Editorial: Brisbane deserves a world-class entertainment venue

Steven Miles was wrong, just as those now in power would be wrong if they also ignore the advice of venue experts, writes the editor.

A Brisbane Arena concept for Roma Street Parkland

Regional Queenslanders having a whinge about how much money is spent in the more heavily populated southeast is like talking to your neighbour about the weather.

You know you can’t do anything about it, but it is something to say that you know you’ll both agree on.

And so here is a truth: no matter how much public money is spent in the regions, those Queenslanders who do not live in the southeast will always look south and east to the skyscrapers and stadiums of the big city and complain it is not enough; that they don’t get their fair share.

Premier David Crisafulli is a North Queenslander who now represents an electorate on the Gold Coast. His instinct will, of course, be to always parrot this line.

But here is another fact; regional Queensland does get its fair share.

Here is another; leaders without courage are simply managers.

In seven years from now Brisbane will be the host city for the biggest event in the world, the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

While there is an opportunity related to it for other Queensland cities to benefit directly from the Games by hosting some of the many events, the reality is that Brisbane is the host city – and the International Olympic Committee will demand the bulk of the events are held in the capital.

That is why if – as we first revealed here last Tuesday – Infrastructure Minister Jarrod Bleijie’s hand-picked venues review team recommends that both a new stadium at Victoria Park and an inner-city indoor arena at the old Goprint site (now Cross River Rail) across the road from the Gabba are delivered as legacy for Brisbane as part of this, then the government must accept that advice.

Former premier Steven Miles learned the hard way a year ago this month what can happen when politicians decide to simply ignore the recommendations of a review they have called, and opt to make a political decision instead.

His captain’s call was to ignore the recommendation for a new $3.4bn stadium at inner-city Victoria Park and instead waste $1bn-plus on a temporary white elephant stadium at the old QEII facility at Nathan that would have made Brisbane – and Queensland – an international embarrassment.

It turned out to be a turning point, the moment Queenslanders united behind the need to take proper advantage of this once-in-a-forever opportunity for our state.

We ran a poll on our website asking what option should be chosen for the stadium. It attracted more than 37,000 votes (a record) and found that an overwhelming 73 per cent backed a new stadium at Victoria Park, compared with 14 per cent who preferred a rebuild of the Gabba. Just 10 per cent agreed with Mr Miles’s plan, one that he had been convinced that Queenslanders would back because they were worried about too much spending on the Games.

He was wrong, just as those now in power would be wrong if they also ignore the advice of the experts they have enlisted to recommend what to do in terms of venues.

As Premier Crisafulli himself has rightly observed: “The reason we are here is because there have been too many decisions made by politicians … Let’s let the experts decide, not the politicians. We want people to look at this and say, ‘great – the show’s back on the road’.”

Touche, Mr Premier. We assume you will take your own advice – and that you will also reflect on another of your personal observations: “I was a country kid in ’88 when a thing called Expo rolled into town in Brisbane. It made me feel proud to be a Queenslander, and I was living at the other end of the state.”

STAND READY TOGETHER

South East Queensland will tonight again enter into a lockdown, but unlike during the pandemic the reason for staying home this time will not be an invisible enemy.

It will instead be one whose presence we have started to feel as the wind arrives ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which remains more than 500km off the coast.

Landfall is due in the pre-dawn hours of Friday, but this is a storm that will be with us until at least Sunday – with official forecasts predicting rainfall of up to 500mm for everywhere from the Sunshine Coast south to northern NSW.

It will be a weather event unlike any that most of us southerners have experienced, but one that our cousins from the tropical regions of our beautiful and vast state are all too familiar with.

One is Cairns Post reporter Peter Carruthers, who has shared his personal experience of living through two cyclones.

His primary advice? To never, ever be complacent – to take the time to be properly prepared no matter the forecast, and to not assume the worst is over once the cyclone crosses the coast.

It is advice that echoes that being issued daily by Premier David Crisafulli – himself no stranger to cyclones, having grown up in Ingham. Yesterday he asked people to stay on their guard. It is sage advice that we should all follow.

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: Brisbane deserves a world-class entertainment venue