Editorial: Finally a good call on the 2032 Games

With his city the host of seven Games venues, Tom Tate’s inclusion in the 2032 Games Organising Committee seems a total no-brainer, writes the editor.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate

We will never know if Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate was intentionally left off the Organising Committee for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games when the laws establishing it were drafted, but at least now common sense has won the day and he will get a seat on it.

With his city the host of seven Games venues, Mr Tate’s inclusion seems a total no-brainer.

His original exclusion was the result of the organising committee legislation dictating that there be 50:50 gender representation on it.

The Brisbane Lord Mayor was an automatic pick, and with that role filled by Adrian Schrinner it meant the allocated slot on the committee for another South East Queensland mayor needed to go to a woman.

That slot was initially filled by the then-mayor of Redland City Karen Williams – but she resigned after she crashed her car and was found to have been drink-driving.

Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart then joined the committee, in mid-2022.

She lost her election in March, so was earlier this month replaced on the organising committee board – by Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding, following a vote of the South East Council of Mayors. That was the body that Mr Tate in 2021 withdrew the Gold Coast from, saying he saw no value in it for ratepayers.

Mr Tate’s inclusion is an overdue victory for common sense as we lurch our way towards hosting the biggest event in the entire world in just eight years time.

With a president, 16 directors, and five vice-presidents already, the organising committee board hardly needs an additional brain – but to leave the Gold Coast out was petty, even if it was unintentional (which we doubt, considering Mr Tate’s history of ruffling feathers while advocating loudly for his city).

This move – a recommendation of a government-dominated state parliamentary committee – corrects that injustice. Premier Steven Miles therefore deserves credit for doing here what his predecessor did not.

It is not only fair, but also smart – as you probably want Mr Tate in the tent rather than outside of it where he can get up to mischief, such as in March when he both labelled the International Olympic Committee untrustworthy and said the people of Queensland had been “conned” during the bid process.

The recommendation was made as part of a review of legislation to establish an independent agency to deliver the infrastructure required for the Games – a move former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk resisted, as she wanted to retain full control within her department.

The agency will be independent, but overseen by another board – this time one with nine members, appointed by State Development Minister Grace Grace.

We urge Minister Grace to resist the temptation to make any of these nine a political appointment. What we need instead are nine people who actually know what they are doing when it comes to the delivery of infrastructure for big events – a skillset that has been absent from the so-far sorry three-year saga of Brisbane’s preparations for the hosting of the Games.

Leaving the decision-making to those with a purely political lens on the task has left us with the current plan being that the world’s newest Olympic city will debut without a stadium of any note – and a track and field venue the smallest since Amsterdam in 1928, located in a pocket of bushland in the suburbs that is a solid three-hour walk from the central business district. More common sense is urgently needed.

SATELLITE HOSPITAL DATA A DISGRACE

It was inevitable – and obvious – that the state government’s purely political decision to name its new primary care clinics in marginal seats “satellite hospitals” would lead to confusion, and put Queenslanders at risk.

And so it has come to pass, with new figures revealing that more than a dozen Queenslanders every day with health conditions so “imminently life threatening” that the guidelines say they should be treated at a real hospital within two to 10 minutes of their arrival are turning up for treatment instead at the not-suitable satellite hospitals.

But the government does not care, because the political upside of being able to say it has built new “hospitals” in electorates it will need to hold or win at the state election in October is far greater than the political downside of a few sick people missing out on the treatment they need because they thought when the government said “hospital” it meant a hospital.

The opposition has committed to renaming all of the state’s five “satellite hospitals” if it wins the election. It has based that decision on advice from actual health professionals, not cynical political advisers who are literally happy to trade lives for their jobs.

It is a disgrace. It has been since the day the government made this decision. That Health Minister Shannon Fentiman is happy to continue this ruse is on her.

She should know better, and so should the Premier. They do, of course. But don’t hold your breath.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Finally a good call on the 2032 Games