Labor fight brewing over Gabba Olympic Games redevelopment plans
Queensland has been blindsided with federal Labor revealing it is not convinced the Gabba should be demolished and resurrected for the 2032 Olympics.
G’day readers, and welcome to the latest edition of Feeding the Chooks, our behind-the-scenes look at Queensland politics.
HIT FOR SIX
As far as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is concerned, Brisbane’s Gabba stadium is “perfect” to be rebuilt and used as the centrepiece venue for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“We are 100 per cent committed to the Gabba,” she insisted earlier this month, as concerns mount about the enormous cost of knocking down and resurrecting the hallowed home of Queensland cricket and AFL.
But not everyone is convinced.
Take the federal Labor government, which Palaszczuk is relying on to foot half the bill of all of the Olympic infrastructure.
It turns out the feds are not even convinced there should be a new stadium built for the Games, let alone that the Gabba is the right spot.
And the news was delivered on Friday by the architect of her 2015 election win.
Down in Canberra at senate estimates on Friday morning, under questioning from Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne and Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, Assistant Minister for Regional Development Anthony Chisholm – a Queensland Labor Senator and former state secretary of the Queensland ALP – let the cat out of the bag.
Allman-Payne was asking if the Gabba was to be rebuilt, the nearby East Brisbane State School might need to be demolished, so would the federal government help fund a rebuilt school?
Chisholm replied: “I think it’s a hypothetical question, Senator. No decision has been made on if a new stadium is needed, and if so, where it’s going to be, so I don’t think we can answer that.”
Hmmm. As for Chisholm’s personal position on the Gabba as the main stadium?
“My thoughts on it are that it should be considered, but obviously we need to ensure that we’re using taxpayer funds wisely and doing that responsibly and choosing a venue that’s in the long-term economic interests of the nation and the state,” Chisholm said.
“I think (there are) interesting developments we’ve seen around the world. In Paris …(it) isn’t using a main stadium for its opening ceremony.”
On top of that, senior bureaucrats from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts revealed they’re in fresh negotiations with the state about the 50/50 funding split announced by the previous Morrison government.
Departmental secretary Jim Betts said if the federal government chipped in funding for the Games, “it would expect to have a commensurate level of influence over the choice of projects and their delivery”.
MILES AWAY
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said he was not aware of Senator Chisholm’s comments about the Games but insisted the commitment made to the International Olympic Committee by state and federal governments was to redevelop the Gabba.
“We still have to negotiate an intergovernmental agreement with the Australian government to agree on all those details,” he said.
And what happens if the Albanese Government says no to the Gabba?
Well Miles says that is “very unlikely”.
“There was agreement from the previous (Morrison) government that this should be a part of our bid,” he said.
“They were supportive of it and I am sure the new government will be too.”
LOBO PROBE
A Liberal National Party candidate who allegedly lied about where he was living during the federal election campaign is still under investigation by federal police.
Vivian Lobo, the last-minute LNP candidate for the seat of Lilley, is accused of providing a false address to the nation’s electoral commission.
Lobo was referred to police by the Australian Electoral Commission in May, after The Australian revealed his claimed address in Everton Park was abandoned and dilapidated.
When The Australian visited the house in May, the home had no furniture, the garden was in a state of disrepair and neighbours said no one had lived at the home for at least a year.
Lobo has said he would co-operate with police inquiries.
The Australian Federal Police told Chooks this week the investigation was “still ongoing”.
LOBBYIST CHARMS
Treasurer Jim Chalmers gave his old mate, Labor government adviser and communications strategist turned lobbyist Eamonn Fitzpatrick, a bit of free advertising on budget day.
Fitzpatrick – whose eponymous lobbying firm represents such corporate minnows as Google – bumped into the Treasurer after budget lockup, grabbed an obligatory selfie, and posted it to LinkedIn.
Look, prospective clients, at the access I can get, Fitzpatrick – dubbed the Agent of Infection by the Newman LNP government – seemed to be saying.
“Great to catch up with my old mate Jim Chalmers at his office in Canberra today. Massive day for the country. Massive day for him, handing down his first budget and the first federal Labor budget in a decade. Decency, smarts and ability finally back at the centre of government to deliver for all Australians.”
Fitzpatrick assures Chooks he wasn’t lobbying his pal Chalmers. He was leaving a meeting with Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King (who amusingly lives in southern Australia and represents a Perth-based electorate) when he happened upon the Treasurer.
Chalmers and Fitzpatrick met when both were working for Mike Kaiser, then NSW Premier Morris Iemma’s chief of staff, in 2005.
DAMNED DAM
Chalmers’ and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher’s razor gang found $22bn worth of cuts in Tuesday’s budget, slashing projects that had the former Morrison government’s backing in its March financial update.
On Labor’s chopping block were the $5.4bn Hells Gates Dam in north Queensland, and $483m allocated to the Urannah Dam, about 80km west of Mackay in central Queensland, but the feds will still spend $600m helping the state fix the Beattie government’s Paradise Dam near Bundaberg (with $450m allocated over the next four years).
And while Premier Palaszczuk told parliament on Wednesday she was “disappointed” regional Queensland transport projects had been “delayed,” she did not mention the scrapped dam funding.
Interestingly, in an earlier version of her ministerial speech sent out to reporters, Palaszczuk was drafted to say: “Almost all of the funding for Hells Gate Dam and Urannah Dam was beyond the forward estimates”.
But she dropped this line from her address to parliament, jumping straight to, “I will always put Queensland first and make sure that future funding stays in our regions”.
The company behind the Urannah Dam proposal is Bowen River Utilities, whose director is John Cotter Jr, a former member of the Liberal National Party state executive in Queensland, and a member of the Queensland LNP’s federal election fundraising committee this year.
Former LNP leader Deb Frecklington’s husband Jason Frecklington also works for Bowen River Utilities on several different projects.
MINERS GHOST PREMIER
Palaszczuk has lost her usual speaking spot at the annual Queensland Resources Club lunch following her government’s controversial coal royalty hike.
The mining community is still frothing at the mouth over the government’s decision to increase coalmining royalties in the June budget after Treasurer Cameron Dick repeatedly promised no new or increased taxes during the 2020 state election campaign.
Palaszczuk has made the keynote address at the lunch for three of the past four years, but was overlooked this year in favour of Japanese Ambassador Yamagami Shingo.
Shingo has been a vocal critic of the royalty hike, warning it could hamper Japanese investment in Queensland.
TIME FLIES
On Monday, it’ll be two years since Palaszczuk won a third term in power, celebrating on election night 2020 with a victory party at a sports club in her electorate of Inala.
Chooks was there, and spotted an interesting figure applauding Palaszczuk from the back of the room, Labor lobbyist Cameron Milner, standing next to Palaszczuk’s chief of staff Jim Murphy.
A few days later, Chooks confirmed what had been infuriating senior government figures throughout the campaign: Milner, and fellow Labor lobbyist Evan Moorhead, had been running strategy for Palaszczuk’s re-election pitch.
At the time, one senior government source said of Moorhead and Milner’s dual roles as campaigner-lobbyists: “We wondered whether we were fighting for a Labor win or their clients’ interests”.
Milner was based in the Premier’s offices on the 40th floor of the ‘tower of power’ ministerial building at 1 William St in Brisbane’s CBD, and was even given a car park and desk space alongside public servants.
Now, following The Australian’s investigation and the scathing Coaldrake review, Milner and Moorhead have been banned from lobbying in Queensland.
What a difference two years makes.
SPOTTED
Retired special forces major and OnlyFans star Heston Russell was spotted in the halls of Queensland parliament this week.
Russell stood for the Senate at the federal election for his own Australian Values Party and was seen on Thursday catching up with the LNP’s James Lister.
Lister is a former RAAF squadron leader and the LNP’s Veterans spokesman but Russell’s appearance had tongues wagging about whether he might be considering a run for state parliament.
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