State says federal funding negotiations why no public plans for Gabba redevelopment

The state government has blamed funding negotiations with the Commonwealth for the lack of public plans for the $1bn Gabba redevelopment, ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The state government has blamed funding negotiations with the Commonwealth for the lack of public plans for the $1bn Gabba redevelopment, ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Two months after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pledged Queenslanders would see the plans “in a couple of weeks or so”, no details of what the revamped stadium could look like, or how much it will cost, have been released.

The Courier-Mail understands the plans were flagged to be made public by Christmas, but that timeline was shelved as talks with the federal government have dragged on.

Acting Premier Steven Miles says the state has been giving the federal government time to get its head around Olympic plans. Picture: Liam Kidston

On Thursday Acting Premier Steven Miles confirmed negotiations with the federal government – including on funding arrangements – were why the Gabba plans were yet to be released.

“The crucial component of course is negotiating the intergovernmental agreement with the Australian government,” he said. “Once we’ve progressed those talks, we will be able to outline more of the detail of our plans for the Gabba.

“But as you would understand, we really want to manage those negotiations sensitively. We don’t want to undermine them by surprising the Australian government with details that they should have had the chance to properly consider in the context of that funding agreement.

“So we’ll continue to talk to the Australian government and when those talks have reached a point where it’s appropriate, we’ll make all of those plans public.”

Ms Palaszczuk has been adamant she expected the Albanese government to honour the 50-50 funding deal struck with the former Morrison government – including stumping up half the cost of a new stadium.

Asked about the shifting time frame, Dr Miles said he “wouldn’t necessarily categorise it as a delay”, but said if there hadn’t been a change of federal government he would have expected the talks to have been finalised sooner.

“They’ve taken time to get their feet under their desks, get across all of the work that they need to do,” he said.

“So we’ve been understanding of that – we will continue to talk with them and we hope to finalise that 50:50 funding arrangement early this year.”

The redeveloped Gabba will be home to athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies.

Last month Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who travelled with Ms Palaszczuk to Tokyo in 2021 where Brisbane was awarded the Games, said he was “losing sleep” over a lack of progress on Olympics infrastructure plans.

“(Pitched to the IOC) 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.”

Dr Miles said the detail on the governance arrangements was also subject to the negotiations with the federal government.

“In the meantime, my agency state development is responsible for the delivery of the Olympic infrastructure, and will continue to do that.”