Queensland rejects federal pressure to abandon Olympics review

The Queensland government has refused to bow to federal pressure to abandon its promised venues review for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Jarrod Bleijie, Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations, speaks to the media at Parliament House, on Monday, November 11, 2024. Picture: Richard Walker

The Queensland government has refused to bow to federal pressure to abandon its promised venues review for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said a new review was necessary to rectify the estimated $681m in cost blowouts and deliver the Games infrastructure within the $7.1bn funding envelope agreed on with the federal government, and decide the final location of the main stadium.

“At the moment, I fear it is the tip of the iceberg in what we have seen with Labor blowouts on these budgeted programs,” Mr Bleijie said.

“The new LNP state government is not comfortable with Queensland taxpayers forking out all these additional billions.

“That’s why it is vitally important that the 100-day review by the Coordination Authority takes place as soon as we appoint them, they get down to business and they get these costs under ­control.”

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King wrote to Mr Bleijie last week to convey her concerns that another review risked delays and increased costs. She urged that work continue on the federally funded Brisbane Arena – which has a $2.5bn spending cap – and the $935m Minor Venues Program.

It comes as the construction industry calls on the government to decide whether the major stadium will be located at the Gabba, Victoria Park or QEII in the southern suburbs.

Acting managing director of construction company Laing O’Rourke Mark Dimmock said time was still on the government’s side, citing the example of Sydney having won the Olympics only seven years before the 2000 Games’ opening ceremony.

“There’s nothing like an Olympics deadline to get things done,” he said during a panel discussion at the Australian Financial Review’s annual Infra­structure Summit. “There is certainly time here and we know that if we put our minds to it, we can achieve great things as a country.

“But we’re on the clock and we need to make some decision and get on with it.”

The cost of delivering necessary transport linkages from Brisbane Arena to Roma St railway station is estimated to have blown out up to $500m. Three minor venues on the Sunshine Coast at Chandler have also overshot by $181m.

The state government will appoint the board of the Independent Infrastructure Coordination Authority in the next 15 days before kicking off the 100-day review as promised in last month’s election campaign. Mr Bleijie said he expected the final report to be delivered by the end of February.

The review will be the second in less than a year. Former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk conducted an independent review for the previous Miles government, which recommended in January that the $2.7bn rebuild of the Gabba should be axed in favour of a new $3.4bn stadium at Victoria Park.

The terms of reference for the upcoming review have not been finalised, with Mr Bleijie refusing to commit to embracing all the recommendations.

“One of the terms of reference will be looking at the cost escalations of all these programs and why they have blown out, because you can’t just simply let the review take place and then say, yep, proceed on the basis with all these projects, with all these blowouts.

“Government will then not be able to proceed with them based on our commitment to the $7.1bn,” he said.

Mr Dimmock said productivity continued to be an issue in the Australian building sector. He said Australia was well behind Europe in modern methods of construction (MMC), where construction is mostly done off-site.

“We would see a 30 per cent reduction in time to build that infrastructure if we adopt that construction philosophy,” Mr Dimmock said