Olympic win a thumbs up for a sport-loving nation

Winning the bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane is a global vote of confidence in our nation and its place in a rapidly changing world. The successful bid builds on a solid record of Olympic trust and achievement. The Sydney Games in 2000 rang in the new millennium. The Melbourne Olympics in 1956 were the first to be held outside Europe and the US. The Brisbane Games to be held in 11 years puts Australia into aselect group of countries that have hosted the Games on three occasions.

Fireworks over Brisbane confirmed the winning bid in a city that so far has escaped the lockdown gripping Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. As Jacquelin Magnay reports from Tokyo, the International Olympic Committee was wooed by Australia’s political unity, financial security, sunny skies and love of sport. A nation of sport fanatics, Australia is one of only two countries to have participated in every modern Summer Olympic Games. The IOC decision is a vote of confidence in Australia’s dependability to deliver to the highest international standard. And it is also a reminder that, despite the current difficulties with the pandemic, Australia enjoys a mature political system that can co-operate at the highest levels to achieve positive results.

For Brisbane, hosting the Olympics is an opportunity to grow further into a unified modern metropolis stretching from the Sunshine Coast in the north to the Gold Coast on the state’s southern border. Infrastructure for the Games will deliver better sporting facilities and improved public transport systems. A decade-long infrastructure program is expected to underwrite 130,000 direct and tens of thousands of indirect jobs in the lead-up to the Olympics. Debate will rage over whether an expanded 50,000-seat Gabba stadium will be sufficient for the task. But with the bid having been negotiated under new rules that focus on sustainability and reuse, the days of striving for ostentatious extravagance to woo the IOC decision-makers have passed. As in Paris and Los Angeles, the host cities for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics respectively, Brisbane will focus on reusing existing venues, refurbished sites and temporary facilities for the Games. Queensland is well suited for the task, having hosted the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982 and on the Gold Coast in 2018. Global events including the Commonwealth Games and Expo in 1988 have proved transformative for Brisbane.

Securing the Games for Queensland was a team effort involving local, state and federal governments. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk deserves praise for successfully concluding the bid with a final pitch to Games officials in Tokyo. The final presentation was opened by Scott Morrison via video link from Canberra and attended by federal Sport Minister Richard Colbeck. The Prime Minister told IOC members he spoke on behalf of 25 million sport-loving Australians, and with the wholehearted support of all three levels of government and all sides of politics. Brisbane’s bid for the Olympics was launched by the Council of Mayors Southeast Queensland in 2015 under the leadership of Graham Quirk, the lord mayor of Brisbane at the time.

Under the new rules, development of the 2032 Games bid has been a co-operative affair with the IOC. As Magnay documents on Thursday, Brisbane’s bid could have crashed out of contention in April when relations soured between the Queensland and federal government over how the cost of the Games would be shared. The financial burden of the Olympics has been a longstanding issue for bid cities, with disastrous consequences for Rio in 2016, Athens in 2004 and Montreal in 1976, which overspent by 720 per cent and took 30 years to repay. The most expensive Summer Olympic Games in history was London 2012, which cost $15bn and overran its original budget by a margin of 76 per cent.

The IOC wants the 2032 Games to be an example of how things can be done on a more modest budget. The combined Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032 in Brisbane will cost an estimated $5bn in today’s money. This compares with the $6.6bn spent on the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It is estimated the Tokyo Games will cost more than $20bn, inflated from the original $13bn estimate because of Covid-related blowouts. Brisbane’s plan is to use at least 31 existing or temporary facilities and four new community centres that are needed to meet future population growth demands. A new Brisbane arena will replace the Brisbane Entertainment Centre to host swimming events and a new whitewater centre will be built at Redlands. Events will be spread across the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast but competitors will stay in a 14,000-bed village near central Brisbane.

With Brisbane having won the bid, the challenge now is to maximise the benefits and minimise the risk that budgets will run out of control. Olympic Games have a habit of running over budget. But having had six years to plan and another 11 years until the opening ceremony, there is plenty of time to get things right. Olympic Games can help transform the life of a city in the same way they can nourish the collective human spirit. Bringing the Games to Brisbane is what the nation deserves and needs. Congratulations to all concerned.