Federal government confirms $7.1bn Games funding deal as stadium work begins

Canberra has recommitted to a $7.1bn co-funding agreement with the Queensland government to deliver the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games venues, ahead of early stadium works.

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie and federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King confirm an intergovernmental agreement for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games. Picture: Dan Peled/NewsWire

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A fresh $7.1bn deal has been inked between the Queensland and federal governments to deliver venue infrastructure for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as work on the new centrepiece stadium officially kicks off.

The renegotiated equal funding deal was announced by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie on Thursday, four months after the Crisafulli government unveiled a new vision for the Games and broke its election promise of no new stadiums.

The federal government has committed $3.435bn towards venue infrastructure, of which $1.2bn will be tipped into the new 63,000-seat Brisbane Stadium at the inner-city Victoria Park and the remainder split between the 16 other new or upgraded venues.

“We are good to go for Games 2032,” Mr Bleijie said at the Queensland Media Lunch in Brisbane.

“What today’s deal means is certainty for the Games infrastructure going forward. It means certainty for our infrastructure delivery program, for industry, for host communities and for workers.”

A new deal was required after the Delivery 2032 plan scrapped the federal government’s $2.5bn Brisbane Arena project, which was to be used for the swimming events, in order to invest the money into venues across the breadth of the state.

The Crisafulli government has affirmed the 17,000-seat project will be completed ahead of the Games by the private sector on the current Go Print site, adjacent to the existing Gabba Stadium.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King, who was also at the event, said the investment by the Albanese Labor government would be the single largest contribution of any commonwealth government towards sporting infrastructure.

“The real legacy of an Olympic and a Paralympic Games isn’t just the sporting moments that fill us with pride,” Ms King said.

“Our most decentralised state will become home to the most decentralised games. The key infrastructure projects we’re funding for Brisbane 2032, of course, are not limited to the state capital.

“It is the potential. It ignites the lasting legacy that builds the infrastructure that changes a city, a town, a community for the better.”

A render of the new Brisbane Stadium for the 2032 Olympic Games. Picture: Queensland government

The Crisafulli government has repeatedly said all venues will be delivered “on time and on budget”, with Mr Bleijie confirming last week that the state would not ask for a “single cent more” if the funding envelope blows out. However, he renewed calls for private capital to underpin government coffers.

The state is expected to request additional resources for Olympics-related transport infrastructure.

Early geotechnical works are expected to begin at Victoria Park. Mr Bleijie also left the door open for the naming rights of the Brisbane Stadium to be sold off to a corporate sponsor, defying the recommendation of the Games Independent Infrastructure Co-ordination Authority’s 100-day review, which argued the Queensland capital should keep the name for perpetuity.

“Travelling back from the (United) States, all the stadiums over there are named, they do funding deals,” Mr Bleijie said.

“Maybe the (Brisbane) Lions have got to put in a bit more, I think. And the cricket. But no, we haven’t turned our mind to that yet. We’ll just, let’s get shovels in the ground. Let’s start building it, and then we’ll work out the name of it.”

Work has also begun on minor venues across the state, with the procurement process for the principle design consultation of four of the minor Olympic venues – Logan Indoor Sport Centre, Moreton Bay Indoor Sport Centre, Sunshine Coast Outdoor Stadium and the Barlow Park Stadium in Cairns – opening on Thursday.

Mr Bleijie again backed in the controversial decision to host the rowing events on the crocodile-prone Fitzroy River, telling the International Olympic Commission that it can pay for a move to another city.

“We wanted the games to be about regional Queensland,” he said. “If they don’t want it in Rocky then they pay for it. But they’re not, it’s the state government and the federal government.”

The announcement was backed by Andrew Liveris, the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee president, who welcomed the “tangible momentum” in work.