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≡ STADIUM SITE, VILLAGE COSTS
IN CRISIS ≡
“I’m absolutely shocked at the state of this. If I was at the IOC [International Olympic Committee] at the moment, I would be saying, ‘What is going on, Brisbane?’”
That’s former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on the Nine News “Today” program on Thursday, ridiculing the continuing fight over where the main stadium will be for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
And then there is a charge from the current Liberal National Party government, elected in October, that the former Labor Party government left a A$3.5 billion hole in the state budget over the cost of building four housing projects to be used as the Olympic Villages in 2032. (A$1 = $0.63 U.S.)
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First, the stadium fight.
The LNP government is in the midst of a 100-day review, expected to be delivered by the end of March, on the question of where to fund new construction or a renovation of a main stadium for the 2032 Games.
The original plan, championed by Palaszczuk, was to renovate the famed Brisbane Cricket Ground (the Gabba) at a projected cost of A$2.7 billion. But after she retired, her Labor successor, Steven Miles, undertook another review, which recommended a new facility – costing A$3.4 billion – at Victoria Park in Brisbane. Miles rejected both of cost concerns, in favor of renovating the existing Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC) for track & field and using Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park) for ceremonies.
Palaszczuk told the Today program:
“When I left, we had a plan, we were sticking to the plan and the tenders would have been out now for the Gabba and the planning and construction would have been well getting into it now.
“So, I’m absolutely shocked at the state of this.
“Everything’s getting unpicked. I often describe it as like, if you’re knitting a sweater and someone pulls a bit of wool, it’s all going to come untangled and everyone is pulling bits of wool out of this sweater.
“If I was at the IOC at the moment, I would be saying, ‘What is going on, Brisbane?’
“This is not just Brisbane or Queensland Games, this is an Australian Games, and everyone needs to pull together. There was a plan, the plan was submitted to the IOC, the IOC ticked off the plan. And now you have nearly every single mayor, you have the new government reviewing.
“Look, I’ve been told the committee has actually already decided it’s going to be Victoria Park. It’s got no transport, it’s going to cost a lot more, more billions and billions and billions of dollars that Queenslanders don’t have at the moment because of the cost-of-living pressures.
“You know, there was a plan, there was [IOC’s] The New Norm, we had 80 per cent of our stadiums locked in and, frankly, I’m pretty annoyed about how it’s turned out, it actually makes me quite sad as well. Something that I was so pleased with when we secured it for Brisbane and Queensland and Australia, an inclusive Games, and now the athletes are being forgotten and it’s become this huge fight over stadiums, for goodness sake.”
She called the Victoria Park concept “a ridiculous idea” and added:
“The Gabba was the place. But I’ve been told that it’s already Victoria Park, and I think there’s going to be a lot of outrage about the last piece of pristine greenness in our city being ripped up for stadiums.
“Time is running out. … Under the former plans we put in place, it would have been completed by 2030. Now we’re going to be pushed right up to the line until 2032.”
Palaszczuk noted that when Brisbane got the Games, the plan was clear: “We agreed on the funding. We secured the funding. And now it’s just become this political football.”
In the meantime, the venue review continues.
¶
Then there is the funding for the Olympic Villages, planned for Brisbane, Kooralbyn, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. The LNP government issued a statement on Wednesday that included:
“Explosive new budget analysis from the Queensland Government has revealed a massive budget blackhole left by the former State Labor Government to build the Athlete Villages for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“It can be revealed today, the athlete villages have blown out to an estimated [A]$3.5 billion.
“The former Palaszczuk-Miles Labor Government only allocated [A]$155 million to build suburban streets and paths for the proposed villages, leaving a staggering [A]$3.345 billion funding shortfall.”
Labor Party Deputy Leader Cameron Dick said Wednesday, “The truth of the matter is the villages have no business cases, no project validation reports, no commercial input, and of course, there’s no other details.”
A Labor spokesman noted, “Money [A$410 million] was allocated in the budget for the first and most progressed project at Northshore Hamilton, with additional funding to be budgeted as planning continued for villages on the Sunshine and Gold Coasts.”
The estimate of the shortfall came from Queensland Treasury, which said that A$2.4 billion was being set aside “for future works.” As the 2032 village properties are expected to become resident housing after the Games, private financing may also be available for part of the project, but this has not yet been explored.
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It’s a mess. But Palasczcuk was optimistic:
“I think everybody will get their act in order. But … it’s going to need everybody sitting down around that table.”
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