Labor scraps independent oversight for Olympic infrastructure spend

There will be no independent agency set up to manage the multibillion-dollar infrastructure program for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles says.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

There will be no independent agency set up to manage the multibillion-dollar infrastructure program for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles has confirmed.

In a move that will deliver the state government total control over the $2.7bn rebuild of Brisbane’s Gabba stadium, a proposed co-ordination authority will be brought in-house.

Insisted on by former prime minister Scott Morrison as a way to maximise investment from the private sector and to reduce the cost to taxpayers, an ­Olympics co-ordination authority had been meant to involve all three levels of government.

However, the independent authority has now been officially scrapped after a revised cost-sharing agreement was unveiled by Anthony Albanese and Queensland Premier Annas­tacia Palaszczuk in February.

The Australian reported on Saturday that the Gabba cost blowout – from $1bn to $2.7bn – triggered the Olympic funding deal to be reworked, with the state now assuming sole responsibility for the Gabba rebuild and the commonwealth taking charge of the 17,000-seat Brisbane Arena.

An OCA was a key part of Brisbane’s pitch for the Games and it was promised that the body would publish a report by mid-2022 with an “outline of monitoring methodology mapped to a detailed legacy delivery program and specific quantifiable targets alongside appropriate quality measures”.

Instead, the agency will be set up inside existing government departments, Mr Miles said on Thursday, after several months of speculation.

“I don’t think a new bureau­cracy that would just soak up resources is useful or necessary,” he said.

“These venues are being built by the government for Queensland’s growing needs – they are not being built for the Olympics.

“The commitment we gave to the IOC was these venues were needed for our growing city, state and regions and therefore would be delivered anyway.”

Mr Miles’s admission comes a day after Mr Morrison told The ­Australian that his government had “an express understanding” that an independent agency would be set up that would be “critical” to the good governance of projects.

“We weren’t going to be an ATM for the Olympics. We were going to be a partner.

“We wanted to be 50-50 not just in funding but in sharing the job and making those decisions,” Mr Morrison said.

State Liberal National Party Olympics infrastructure spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said independent experts should be over­seeing the massive taxpayer spend.

“There is no transparency, there is no openness or accountability about where the money is spent, how it is spent,” Mr Bleijie said.

“It should send shivers down the spine of every Queenslander now that billions of dollars in expenditure by the Palaszczuk government will go unchecked.”

Mr Miles said a validation process for the Gabba rebuild, similar to a business case, was due to be completed by the ­middle of the year.

“Certainly elements of it will be released publicly,” he said.

“There may be elements that can’t (be released publicly) because they feed into commercial negotiations,” he added.