Albo on board as Crisafulli drops massive Olympic stadium hint
Premier-elect David Crisafulli used his first conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss the delivery of Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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Premier-elect David Crisafulli used his first conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss the delivery of Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.
But Queenslanders won’t have any answers on the LNP’s vision for the Games until at least March – more than 1250 days after Brisbane was awarded the event.
He has given his team one month to appoint a new independent Infrastructure Co-ordination Authority tasked with mapping out infrastructure and transport needs for the Games.
The authority will then have 100 days to provide a report to government outlining which infrastructure projects, including the main stadium, will be given the green light for 2032, and what money will be allocated to each.
It means Queenslanders won’t know how the government will deliver the Olympics until March 12 at the earliest.
Mr Crisafulli revealed that hours after winning government, he had a lengthy chat about Games delivery with Mr Albanese on Sunday morning.
“I spent a considerable amount of time talking to the Prime Minister about that, and we intend to speak directly to the Sport Minister (Anika Wells), who is a Queenslander and I reckon we can get a good outcome,” he said.
Despite repeatedly stating a Labor-planned rebuild of the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre at Nathan would not go ahead under an LNP government, he again refused to reveal where Brisbane’s Olympic stadium would be.
“Within 100 days Queenslanders will see a plan that they are proud of and, in doing so, we can restore faith in that process,” he said.
Former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Saturday slammed her own party’s decision to hold the athletics at QSAC in Nathan.
“We can’t go backwards, QSAC is going backwards, this needs to be visionary, it needs to be bold, but it’s under the new norm,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said her original idea of rebuilding the Gabba stadium made perfect sense but had been lost in the conversation, and whoever came into power needed to lock it in to avoid becoming a laughing stock.
On top of scrapping QSAC, Mr Crisafulli has promised no new stadiums would be built, indicating a return to Ms Palaszczuk’s Gabba rebuild.
Mr Albanese said he would work collaboratively with Mr Crisafulli.
“I know David quite well – we’ve met over the years – and we have a big job to do,” he said.
Originally published as Albo on board as Crisafulli drops massive Olympic stadium hint
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