Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman warns Olympic stadium is out of time at Victoria Park
Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman has put the state government on notice that he will conduct lawfare against the new Olympic stadium if it goes to Brisbane’s ‘Central Park’.
Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman has put the state government on notice that he will conduct lawfare against the new Olympic stadium if it goes to Brisbane’s “Central Park”.
Mr Newman is on an unlikely unity ticket with his old political nemesis, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to scratch inner-city Victoria Park as an option for the $3.4bn-plus build.
His intervention came as a 100-day review of the stalled Olympics venue program was due to deliver draft findings to Liberal National Party Premier David Crisafulli, who cut his teeth as a minister under Mr Newman.
Victoria Park is considered to be the frontrunning site for a stadium of up to 60,000 seats, having been backed by the president of the Games’ organising committee Andrew Liveris and Brisbane mayor Adrian Schrinner.
Time is now so tight to complete the project for the 2032 Games that Mr Newman doesn’t see the need to stop it – delaying the build through legal action and a grassroots protest campaign would do the trick.
“We will do our utmost to make this an issue about time,” he said.
“Our objective will be to demonstrate that we can slow this development down so it isn’t a viable option. We have lawyers in the group, and supporting the group, who will be using the legal process to point out the problems with overriding heritage and Aboriginal cultural protections around Vic Park.”
The green space, on the northern lip of the CBD, emerged as a prime site for the stadium after nearly four years of dithering and political infighting over what should be constructed for the nation’s third Olympics.
As Labor premier, Ms Palaszczuk proposed that the ageing Gabba cricket and AFL ground be redeveloped for the track and field competition as well as the opening and closing ceremonies in 2032.
But a near tripling of the projected cost to $2.7bn sapped public support for the scheme and her former deputy, Steven Miles, went for the cheaper option of upgrading the 50-year-old Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre stadium when he took over in 2023.
Mr Crisafulli axed that when he took office last October. Despite his frequent rejection of a new stadium for Brisbane2032, he allowed the review by the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority to explore whether one should be built.
Ms Palaszczuk, while still backing the Gabba redevelopment, believes the GIICA board will go for Victoria Park. Her view is shared by other influential figures in business and politics in Queensland, while opinion polls have turned up strong public support for the plan.
Mr Newman said Brisbane had less green space in and around the CBD than other capital cities and could not afford to lose any of the 64ha reserve. Mr Schrinner has described Victoria Park as Brisbane’s answer to New York’s famed Central Park.
Mr Newman said the Gabba, because of its public transport services, or another proposed stadium site at Hamilton Northshore on Brisbane River were a better fit.
He said building in Victoria Park would undermine the legacy of the Games, a key consideration for the International Olympic Committee when it awarded Brisbane the hosting rights in 2021.
“The IOC wants host cities to have a legacy,” he said from London. “A legacy means, in my humble opinion, taking something that didn’t have value and turning it into value. Not the other way around.
“So to explore that, when they held the 2012 Olympics here in London they didn’t plonk a stadium in Hyde Park. Vic Park would have applied in the Brisbane context, but the London organisers didn’t do that. Similarly … Sydney could have put the Olympic stadium in The Domain – close to transport, a fantastic backdrop of the CBD, an incredibly impressive site. But they didn’t do that, either. They went to Homebush.”
Mr Newman, who was a successful Brisbane lord mayor before he switched to state politics in 2012, said the Save Victoria Park campaign was gaining traction and ready to take the fights to the streets and courts, if need be.
In a warning to Mr Crisafulli, he said: “If you think Victoria Park will be easy, think again.”
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