Miles government slammed over Queensland Academy of Sport overhaul

One of Australian sports most experienced sports administrators says the Miles government is putting at risk gold medals at Brisbane 2032.

The Miles government is under fire over its decision to demote the Queensland Academy of Sport.

• Opinion: Decision a threat to 2032 gold

Premier Steven Miles says he will “take on suggestions on how to support future athletes” after his government was slammed by one of Australian sports most experienced administrators.

Former Australian Institute of Sport director Peter Conde slammed the Miles government for putting at risk gold medals for Brisbane 2032 by changing the way the Queensland Academy of Sport is run.

Mr Conde said the recent “absolutely appalling” decision to demote the academy within the state’s bureaucracy would lead to an exodus of high-performance practitioners from the facility, at exactly the worst time.

Ahead of his meeting today with sporting figures to discuss the Queensland Academy of Sport, Steven Miles said he was eager to take on board suggestions about how to best support the next generation of athletes.

“We know that Queensland contributes an outsized proportion of Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic team and we want to keep that up – we want to make sure our athletes perform in Paris this year, in LA in 2028, and of course when the world comes to Brisbane in 2032,” the Premier said.

“The decisions that we make now to support our athletes will play out over that kind of time period so I’m eager to make sure that we’re getting it right and we’re listening to the experts.

“That’s why I agreed to take that meeting and I’ll hear from them in good faith.”

It comes after Mr Conde, in an exclusive column, took aim at the government.

“We are honestly letting down those Queensland children who are our future Olympians and Paralympians,” Mr Conde wrote.

“We must be now priming the Queensland Academy of Sport so it is fully enabled to be a world-class high-performance sports agency – unfortunately, the government has done the opposite.”

Former Australian Institute of Sport director Peter Conde.

Mr Conde will on Tuesday be part of a delegation that will demand Premier Steven Miles sets the academy up as a statutory authority reporting directly to the Sport Minister.

The demands could not come at a worse time for Mr Miles, who on Monday called for the Australian Institute of Sport to be relocated from Canberra to Brisbane – because of the quality of our athletes and weather.

“Queensland does make up the bulk of our Olympics team and our Paralympics teams – Queenslanders outperform all of the other states,” he said.

“Whenever I talk to athletes, they would prefer to be training in Queensland than in Canberra, and I don’t blame them – I hate going to Canberra too.”

When pressed on the practicalities of the proposal, Mr Miles said that would be a matter for the federal government.

Premier Steven Miles.

His support for the proposal came after former Institute of Sport chairman John Wylie and director Andrew Fraser used The Courier-Mail on Monday for a call to move the “past its use-by date” facility north.

That was backed by Olympian Leisel Jones who said it made sense. “In the middle of winter, it (Canberra) is the most awful place to be … it’s a terrible place to train and prepare for anything because it’s the coldest place you’ll ever go,” she said on Triple M’s The Rush Hour.

“Typically, on Australian swim teams, most of the people on the team are from Queensland to start with anyway and we’ve got the great facilities.”

But federal Sport Minister Anika Wells – a Queenslander – pointed to a recent independent review which had assessed that Canberra was still the “optimal location” because of the level of investment required to move it, its international best practice facilities, and the on-site accommodation for athletes and staff. When that review was released, Ms Wells said it was clear any relocation would compromise athlete preparations for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.

Chelsea Warr – the renowned sports administrator known globally as “the gold medal maker” – last month sensationally resigned as chief executive of the QAS after four years in the role.

Mr Conde writes that the academy “quickly became the clear leader among the state institutes” under Ms Warr’s leadership – but “it will all unravel very quickly” if the government ignores his warning.