Brisbane Olympics analysis: Jarrod Bleijie’s Trump-like defiance risks ‘blowing it all up’

Four years after Brisbane won the Games, Jarrod Bleijie rightly considers himself the fixer, a crash or crash through deal maker. But he skates within an inch of blowing it all up, writes Hayden Johnson.

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie delivers the first update on the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games at the Queensland Media Club luncheon in Brisbane on Thursday. Picture: Dan Peled / NewsWire

• Starter’s gun: Stadium finally a go
• Editorial: Bleijie loves the spotlight

Showman Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie might soon realise he isn’t centre stage of this Olympic Games production.

Four years after Brisbane won the Games, the Minister for Industrial Relations, Infrastructure and Planning rightly considers himself the fixer, a crash-or-crash-through deal maker.

He’s taking on militant unions and overriding countless planning laws to get Games infrastructure started.

Yet, as Queenslanders and LNP colleagues are realising with this deputy premier, he seems to skate within an inch of blowing it all up.

Rowing on the Fitzroy River.

One throwaway line at the Queensland Media Club on Thursday by Mr Bleijie would have sent temperatures soaring inside the International Olympic Committee.

Tension between the deputy premier and IOC will be – again – centred on the feasibility of hosting Olympic rowing on Rockhampton’s Fitzroy River.

Reminded he won’t have the final sign-off on the venue, Mr Bleijie responded with trademark, Trump-like defiance.

“If they don’t want it in Rocky, then they pay for it,” Mr Bleijie said of the IOC.

Politics means LNP ministers will remain staunch supporters of Rockhampton, but ultimately the IOC will decide whether it goes ahead.

The government likes to say that the Fitzroy option is good enough for the Olympics – or as they often derisively declare “Pierre from Paris” – because it “already holds state and national championships”.

An AI image of how rowing at the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton might look at the 2032 Games.

What they fail to explain is that those championships are school events, not senior-level races – let alone international level.

And by that logic, QSAC should be resurrected as our main Olympic stadium. It also does a great job of hosting the local state school championships.

If QSAC is good enough for school carnivals then on your marks, Noah from America.

This government has built significant goodwill around the Olympic Games but Mr Bleijie risks undoing his hard work if arrogance overtakes statesmanship.