Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Organising committee fails to meet 50 per cent female quota

As dispute rages over transgender athletes, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has unleashed a gender problem of her own.

The Queensland Government has failed its own gender test on the most important board to be established during its administration, with just 41 per cent of directors of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics Organising Committee women.

Despite an official target that demands 50 per cent representation of women on the boards of Queensland government bodies, only nine of the 22 BOCOG directors have ended up being women.

And Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk herself was the one who could have ensured the 50-50 target was achieved, being personally responsible for nine appointments – and the ones made last, after the other 13 directors were either named or known.

Under the state legislation that established the BOCOG, Ms Palaszczuk was as Premier responsible for four nominations – and she appointed two: herself and Sydney Olympics gold medallist Natalie Cook.

Premier and Olympics Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk (front, second from right) with members of the Brisbane Olympics organising committee

As Olympics Minister she was also responsible for five “independent directors” that the Prime Minister had a veto on – and only two of them were women: First Nations leader Shelley Reys and Sarah Kelly, an associate professor in marketing and law.

All nine appointments were made last, meaning Ms Palaszczuk knew she had to name six – not four – women to ensure gender equity on the 22-member board.

But her spokesman last night explained the failure by saying the 50-50 rule only applied to actual appointments, and not those who were on the board automatically because of other jobs they hold.

“The Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021 requires that at least 50 per cent of the nominated directors holding office on the Organising Committee for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Board (OCOG Board) are women,” the spokesman said.

“There are currently 16 nominated directors on the board, half of which are women – fulfilling the 50 per cent requirement.”

But the legislation actually clearly states – three times – that every appointment made by the Premier, the Prime Minister, the Lord Mayor and the Olympics Minister should not only “have regard to ... the gender diversity of the board’s directors” but also “the Queensland Government’s policy about gender equity on boards”.

And that policy demands that not only are half of all new board appointees to government bodies be women, but that there be “50 per cent representation of women on the boards of Queensland Government bodies”.

In November, the Premier told a Women on Boards lunch: “The decision, policy and change makers at the table should be reflective of the diversity and views of wider society, which is made up of 50 per cent women.”

She said that when she became Premier in 2015, just 31 per cent of Queensland government board positions were filled by women – and “in 2019 we achieved that target, and for two years running we have exceeded it ... The more women at the table, the more you change the conversation.”