Former premier torches Miles, LNP over Olympic stadium fight

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“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, billions and billions and billions of dollars that Queenslanders don’t have at the moment with cost-of-living pressures …

“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.”

Victoria Park is 64 hectares of open green space in Brisbane’s inner city, spanning the suburbs of Herston, Kelvin Grove and Spring Hill.Credit: Matt Dennien

She said she had held her tongue about the Miles government’s decision to use the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan as the main Olympic stadium, which she described as “an absolutely ridiculous idea”.

When Brisbane secured the Olympics in 2021, beating bids from Indonesia, Qatar, India, Spain, China, Germany and Hungary, it gave the city an unprecedented 11 years to prepare for the 2032 Games.

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Almost a third of that time has passed, leading many in business, sport and political circles to lament a squandered advantage.

Palaszczuk said under the proposal to rebuild the Gabba that she had finalised with the IOC and former prime minister Scott Morrison, construction for the Games would have been completed by 2030.

“There was a plan, there was a new norm,” she said, referring to the IOC’s push to use existing venues to avoid host cities being left with unnecessary infrastructure.

“There was a plan, 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,” she said.

“Let me be very clear here, time is running out.

“Under the former plans that 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, the so-called “accidental premier” who led Labor to three Queensland election victories, resigned from politics after almost nine years in the top job in December 2023. She was succeeded by Miles, who was ousted as premier by the LNP at last October’s election.

Miles sent organisers back to the drawing board last year when he announced a 60-day review into Olympic venues by former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk.

Another 100-day review commissioned by new Premier David Crisafulli, headed by property industry executive Stephen Conry, is due to release its findings in March.

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