in fact meant the opposite.
“I meant to say that the number of injuries and safety instances were well below what is usual in this standard. I think I misspoke,” he said.
But the CFMEU didn’t miss the opportunity – shortly afterwards posting on their Facebook page a leaked video from the project, which appeared to show a worker precariously working near a large hole.
‘PETER, PETER, PETER’
The corridors of Queensland Parliament were the epicentre of the voice referendum this week, hosting critical meetings and panels with heavy hitters from each side of the campaign.
On Tuesday, prominent Indigenous lawyer and advocate Noel Pearson implored Queensland pollies to be at the “forefront” of the ‘yes’ movement.
The next day, recently promoted federal opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Peter Dutton’s vocal ‘no’ campaigner, was welcomed in the state’s halls of power to meet with Liberal-National MPs.
But despite the swath of influence and badgering by Palaszczuk government members, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is still yet to commit to a position.
His indecision prompted a number of sprays this week, with Deputy Premier Steven Miles delivering a mocking taunt on Thursday.
“They only listen to Peter Dutton,” he bellowed to parliament. “We can picture it, can‘t we: ‘Peter, Peter, Peter, what should we do?’ and the reply, ‘Don’t worry, mate. We’ll send Jacinta up to tell you about the campaign.”
UP IN SMOKE
The government announced this week it was abandoning the much touted Griffith University emergency accommodation.
They say it would have required substantial works to ensure the unused site was up to modern fire safety standards.
In its wake, the government has signed contracts to purchase 64 homes from the private market.
It prompted sensible questions from the LNP about when the government was told the Griffith site was no longer viable, given the government had initially announced the project last year.
According to Deputy Premier Steven Miles, the government only received the fire engineering brief this month.
The government had already sunk $2.1m into the now abandoned project on a range of works, including internal demolition, asbestos testing, and design development.
RUNAWAY BUNS
North Queensland is facing a serious issue of “out of control buns” according to a press release by Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter this week.
Everything is just a bit wilder past the Tropic of Capricorn, but buns gone rogue was not on the bingo card.
Alas it was an unfortunate, though wholesome, typo from the KAP office which was actually meant to say “out of control BURNS”.
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