Brisbane Games trio defied Beijing Winter Olympics diplomatic boycott

Three government officials from Australia defied the country’s diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics and attended the Winter Games.

The Australian team marches into the Bird’s Nest stadium at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4. Picture: Getty Images

Three government officials from Australia defied the country’s diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics and attended the Winter Games.

Two staffers from the Brisbane City Council as well as a key bureaucrat from the Queensland Premier’s office were in Beijing for 10 days, and attended the opening ceremony in the Bird’s Nest.

The Weekend Australian has learned that a handful of politicians were preparing to also travel to Beijing but those plans were up-ended in December when the Australian government joined the US, Canada and the UK in announcing a diplomatic boycott because of China’s human rights records.

At the time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the boycott was “in Australia’s national interest … it’s the right thing to do”.

China was angered at the boycott action and said no Australian officials had been invited anyway. “No one would care about whether they come or not,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. “The Australian politicians’ political posturing and hyping for their own political interest have no impact whatsoever on the successful Beijing Olympic Games.”

However, Kerry Peterson, deputy director-general of the 2032 task force in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Brisbane council chief executive Colin Jensen and council chief planning officer Dyan Currie were part of the International Olympic Committee’s official observer program, where future host city executives were taken to Beijing Olympics sites and exposed to a range of issues linked to hosting the Games.

Officials from other boycotting countries, including executives from the Los Angeles Organising Committee, hosting the 2028 Games, did not attend Beijing.

All three Australians declined requests for an interview. But Brisbane council said the program included meeting with IOC executives, other future host cities, attending workshops and touring venues.

“As the host city, Brisbane City Council made this investment to ensure that Brisbane is best placed to host the 2032 Games,’’ it said in a written response to The Weekend Australian.

The council said it paid $33,282 for Ms Curry and Mr Jensen to attend.

However, the IOC said it had paid for the trip as Brisbane was now part of the Olympic Family and the IOC wanted to invest with its partners in developing knowledge about the Games.

IOC associate director Chris Payne said the Observer program was about information management, knowledge development and learning to help future organising committees.

The first program started at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and Mr Payne said the Australians in Beijing were heavily engaged, asking many probing questions. He said it was obvious they had big multi-event experience from the recent Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

“This will help inform some of the very big early decisions that Brisbane 2032 will make,’’ he said.

The Australians joined around 80 other observers from the next summer Games host, Paris, and the next winter Games host Milan-Cortina. The itinerary featured a busy program looking at airport arrivals, workforce training and operations, transport, the Olympic Family hotel, where IOC members are accommodated, security, data, doping control, brand identity and the look of the Games, spectator experience, hospitality and marketing, culture, broadcasting and media communications.

Observers were also at the opening ceremony, speed skating, figure skating and big air competitions.