Ex-WA premier says Brisbane should clone acclaimed Perth stadium for 2032 Olympics

Replicating the award-winning Optus Stadium would save costs and get the 2032 Olympics back on track, former premier says.

Colin Barnett, top left, says Queensland could save time and money by cloning Perth’s Optus Stadium for the 2032 Olympics.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Former West Australian premier Colin Barnett has called on Queensland to clone Perth’s acclaimed Optus Stadium for the 2032 Olympics, saying a replica would save money and time. The long-serving Liberal Party leader was expanding on a proposal he put forward in The Australian earlier this month to break the logjam in the troubled venues program for the Brisbane Games.

Premier Steven Miles’s Labor government and the Liberal National Party opposition under David Crisafulli are at odds over the Olympic stadium options entering the state election campaign on Tuesday.

If re-elected, Mr Miles will press on with the redevelopment of the 1982 Commonwealth Games hub at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre deep in Brisbane’s southside suburbs, despite concern that the aged stadium is poorly served by public transport and offers limited ongoing value.

Former Olympic swimmer Brooke Hanson with Liam Gilbert, Lachlin Synot, Ryan Elliott and Paige Greco marking the 10-year countdown to 2032 Games. Picture: Nigel Hallett.

Mr Crisafulli, frontrunning in the opinion polls, has described the QSAC plan as horrendous with “zilch” prospects if the LNP wins on October 26. He would be guided by a post-election review by the independent infrastructure delivery agency that has been another focus of partisan bickering over the Games preparations.

Mr Barnett said Queensland should effectively reproduce Perth stadium on a greenfield site in inner Brisbane, also using a public-private partnership to ease the upfront cost for taxpayers.

He said the new $3.4bn Victoria Park stadium recommended in March by a panel headed by former Brisbane mayor Graham Quirk – but immediately rejected by Mr Miles as too expensive – had the same capacity at 60,000 seats and other synergies with the $1.3bn Perth project completed in 2018.

“It did occur to me that given the success of the Perth stadium and that it has won a number of international awards and the size seems appropriate, it must be possible to virtually transfer from Perth to Brisbane the design of that stadium,” Mr Barnett said.

“They both have the same long-term uses for AFL and cricket. Just replicate it.

“Obviously, there would have to be some tweaking; you would need to make minor changes along the way. While Perth stadium has an exterior that is sort of an iron-ore image, related to the Pilbara and resources industry, you would have a very different image in Brisbane – probably reflecting the barrier reef or the tourism aspects of Queensland.

“But I think that would be doable.”

An aerial view of Optus Stadium in Perth. Picture: Supplied

Interviewed by this masthead, Mr Crisafulli said the Olympics had been sold to the public as an opportunity to bring on “generational infrastructure” in rail and road links for Queensland’s booming southeast, a position he would uphold if the LNP returned to office.

“It was always about creating generational infrastructure and we spoke about existing venues and the opportunities to come,” he said.

“That was the original terms of the (2032) bid. I want to make sure that Queenslanders feel like that’s being honoured, and that they feel proud of the process.”

Pressed on whether he was definitively ruling out a new stadium at Victoria Park, Mr Crisafulli said: “No new stadium at Victoria Park.”

When The Australian put to him that it didn’t leave many options for the main Olympic stadium, he said: “Let’s have a look at what an independent infrastructure co-ordination authority comes up with.” Mr Crisafulli, however, reaffirmed a new stadium would not be in the terms of reference for the 100-day review he would commission from the agency if the LNP won the election.

Asked whether he would be prepared to revisit the original proposal by Mr Miles’s triple ­election-winning predecessor as Labor premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to rebuild the Gabba ­stadium, he said: “Let’s have a look.”

Mr Miles reinstated the stand-alone agency in one of his first acts on succeeding Ms Palaszczuk last December, reflecting the LNP’s position that Labor had erred by bringing the functions in-house, but failed to staff it ahead of the government entering caretaker mode for the state election.

Asked if he would consult Labor over the appointments if he became premier, Mr Crisafulli said: “If we were to win the election, I’m going to give the opposition the respect that I was never afforded in the process.”

Mr Barnett said replicating Perth stadium in Brisbane would make it a “very clear, easy project” to deliver, “and for that reason the cost would be far lower than the three or four-billion being talked about.”

The WA premier from 2008-17 said: “What I would suggest to whoever wins the state election is they should come over to Perth and just quietly have a look at the stadium. Bring a couple of experts with you. It’s worth a day trip and I’m sure people involved in those negotiations would also be happy to sit down and talk about the merits of a public-private partnership.”