Olympics supremo John Coates reveals why he advised Steven Miles ignore independent Olympics review

Olympics powerbroker John Coates has broken his silence on the controversial decision to snub an independent review to spend billions on upgrading the dilapidated Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre. HAVE YOUR SAY.

Premier Steven Miles decided to ignore an independent Olympics review and push ahead with spending $1.6bn to upgrade the Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre because Games powerbroker John Coates suggested it, he said.

Mr Miles’s staggering comment came as Mr Coates – the International Olympic Committee Vice President – defended criticism of his involvement in the decision when reached by The Courier Mail in Switzerland for comment.

The premier on Tuesday was peppered with questions about how he came up with the decision to spend $1.6bn upgrading the dilapidated QSAC site, despite Graham Quirk’s 60-day infrastructure review warning it “does not represent value for money”.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles was peppered with questions about the decision to upgrade the dilapidated QSAC site. Picture: Dan Peled

“I will stand by and support the proposal that — you are right — was in the submission John Coates made to the inquiry,” Mr Miles told parliament.

“That is because, speaking as a representative of the IOC, he could be clear about what the requirements for an Olympic and Paralympic Games would be.

“He wanted to be clear that we did not need a new $3.4bn stadium and that we could deliver the games with our existing stadiums.”

When asked about his involvement in government decision making Mr Coates, speaking from Switzerland, said he was only “reminding them” of obligations to the IOC.

“I am the IOC member in Australia and it’s my duty to remind them the basis upon which they bid for the games,” he said.

“If we don’t honour those arrangements there’s plenty of other countries that can say why did you give it to Brisbane when they didn’t have all the venues?

“Qatar is saying why don’t you give us a crack… we have all the venues… the Germans thought they were pre-empted.

“The IOC went ahead and on the basis of its requirements of existing or planned venues, moved us up.”

AOC president John Coates argued to upgrade Nathan’s QSAC could be completed for less than the $1.6bn figure. Picture: Dan Peled

Mr Coates argued the upgrade to Nathan’s QSAC for Olympic track and field events could be completed for as little as $500m to $600m – with IOC experts made available to travel to Australia to assess required work.

“I don’t see it as a given that it’s necessary to spend $1.6bn on QSAC,” he said.

“It just looked to me to grab all the potential costs to suit the case of not using that existing venue.

“What needs to be done is to explore whether you can reuse the grandstand on the western side or knock it down.”

An aerial render of the Victoria Park precinct proposal. Pictured Supplied by ARCHIPELAGO

Mr Coates acknowledged there would be no problem with a world-class stadium at Victoria Park hosting the Olympic events and ceremonies.

“If they’d decided to go ahead that would have been fine, they would have had to say it wasn’t Olympic related.

“The Olympics will go and use venues that are there but we don’t want the blame and we don’t want to cost of stadia that aren’t necessary.”

The independent 60-day infrastructure review warned against spending $1.6bn to upgrade QSAC due to “limited legacy opportunities” it would provide for the city – and found it would not offer value to taxpayers.

Mr Miles reiterated the value to Queenslanders of ignoring the review and upgrading QSAC for athletics.

“If that means saying no to the $3.4bn new stadium then I will say no to that stadium, because that is what strong leadership looks like,” he said.

An aerial render of the Victoria Park precinct proposal, showing its proximity to the Brisbane CBD. Pictured Supplied by ARCHIPELAGO

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who has not revealed his opinion on the QSAC or Victoria Park proposal, said the election of an LNP government in October would see the empowerment of an independent Delivery Authority that “delivers projects that are generational for this state”.

Deputy Premier Cameron Dick described Victoria Park as a “vanity project”.

Federal LNP MP for Fairfax Ted O’Brien – a former member of the 2032 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games – said the state government’s decision to “entirely own” infrastructure delivery at the expense of an independent authority “has proven to be a disaster”.

“We had all our ducks in a row to make good use of the longest runway ever with 11 years to get infrastructure right,” he said.

“Almost three years have passed and government remains paralysed.”

Originally published as Olympics supremo John Coates reveals why he advised Steven Miles ignore independent Olympics review