Deloitte modelling: Brisbane 2032 Olympics to deliver nation a $71bn windfall

Brisbane’s 2032 Games could drive a $71bn boost to Australia’s GDP through extra volunteers, healthier citizens and improved productivity from new infrastructure.

Deloitte partner Pradeep Philip, left, AOC chief executive Mark Arbib, Brisbane 2032 organising committee president Andrew Liveris, QUT chancellor Ann Sherry, Queensland Sport Minister Tim Mander, and Committee for Brisbane CEO Jen Williams at the Committee for Brisbane lunch launching the Deloitte modelling. Picture: Liam Kidston

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Australia could reap a $71bn boost in gross domestic product in the 20 years after the Brisbane 2032 Olympics if the Games are used to drive economic reform, new modelling from Deloitte shows.

Seven years ahead of the Brisbane Olympics opening ceremony, the Deloitte Access Economics modelling forecasts that southeast Queensland alone could generate about $40bn in extra gross regional project in the two decades following the Games.

Deloitte partner Pradeep Philip said the economic opportunity could be generated by a saving in healthcare costs if people were inspired by the Olympics to be more active, extra productivity from increased volunteer participation and new Games infrastructure, and a tourism and national brand boom.

Dr Philip – a volunteer at Brisbane’s World Expo in 1988 – said infrastructure built for the Games could lift productivity by about half a percentage point a year.

Dr Philip. Picture: Liam Kidston

Queensland Sport Minister Tim Mander. Picture: Liam Kidston

“We find in our modelling that embedding reforms (in the) volunteering effort, the participation of people in physical activity, of harnessing the network benefits of infrastructure, and of driving our brand recognition further can generate over the period 2032 to 2052 economic value of $39.5bn in southeast Queensland, $58.9bn for Queensland, adding over one percentage point to Queensland’s GSP each year over the 20 years to 2052,” Dr Philip said. “For Australia as a whole, generate benefits worth over $70bn.”

Queensland Sport Minister Tim Mander told the Committee for Brisbane event on Tuesday that the Games would leave Queensland with the third-­biggest stadium in the country, the “best aquatic centre in the world” and the best tennis centre outside Melbourne.

While procurement has started for minor Olympic venues, it has not begun for the Victoria Park main stadium and aquatic centre.

The Crisafulli government insists it will cost state and federal taxpayers no more than $7.1bn to build all of the Olympic venues, despite that being the cost since 2023.

Mr Mander said the membership of the Olympics Committee board had been slashed from 24 to 15 members and would meet in its new form for the first time on Thursday.

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Mark Arbib said an even more important date than this week marking seven years until the Brisbane opening ceremony was the closing ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics in three years and eight days.

“(On that date) representatives from Queensland will stand up on the global stage to take the Olympic flag … at that stage, the whole of the world is focusing on Queensland and Brisbane,” he said.

“That’s the date I’m most interested in, when that happens every national Olympic committee, every sporting body will want to be in Queensland … to acclimatise … to set up training camps.

“Queensland will get major events, there’s no doubt about it, because the whole world is coming to Queensland.”

The state’s population is forecast to grow from 5.7 million now to 6.3 million in 2032. Deloitte’s report estimates that 4 per cent of adults are likely to do extra physical activity as a result of the Games, based on figures after the Sydney Olympics, and the flow-on health savings for each adult could be calculated at about $106 a person a year.

About 50,000 volunteers are expected to be involved in the Brisbane Games, of which 81 per cent are likely to be Australians.