Editorial: Voters reward you for a vision thing

The courage Premier David Crisafulli has shown this week has been returned in spades, with a massive fillip in public sentiment towards the 2032 Games, writes the editor.

Premier David Crisafulli did what his predecessor Steven Miles should have done a year ago, and deliver to Queenslanders a bold vision for our Olympic and Paralympic Games – rather than offering a damp squib.

Mr Miles took the very opposite approach when faced with the same questions, and unveiled a plan that would have embarrassed us on the world stage – a temporary upgrade to the old QEII stadium that hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

Want to be part of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games discussion? Book your tickets now for Future Brisbane in October.

Premier David Crisafulli unveils the Brisbane 2032 venues and infrastructure plan on Tuesday. Picture: Adam Head

In contrast, the courage Premier Crisafulli has shown this week has been returned in spades – with a massive fillip in public sentiment towards the 2032 Games. When we asked our readers after he unveiled the new plan – which includes a $3.78bn stadium at the inner-city Victoria Park – if they are now more excited than they were about the Games, 76 per cent said yes. Asked if they were happy with the venues plan, an astonishing 87 per cent answered yes.

Mr Crisafulli now needs to learn that “the vision thing” has two parts – the unveiling of the big dream, and then the delivery; which is the much harder part.

For all her faults, former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had courage and vision when she announced the Queensland government would bid for the Games. She also deserves credit for helping steer the local bid to victory, in mid-2021.

But she stuffed up the second part – with her government spinning its wheels for the years after, coming up with half-baked compromises one after another but never actually getting anything under way.

Premier Crisafulli and his hand-picked Games tsar, his deputy and Minister for Infrastructure Jarrod Bleijie, must learn this lesson. Sods must be turned, and quickly.

Labor leader Steven Miles delivered a damp squib on the Olympics.

Coincidentally, also on Tuesday, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers was reminding us of what government decision-making without a focus on the “vision thing” can look like.

The budget he unexpectedly had to deliver because of Cyclone Alfred putting on ice the Prime Minister’s election plans set its sights no further than that campaign.

He spent billions giving a range of modest handouts to voters – such as his “cup of coffee” tax cut and minor power bill relief. And he did so while not delivering anything addressing the biggest issues facing our nation – from serious economic reform to the looming global security risks.

I

t was obvious this was a budget Mr Chalmers was probably hoping not to deliver. It was impossible to hide the fact it was an election-eve budget trying, half-heartedly, to win votes with blatant bribery. We will see whether it works.

Meanwhile, Mr Crisafulli needs to get on with delivering on that Games vision he inherited from the previous administration. And as we say, this week’s announcement at The Courier-Mail Future Brisbane lunch event is just the start of a long process with plenty of challenges.

When George H.W. Bush minted “the vision thing” line in a magazine interview in 1987 it was taken as a dismissive throw-away statement by a presidential hopeful who didn’t actually have a vision.

These days the world is full of so-called leaders brimming with “the vision thing” but with little idea how to turn their passion projects into reality. For a recent example we need look no further than former premier Miles’s massive, uncosted hydro power schemes.

Political vision is welcome. It is courageous. And it is necessary. But so, too is the discipline to get it done.

NO MORE POLITICS

We are convinced the reason that so many Queenslanders have been lukewarm until now about the fact our state will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032 is the petty and partisan politics that has dogged preparations.

We suggest to both sides of state politics that as hard as it will be for them to cast politics aside for the greater good, it is time they left all of that in the past as we start to focus on delivering the plan. But we do not hold our breath, based on what has happened this week.

Firstly, we witnessed a serious misreading of public sentiment – not to mention the room – when Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie opened his speech at The Courier-Mail’s Future Brisbane event on Tuesday, where the venues plan was unveiled, with a blistering attack on former Labor premiers Annastacia Palaszczuk and Steven Miles.

Mr Miles, who was in the room, was forced to listen to how previous governments were more focused on “the five-star glitz and glamour and not the five Olympic rings”.

Having been a minister in the failed Newman government, Mr Bleijie knows all too well how badly things can go if you get cocky when in power. There is another election between now and the Games – a truth Mr Bleijie should remember.

But Mr Miles was little better. He spent the afternoon tweeting about how Premier David Crisafulli had now broken promises to not build a new stadium and to extend heavy rail all the way into Maroochydore.

For Queensland’s sake, it’s time the two sides played nicer. Can we suggest an Olympic truce?

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Voters reward you for a vision thing