Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) that the Government has committed to funding $3.4 billion of the $7 billion Olympics infrastructure, in the middle of a cost living crisis, when it refuses to invest more than $500 million a year in social and affordable housing;

(b) that the average cost blow-out of an Olympics since 1960 is 2.5 times the original cost, which would see the cost of the Brisbane Olympics blow-out to $17.5 billion; and

(c) the recent decision by the Victorian Government to cancel the Commonwealth Games so as to save money for schools and hospitals; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) drop its support for the disastrous Gabba demolition and rebuild that will see the bulldozing of a local public school, East Brisbane State School, and Raymond Park, a much loved public park;

(b) re-negotiate a new Olympics infrastructure agreement that actually prioritises using existing infrastructure, like Carrara Stadium, and instead invests in new public transport and other long term community infrastructure; and

(c) commit that any infrastructure built for the Olympics remains in public hands, including retaining the athletes' village as publicly-owned housing.

In light of the recent decision to cancel the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, it is abundantly clear now that the federal government must renegotiate the Olympics infrastructure deal with Queensland. That's because right now they're supporting an Olympics infrastructure plan that will see the destruction of a local public school, with hundreds of schoolkids displaced, and a much-loved public park that is one of the only bits of community infrastructure in one of the fastest-growing areas in Brisbane.

We know that the total cost of the Gabba demolition is apparently $2.7 billion, but Labor is keeping Queenslanders in the dark about what that actually covers. Does it cover the $100 million to move the school? Does it cover the warm-up track? Does it cover converting the stadium back into a cricket and AFL stadium after 2032? Does it cover the construction impacts on four major arterial roads that surround the stadium? We know, based on the average cost blowout of Olympics infrastructure, that the real cost could be as much as $6.7 billion—13 times what the federal government proposed to spend on social and affordable housing every year.

It's very hard to overstate just how destructive this decision will be.

And we hear jokes from the member from Moreton over there! The member for Moreton, by the way, whose federal electorate is just over the side from that—that's what he thinks of the local schoolkids in that area!

This is the decision that Labor are making. We had schoolkids get in touch with us, asking us basic questions like: 'Why is the government closing our school? Why do we have a government if they don't listen?' Here's the deal: the education department's own consultation report said, 'Across all of the engagement activities, the feedback received was consistent. It is clear that the EBSS community, families and local residents prefer that the school remain within the existing catchment area.' A massive 93 per cent of respondents want their school to stay where it is, and we can hardly blame them.

This is a government now, the Labor government, which is becoming the government of destroying public schools and local public parks—

And interjecting again, by the way, is the Labor member for Moreton. He is interjecting and making light of the destruction of a public school—

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. The member for Moreton?

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

Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention to the fact that he's misleading the House. I'm not making light of this at all, and I'd ask him to withdraw that comment.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would help the House if the member could withdraw that comment.

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What were you doing then?

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

I'd withdraw the comment—

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, we're not going to have a debate across the chamber. It would assist the House if you could withdraw that, please, member for Griffith.

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate that, thank you.

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is over there interjecting, and, clearly—is it the case, then, that the Labor Party support destroying a local public school for a four-week sporting event? It's disgraceful. It's not only the school but also Raymond Park, which is home to a local football club and community garden, and which hundreds of people use every day. Never mind the fact that the IAC has said that they don't need to destroy the Gabba stadium and they could just use the existing athletic track at the Carrara Stadium. This is billions of dollars in public money that is being used to destroy a school and a public park for a four-week sporting event.

I want the parents of East Brisbane State School and the broader area to know that we stand with them. We are going to fight as hard as we can to get the federal government to drop its support for this disastrous decision and, at the very least, renegotiate an Olympics infrastructure plan that puts the parents of East Brisbane State School and the broader community of Brisbane first. They must renegotiate a plan that is what was promised in the first place, which is an Olympics that has a low impact on the city.

The joke of it is that we keep hearing that this is going to have a long-term benefit for Brisbane. Right now, the long-term benefit for Brisbane is the destruction of a public school, the destruction of a public park, years of disruption and a huge infrastructure project that isn't going to give the benefit that Brisbane needs. What Brisbane really needs, by the way, is more public schools, more hospitals and more investment in local infrastructure, community parks, and public and affordable housing. Instead, we're getting this disastrous decision, going against the wishes of over 90 per cent of the local area. I think it's demonstrative of the fact that the Labor government will go around talking about how they care about public education and community infrastructure but in the same breath they will make a decision like this.

Now their decision is to move East Brisbane State School entirely out of its existing catchment. Coorparoo Secondary College is a wonderful school, but when you're telling East Brisbane and Kangaroo Point—two of the fastest-growing areas in inner-city Brisbane—that they're not going to have a public school, what does that say about how much Labor cares about public education? What does that say about how much Labor cares about community infrastructure and public parks? Again, this is all for a four-week sporting event and could cost upwards of $6.7 billion, based on the blowout costs. Imagine what $6.7 billion could do for Queensland. We now know that what Labor wants to do with it is destroy a school and a park. It's disgraceful.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

From November 2022 to February 2023, I ran a survey across my electorate of Brisbane, and I thank the 713 residents who took the time to share their views and have their say, particularly around the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The survey asked some simple questions: how do you feel about Brisbane hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and why do you feel this way; do you have any suggestions for ways the government can ensure the games have a positive legacy for Brisbane residents; and do you think that all infrastructure built with public money for the games should remain in public hands?

On multiple occasions, respondents indicated their concern regarding the impact of the games on housing affordability, an issue that continues to be brought up with my office by constituents. Between the 1980s and the 2010s, Summer Olympics related developments displaced more than two million people. There's a long history of 'city cleansing' in the lead-up to international events, as happened in Brisbane during the 2014 G20 meeting and on the Gold Coast during the 2018 Commonwealth Games. As a result of Expo 88, house prices in South Brisbane rose by 238 per cent in the 11 years before the event. That same trend has occurred in Olympic host cities around the world, and, given Australia's current housing crisis, this is extremely concerning. The 2032 games could provide an opportunity for the government to tackle the housing crisis head on by investing in publicly owned housing, by cracking down on short-term stays like Airbnbs and by capping rent increases.

The Brisbane community overwhelmingly agreed that any infrastructure built for the games with public money should be kept in public hands. The athletes village, for example, will host 10,000 athletes and team officials for the Olympics and more than 5,000 for the Paralympics, all inside the Brisbane electorate. So, rather than selling off this housing, like we saw in Sydney and on the Gold Coast, this housing should be turned into beautiful, accessible, publicly-owned housing for anyone who needs it. My office is currently running a petition calling on the government to do just that, so, please, add your name to it.

Our communities expect transparency in government, but neither the Labor state government nor the LNP city council have provided transparency around Brisbane's Olympic bid—or the planning that has been carried out since, for that matter. In fact, council held a closed-door meeting when they voted in favour of hosting the games, locking the public out and keeping the details private. This was the first closed-door meeting in 15 years, and the last time this happened was for the Clem7—a project now infamous in Brisbane, and one that went bankrupt. Compare this to Germany, where they held a referendum in the two cities that were considering hosting the games, Munich and Hamburg, and both cities' residents voted no.

In 2019, the Queensland government commissioned multinational accounting and advisory firm KPMG to analyse the economic impact of the games. It was initially estimated that the games would provide $7.4 billion worth of quantifiable economic benefits. Flash forward to May 2021: this figure was increased to $8.1 billion, but $3.5 billion of that was for ambiguous social benefits like 'health', 'prestige' and 'civic pride'. In November of last year it was revealed that the original $1 billion cost for the redevelopment of the Gabba stadium was not actually based on any business case or viability investigation; it just came from a press release put out by the state government. The Premier then announced that her government would assume control of the games' infrastructure projects and scrap the planned independent body, the Olympic coordination authority. This is extremely alarming and further entrenches a lack of transparent decision-making and community consultation.

Now, Brisbane residents should be excited by the 2032 Olympic Games. But we have to ensure that they are done right. Holding closed-door meetings, abolishing independent oversight bodies and making up cost shortfalls with 'civic pride' will not ensure a positive legacy for our city. We need an open and transparent Olympics, real investment in public infrastructure and housing and to ensure that anything built with public money remains in public hands.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to begin today by reminding the House that there are two parties in this place voting no to building more housing in Australia: the coalition, which is expected, and the petty, whingeing Greens. This is nothing more than a political stunt. They say we need to pick between housing and the Olympics. I have news for them: we are committed to both. If they really care about housing, why are they blocking the bill that would see more houses being built? Wouldn't building new houses right now be better than none at all? They are the definition of letting the perfect get in the way of the possible. If they were stuck in the cold, they would say no to the offer of a jumper because they wanted a heater.

I will show some sympathy to those representing the Greens. I'm not shocked that they are so out of touch with everyday Australians. They've probably never played sport before in their lives. No wonder they can't see why the Olympics are important and why it's necessary to make sure that the games are of the highest standard possible. They just don't get it—and they are walking out of the chamber, once again. But, for me, it is the arrogance, over the lot, that is the frustrating part.

Housing, education and health are all important, and they are also some of the top priorities. But they are not the only things deserving of funding. Just because the member for Griffith has never watched sport in his life, it doesn't mean it's not important to other people. Your own interests don't define what is and isn't important and what does and does not deserve to be funded.

Sport unites our country. It is a fundamental part of our national identity. Our country has never been more united than when Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympics. People still talk about it to this day. This is an opportunity for us to feel that sense of national pride and collective excitement again.

The Greens say that they speak for lots of different groups in society, but one group they seem to have forgotten are our athletes. Athletes dedicate their lives to sport. They sacrifice so much, including time with their family and friends. An elite athlete does this for moments like a home Olympics. Olympics are the peak for athletes, and it is rare that they get to share the peak of their careers with all that they love. An Olympics at home makes this more possible.

I've been lucky enough to go to five Olympics. I know what it means to be an athlete. I know what it means to the cities that host them, and I see the benefits to all those in our country who unite and cheer on our athletes and give them the recognition and glory that they deserve. But the Greens want to take this away. They want to burn lifelong dreams and destroy opportunities to inspire our young people.

The Olympics can light a flame in the young people of Australia and inspire them to work hard on their dreams. A home Olympics will be the breeding ground for our next generation of sporting superstars, and it gives current young athletes something to work towards. Athletes in this country deserve world-class facilities, and Olympics provide the perfect opportunity for them to be given these facilities by upgrades to stadiums like the Gabba. The new and upgraded facilities in Queensland will be used long after the Olympics are over. Just look at Stadium Australia in Sydney. I think we have made more than our money's worth out of that. It's now hosting one of the biggest women's sporting events in the world, 23 years after it hosted the Olympic Games.

The Greens make out that hosting the Olympics is all doom and gloom. There seem to think that there is no upside to it at all. They ignore the benefits, such as increased tourism and the boost to our local businesses and the economy as a whole. The Greens forget to mention the jobs that will be created by all the funding which goes towards the infrastructure. It's also an opportunity to showcase to the world the best of what our country do. The Olympics bring opportunities for a better future for our younger generations, because the world will take notice of Australia.

I think this is a very worthy investment. I support hospitals and schools, but, unlike the Greens, I can truthfully say that I support providing more homes and also the Olympics. May I just say it's also very disappointing to see the member for Brisbane and the member for Griffith not being here to finish this debate.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.