Queensland’s Olympics budget to passively blow out by over $1bn

The $7.1bn funding envelope for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympic Games venues could blow out by more than $1bn based on the Crisafulli government’s own figures.

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie. Picture: Liam Kidston

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The $7.1bn funding envelope for the 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games venues could blow out by more than $1bn based on the Queensland government’s own figures.

The deal struck between the federal and state governments to provide equal backing for new Olympic projects was first agreed upon in 2023, with the amount decided the previous year.

But the intergovernmental deal is being renegotiated after Premier David Crisafulli rewrote the venue delivery plan.

The new scheme scrapped the federal government’s major project, the $2.5bn Brisbane Arena for the swimming event, in favour of a new 63,000-seat stadium at Brisbane’s Victoria Park and several smaller venues across the state.

Discussions are ongoing, but Mr Crisafulli is “very confident” about striking a deal.

But calculations by property and construction researcher Cotality, formerly CoreLogic, for The Australian have revealed that inflation forecasts in the budget could result in the envelope passively blowing out to at least $8.4bn by the 2028-29 financial year.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the federal government had capped their expenditure.

“I’m not seeking one single extra dollar from (federal Infrastructure Minister) Catherine King,” he said on Thursday.

An artist’s impression of the new Brisbane Stadium for the 2032 Olympic Games.

Mr Bleijie did not answer questions about whether the cap means the heavily indebted state would be liable to cover any budget overruns. However, he did note he was open to additional federal investment to build associated transport infrastructure.

Work is yet to begin on the centrepiece 63,000-seat stadium in Brisbane. But Mr Bleijie said work would begin soon after the passing of new planning laws on Wednesday evening to stop legal challenges to Olympic sites.

Exact cost breakdowns for each venue were not included in the state budget, with Mr Bleijie refusing to comment on whether the $650m price tag for the National Aquatic Centre in Brisbane had already come in higher.

Cotality’s quarterly Cordell Index, which tracks the cost of construction and materials, found prices had moderated at the start of this year, after jumping by 31.3 per cent since the onset of the pandemic five years ago.

However, Cotality’s director of research Tim Lawless said the persistent labour shortages would remain a challenge for the government, which also pledged a record infrastructure spend in the budget. “It’s going to be hard, absolutely,” he said.

“When you look at any major infrastructure project around the country, the norm seems to be overruns in costs and overruns in timing. So, to bring it in on budget would be quite the feat. Also, just given we’ve got an extraordinarily tight labour market … demand is consistently outweighing supply by quite a margin.”

Mr Bleijie said he was willing to “steal” workers from interstate, but Mr Lawless said that would come at a significant wage cost.

Civil Contractors Federation chief executive Nicholas Proud said Mr Bleijie’s decision to pause the former Labor government’s Best Practice Industry Conditions legislation would make it cheaper and easier to get work done.

“There are inflationary costs that are associated with BPIC,” he said. “Thankfully, the Queensland government has put a pause on those conditions being a requirement, so that’s a reprieve.”

Mr Proud also noted the civil sector has a higher productivity rate than others in the property industry, such as ­housing and commercial. However, the establishment of apprenticeships and traineeships to create more workers would be essential.