Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know the member for Griffith cares about education in his electorate, and I do feel for the East Brisbane community that will be moving down the road for their new education site. I've had schools closed down in my electorate and it's quite devastating. I know that the member for Griffith flies to Canberra to complain about aircraft noise rather than catching the train down here, but that's a matter for him. But, for the member for Griffith's benefit: while the Gabba stadium is in his electorate, the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games are about much more than just the Gabba. The best part about these games is that 85 per cent of the facilities already exist. The Albanese government isn't funding the destruction of the Gabba at all. In fact, we're funding the construction of a Brisbane arena, a new 17,000-seat indoor entertainment venue in the CBD, right alongside the Roma Street Parkland.

I don't know how many times the member for Griffith—who's just exited the chamber—has gone to a concert or a show at the current Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall. It's quite a journey from the south side, and that piece of Brisbane infrastructure is certainly showing its age. Brisbane's live music and entertainment need a venue in the CBD with excellent public transport access. The new arena will have this link to a newly built Roma Street station, thanks to the Palaszczuk government investing in Cross River Rail. There will be construction of five new sporting venues, including the Breakfast Creek indoor sports centre, the Chandler indoor sports centre, the Sunshine Coast indoor sports centre, the Moreton Bay indoor sports centre and the Redland Whitewater Centre. All will be upgraded and all will be legacy assets scattered throughout south-east Queensland, not just in Woolloongabba and Griffith.

There will be some upgrades, along with temporary structures, to nine existing venues throughout south-east Queensland: the Wyaralong Flatwater Centre and precinct; the Sunshine Coast Stadium; the Brisbane Aquatic Centre and precinct; Barlow Park in Cairns—that's outside Griffith, I think!—the Toowoomba Sports Ground; the Brisbane International Shooting Centre in Belmont, which is well known to the member for Hunter; the Sunshine Coast mountain bike centre; the Anna Meares Velodrome and BMX tracks; and the Queensland Tennis Centre, which is not in Griffith at all but in Moreton, in the suburb of Tennyson. These will be great legacies for Queensland and Australia. The games and accompanying infrastructure will be a platform to boost and inspire more community participation in sport and promote an inclusive environment where women and girls and Australians of all abilities feel welcome and have ready access—which brings me back to the Gabba, where this motion started.

I'm not sure whether the member for Griffith has visited the Gabba lately or spoken to people with a disability about access and mobility once they're in the stadium. But someone in a wheelchair having to use the service lift isn't acceptable in 2023 and certainly wouldn't be acceptable in 2032—nor would a major sports stadium not having dedicated change rooms and facilities for women.

A new Gabba will also deliver an eco-friendly facility. I do note that at one stage the Greens political party position, as put forward by the former Greens councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan, was to tear down swathes of Toohey forest in my electorate, destroying metropolitan koala habitat, just to save the Gabba. I actually saw a koala in the Toohey forest on Sunday. I think it would be a badly thought out policy to destroy inner-city forest for the sake of protecting the Gabba.

Swinging back to public transport, the Gabba will have, obviously, a new station right across the road, which will be crossed on an elevated concourse so there will be no more traffic problems. People in Brisbane going to the games will be able to hop on a train and hop off at the Gabba.

Lastly, the member for Griffith has tried to compare Brisbane's Olympics and Paralympics with Victoria's cancelled Commonwealth Games. I point out that the Olympics is the second biggest sporting event in the world, sitting just behind the FIFA Men's World Cup and just ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup—go the Matildas tonight!

These green games will see the world looking to Brisbane and Queensland and will deliver an unprecedented opportunity to showcase the state as a world-class tourism and business destination. It is also a chance to promote the Queensland arts sector. What a great opportunity for our musicians, artists and performers—and our First Nations people, because they're going to have a central place at the games. They will be the heartbeat, whether through song or dance or stories and connection. It will be an opportunity for the world to immerse itself in the world's oldest continual living culture: 65,000-plus years of knowledge, words and wisdom.

The Paralympics and Olympics aren't just about the rebuild of an old and tired stadium. They're about people from all over the world putting their eyes on Brisbane.

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