Olympic fail: Legacy ‘sidelined’ as key body on six-month hiatus
Steven Miles has been accused of sidelining Olympics legacy following revelations a key body established to advise Cabinet on the long-term opportunities has not met in months.
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Premier Steven Miles has been accused of sidelining Olympic and Paralympics legacy following revelations a key body established to advise Cabinet on the long-term opportunities has not met since he took over in December.
The minister now responsible for advising Cabinet on the legacy outcomes from hosting the 2032 Games – State Development Minister Grace Grace – has conceded she is yet to convene a meeting of the government’s legacy committee, and has no plans to until May.
The Premier’s office passed queries on to the department of State Development and Infrastructure – where a spokesman claimed the legacy committee was a “valued and important function in advising the government regarding legacy vision, strategy and plans”.
But the department also revealed the committee last met in November – when former minister Stirling Hinchliffe was responsible – and it had only met twice in the past year.
“The committee provides advice to the Queensland Government on Games legacy opportunities and was consulted at length during the Elevate 2042: Brisbane 2032 Legacy Strategy’s development,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“Games delivery partners are now focused on implementation planning for Elevate 2042, and the legacy committee will continue to provide advice as part of this process.”
LNP Olympic and Paralympic Infrastructure spokesman Jarrod Bleijie was scathing of the few meetings of the committee, saying Labor’s issues had “bogged down” the promise of long-lasting legacy benefits for all of Queensland.
“While the Games’ legacy benefits should have been the main game, it’s clearly been sidelined under the Palaszczuk-Miles Government,” Mr Bleijie said.
“It’s clear the legacy benefits of the Olympics haven’t been a priority for Labor, again it was always about the announcement, which has fallen by the wayside.
“These Games should be about more than a few weeks and a big party, it should be about delivering the generational infrastructure like roads and rail our State needs.”
When the committee was established the plan was it would meet “up to four times a year”.
Instead, it has met just six times since July 2022 – but the government said it had been “involved in various other activities” including “workshops, meetings and stakeholder engagement”.
When announcing the committee, former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: “The Games will be the biggest single transformational event Queensland is likely to see and we are not going to waste this golden opportunity.”
There was no submission listed from the legacy committee to former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s 60-day review of Games infrastructure, despite one of his four key criteria – as announced by Mr Miles – being “community legacy”.
Members include Queensland businessman John Wagner – whose company Wagner Corporation made its own submission to the Quirk Review – along with First Nations consultant Georgina Richters and innovation advocate and chief executive Wayne Gerard.
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