Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst the recent review by Graham Quirk into Olympic funding largely focused its attention on Brisbane and what stadium is going to be used, the other big story locally for us is that the Toowoomba Sports Ground is no longer considered a viable option. The independent study found that there was no identified legacy provided by the planned upgrade, worth some $80 million. This is the only regional venue that has been recommended against being upgraded.

This comes as absolutely no surprise to me, having extensively doorknocked, phone canvassed, held mobile offices, run a town hall at the bowls club and run a survey on the issue. Locals have significant concerns about the impacts of these proposed upgrades. Up until my intervention, they had absolutely no means of getting those concerns heard, of expressing them. Once I became aware of them, I raised those concerns with every level of government, demanding simply that my community's voices be heard.

These were significant concerns. This is a temporary upgrade to a stadium. That means that you don't have to put in place noise prevention or light prevention. You don't have to concern yourself with the impacts of parking, of dust created. A similar sort of temporary structure was built for QEII back in the eighties in Brisbane, for the Commonwealth Games, and it still stands today. This was going to have a significant impact on a local community. The strongest concerns came from the bowls club, the tennis club and the croquet club, because it was quite clear that their entire future was being put at risk by these upgrades. I point out that the bowls club is 123 years old, and the Range Tennis Club is the oldest in Queensland.

There were as many submissions about the Toowoomba Sports Ground as there were about the Gabba. That's extraordinary for a city the size of Toowoomba compared to Brisbane. The percentage of people who were concerned is significant, and 92 per cent of the responses were opposed to the upgrade. So I'm glad to see the review come to a position of common sense, clearly pointing out that there are no legacy benefits to building a stadium right in the middle of suburbia.

Amazingly, extraordinarily, our council put in a submission supporting this. How tone deaf they were on the issue I don't know. I thank the three councillors who strongly spoke against this, particularly Nancy Sommerfield, who will be a great loss to the council, for standing up and speaking up for the people of the region that she is there to represent.

What we have now is the opportunity, very quickly, to provide that committee with some alternatives that we can put Olympic funding towards that will leave a legacy for our region.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:44 to 12:56

A review of the funding of the sportsground has found that it has no identified legacy benefits and it's effectively killed the project off. It's incumbent upon the Toowoomba community to get together and provide some alternative options so that we can ensure that that $80 million of Olympic infrastructure spend stays in the Toowoomba region. I commend the Chronicle for leading a very strong campaign and getting that conversation going very quickly.

There are three options that have come to the fore, and I think they are all worthy of further exploration. The equestrian centre of excellence is the first one that has been raised. I think this is a great solution for our region. Clearly we have a strong equestrian community in Toowoomba, but further the thoroughbred racing community in our region is very strong. The opportunity to provide infrastructure that will create a legacy for that region is right there.

The second one that's been raised is an expansion of the Clive Berghofer Arena. With basketball and netball being huge sports in our region, this one is a no-brainer as well. I think that so many in our community would love to get behind it.

The final one, and the one that I think speaks strongest, would be a fit-for-purpose athletic centre. Olympian and Allora boy Matt Denny said he had to leave our region altogether to pursue his Olympic dreams, and that's not good enough in a city like Toowoomba. We are Australia's largest regional city. We should be able to see that sort of investment and that sort of opportunity created for our kids. That is the sort of legacy that we want to see from that infrastructure spend.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12 : 58 to 13 : 11