Brisbane, Australia has taken another crucial step forward in its bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week that the federal government had approved a plan to split the hosting costs with the city.
In a statement, Morrison said that federal funding would be used to build venues, road, and transport infrastructure to host the Games.
“We have always believed in the potential of the 2032 Olympic Games for Queensland and Australia and it’s important we maintain momentum to win this bid,” he wrote.
“Backing the Queensland bid means more jobs, better infrastructure and more tourism dollars. Just like the Sydney 2000 Games, the Queensland bid has the opportunity to reshape our country.
In exchange, Morrison said that his government would seek a jointly-owned, funded, and run Olympic Infrastructure Agency with the Queensland government to give the federal government an equal voice in planning the 2032 Games.
“All levels of government must work together and take the politics out of each decision.
“Our offer is for a genuine partnership, with shared costs and shared responsibilities, working together to make this the best Olympics on record.
“It provides a platform for bipartisan support at every level of government and lets those who we will jointly appoint to get this job done, to just get on with it.”
In February, the IOC, under its new awarding process, named Brisbane as the preferred host of the 2032 Olympic Games. That means that the IOC will focus on that bid, and presuming necessary hurdles are cleared and appropriate domestic support is given, Brisbane is expected to become the host.
But Brisbane won’t host alone. Rather, 9 cities in Queensland, including the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, and others, have signed up to share hosting duties. That will make this the first multi-city summer Olympics in history.
Distributing the event across multiple cities will lead to broader regional support for the events and help distribute the hosting load, which likely will improve the legacy impact of venues built for the Games.
The federal government contributed just $150 million to Australia’s last hosting of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, though this project will likely run a much larger pricetag. Among the major projects is a proposed $1 billion demolition and rebuild of the Brisbane Cricket Ground, more commonly known as the Gabba, to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.
That’s just a convenient excuse for Queensland to get more money from the federal government to fund their Covid lockdown policies
The Brisbane Olympics have been in planning since long beffore covid and had support of the federal government basically the whole way through.
Sure the timing of the funding announcement says a lot when a lot of people struggling financially through Covid .. glad to see Australia has money to throw around
Thankfully for both governments ….. and AUS Olympic bosses; this isn’t really registering too much with COVID & vaccine rollout issues predominant in the news cycle. Otherwise, there quite possibly would be somewhat of a backlash.
Quite simply, this is not 2000 and AUS is a considerably different country in many of its attitudes; especially where the public $$$ should be spent. Apart from public transport infrastructure, I certainly think SEQ can successfully host an Olympics; especially one pared down from the bloated behemoths we have now; I think public support is fairly muted at best.
AUS Olympic sporting federations, most of whom are battling for any $$$ (public or private sector) hoping for a repeat of the Sydney… Read more »
Well I know where I’ll be summer of 2032.
It’ll be winter in Australia
That’s one of the best things about Queensland. It won’t even go below 70 degrees for the games. Beautiful weather down there
It will at night. During the day will be 21-26 degrees Celsius