‘What is going on?’ Ex-premier’s broadside at Olympics plans

Former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has slammed the planning for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, after the government claimed it had uncovered a reported $3.5 billion cost to build Olympic villages for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie claimed that the previous government allocated only $155 million to the project, while Opposition Leader Cameron Dick said they had been open to working with private investors on the project.

Speaking on Today, Palaszczuk, the former Labor premier of Queensland who secured the Olympics for 2032 and who stepped down as premier in 2023, said she was “shocked” at the situation.

“When I left, we had a plan,” she said.

“We were sticking to the plan, and the tenders would have been out now for the Gabba, and the planning and construction would have been, well, you know, getting into it now.

“So I’m absolutely shocked at the state of this – If I was at the IOC at the moment, I would be saying, ‘What is going on Brisbane?'”

She said the original plan had been submitted to and approved by the International Olympics Committee, but had since become “unpicked”.

“If you go back to it, (former prime minister) Scott Morrison and I, we agreed on who was going to be on the Olympic Committee. We agreed on the funding. We secured the funding,” she said.

“And now it’s just become this political football.”

Palaszczuk also slammed the push to make Victoria Park a new sporting precinct, pointing to the lack of public transport and the area’s standing as the last piece of “pristine greenness” in Brisbane.

She urged people to work together to ensure the Brisbane Olympics became a source of pride and joy for the whole country.

“The time for fighting is over. I think everyone’s got to sit around a table and this has got to be sorted out,” she said.