‘Costs me sleep’ Lord Mayor slams lack of Olympics progress

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner fears state and federal governments are “wasting time” in preparation for the 2032 Brisbane Games, with a key authority still not formed.

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Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says the lack of an Olympic infrastructure oversight body more than 500 days since Brisbane won the 2032 Games is “costing me sleep at night”, and he fears governments are “wasting time”.

Cr Schrinner was speaking at a Brisbane Airport Corporation business event on Wednesday when he said on Olympics planning, “there’s some really positive things happening but there are also things I have concerns about”.

“We pitched that there would be two things up and running within a very short period of time of getting the successful bid. One was the organising committee and the other one was something called the Olympic co-ordination authority that was designed to plan and deliver the infrastructure that needs to be rolled out for the region,” he said.

“That entity still has not been formed and unfortunately the different levels of government can’t agree on what that entity would look like.

“That is a process that is underway at the moment, and I am really concerned that we are wasting precious time because, in my mind, the co-ordinating authority is the one that should have been formed first and should be underway first.”

The Lord Mayor – who travelled to Tokyo with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last July to secure the Games – said while a decade-long runway to 2032 might seem like plenty of time, “we don’t”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner when Brisbane was announced as the 2032 host city for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Picture: Toru Hanai

“They’ve (the authority) got to plan the rebuilding of the Gabba, they’ve got to plan the transport, the facilities, the infrastructure, so this needs to be done as a matter of priority,” he said.

“It needs to also be an authority that can cut through the red tape and get things done.

“If you think about how long it takes a major project like Cross River Rail or Brisbane Metro to get going … that is what’s costing me sleep at night”.

It has been close to a month since the Premier said, when asked on November 9th, plans for the Gabba were close to being finalised and would be announced “in the next couple of weeks or so”.

On Wednesday The Courier-Mail put questions to Ms Palaszczuk’s office when the plans would be released, and whether she had concerns that the Olympic co-ordination authority was still not in place.

A spokesman said “more than 80 per cent of Games infrastructure already exists”.

“Progress on further delivery continues with all of our Games partners,” he said.

“Announcements will be made at the appropriate time.”

On Wednesday Treasurer Cameron Dick said Queensland was “negotiating with the federal government” on arrangements, and said “we’re looking forward to delivering the best Olympics ever with the best infrastructure ever”.

“We’ve got a fifty-fifty funding agreement on that key infrastructure that’s very important for our state,” he said.