Steven Miles performs first backflip: Olympics delivery agency back on the agenda
The new Queensland premier puts his stamp on Olympics delivery and will reinstate an axed agency to independently deliver the 2032 Games’ infrastructure.
Incoming Queensland premier Steven Miles will reinstate an axed agency to independently deliver 2032 Olympics infrastructure, distancing the revamped Labor government from Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Games model.
In his first major act, Mr Miles said the in-house co-ordination office established under Ms Palaszczuk would give way to a stand-alone authority first proposed when Brisbane secured the event two years ago. The move is designed to allay growing criticism of the planning and decision-making processes around the Games, headlined by the 170 per cent blowout in the cost of rebuilding the Gabba stadium – from $1bn to $2.7bn – and concern that the $2.5bn committed by the commonwealth for an arena to house swimming won’t be enough to deliver the technically-challenging project.
Mr Miles, who as Infrastructure Minister and Minister Assisting Ms Palaszczuk for the Olympics is across the complicated brief, said on Tuesday he would go back to the dumped Olympic Co-ordination Authority. “I have been convinced that having an independent delivery authority for the Olympics … is the right way to go,” he said, after announcing the factional deal that secured him the premiership.
“I have started talking to people with experience and expertise in that. I have discussed it with the lord mayor, my director-general has raised it with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the Brisbane 2032 team.
“So we will start work just as soon as I get my feet under the desk.”
The scrapping of the co-ordination authority, which was to have operated alongside the organising committee headed by international businessman Andrew Liveris, has been slammed by former prime minister Scott Morrison and Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who pledged to restore the agency should the LNP win next October’s state election.
Last week, Brisbane’s LNP mayor Adrian Schrinner added his voice to calls for the independent Games delivery agency to be resurrected, after saying he had lost confidence in the Gabba strategy and the state government had “lost its way” on planning the Olympics.
IOC powerbroker and former Australian Olympics boss John Coates is on record as saying the co-ordination authority would only add “another layer of bureaucracy”, backing the decision under Ms Palaszczuk to axe it.
Mr Miles told The Australian at the same time in March this year that the agency “would just soak up resources”.
Asked on Tuesday what had changed, the premier-designate said he had sought extra advice and heeded it: “When people say things to you, you listen … and if they’re right, there’s nothing wrong with changing your mind. In this case, I’ve heard what they’ve had to say and been convinced by those arguments.”
Mr Coates did not respond to a request for comment.
Deputy LNP leader Jared Bleijie ridiculed the backflip, saying Mr Miles had been arguing against an independent delivery authority for two years: “He has denied it, he even claimed it was more bureaucracy (and) Queenslanders did not want it. Clearly Queenslanders did because what we have seen is there is no transparency or openness with respect to the Games.”
Senior government sources told this masthead this month that alternative sites for Brisbane Arena were being examined after market soundings showed the project might blow the federal government’s $2.5bn funding cap. The existing plan is at vastly more expense than a less-complicated build would entail.
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