LNP donor to review Olympics infrastructure

The ‘independent’ review of Brisbane’s stalled Olympic venues program will be headed by a businessman who gave more than $12,000 to the Queensland Liberal National Party.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli during the Future Brisbane event on November 29. Picture: Supplied

The “independent” review of Brisbane’s stalled Olympic Games venues program will be headed by a businessman who gave more than $12,000 to the Queensland Liberal National Party, with at least one other member of the seven-person panel shown to have made even bigger donations to the LNP.

The revelation came as Premier David Crisafulli revived the prospect that the Queensland capital would have a new stadium for the 2032 Games, despite ­repeatedly ruling out the multibillion-dollar option prior to his election last month.

The door was opened when Mr Crisafulli released the terms of reference for the 100-day inquiry on Friday – to be conducted by the new Games Independent Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority chaired by commercial property industry figure Stephen Conry.

Mr Conry, a former CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle Australia, donated $12,679 to the LNP in seven instalments between 2019 and 2021, Electoral Commission of Queensland records show.

He is known to have been close to former LNP premier Campbell Newman as well as former opposition leader Deb Frecklington, Mr Crisafulli’s pick as his Attorney-General.

While in office from 2012 to 2015, Mr Newman appointed Mr Conry to the organising committee of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Another director of the incoming Games Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority, Townsville-based property developer Laurence Lancini, gave $77,700 to the LNP through his construction companies in 2016 and 2017, according to ECQ ­returns.

Federal donation records show that Mr Lancini’s company also donated $60,000 to the Queensland Labor Party between 1998 and 2011. The majority of his donations since then appear to have gone to the LNP.

Announcing the board’s line-up at The Courier-Mail’s Future Brisbane seminar, Mr Crisafulli on Friday trumpeted the directors’ independence, saying the Olympic infrastructure review would be conducted by them at arm’s length from the state ­government.

“This is seven of the best and brightest that are beyond reproach,” he said of the board’s members. “They are not going to hand down a report and then run away. They are going to be there to drive it and see it through.”

Stephen Conry. Picture: Supplied

Laurence Lancini. Picture: Supplied

Proponents of a stadium at Victoria Park in Brisbane’s inner north, backed earlier this year in a review for Steven Miles’ Labor government by former Brisbane mayor Graham Quirk at a projected cost of up to $3.4bn, took heart that the terms of reference would allow the panel under Mr Conry to explore “new” venues, as well as upgraded and temporary facilities for the Games.

It had been expected that the review would be prevented from examining the Victoria Park option or any other proposal for a new stadium. Mr Crisafulli said on October 6, in comments he repeated during the state election campaign: “Our focus is not on stadiums, our focus is on generational infrastructure … We’ve said we’re not embarking on new ­stadiums.”

Asked on Friday whether he had backtracked, Mr Crisafulli said: “You know my position. It needs to be about generational ­infrastructure. It’s not about new stadiums.”

Pressed on whether the inclusion of the term “new” in the scope meant that Victoria Park was back on the table, he said: “No.” He would not say whether he would accept a recommendation for a new stadium.

But Brisbane’s LNP lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said the terms of reference were broad enough to include Victoria Park and a second stadium option at Northshore on Brisbane River.

Well-placed Labor sources told The Weekend Australian that a largely different board, selected through a “merit-based” appointment process run by an independent recruitment agency, was effectively finalised under Labor ahead of the October 26 Queensland election.

But the announcement was put on hold after Brisbane Olympics’ organising committee president Andrew Liveris and Mr Schrinner wrote to Mr Miles in September asking him to hold off on appointments to the independent agency until the voters had their say.

Additional reporting: Bimini Plesser