Neil Breen:
There's more than a decade to go to the 2032 Olympics, but we've already seen bluing between the state and federal governments. And there was all sorts of shenanigans over the 22 person committee. You don't need to trawl through the history of it, but the federal Minister for Sport, Richard Colbeck, he wrote a piece for The Courier Mail, and he clarified a lot of things that have been said publicly. He said the Prime Minister and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, they'll pick four directors on the organising board. The IOC, the AOC, Paralympics Australia, and local government will get to pick one representative each. That's on top of, like the local government will already have the Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner. Then there'll be five independent directors, including a First Nations Australian, who will be chosen jointly by the Prime Minister and the Premier. The Minister’s on the line. Minister Colbeck, how are you?
Richard Colbeck:
I’m well, thanks, Neil.
Neil Breen:
Look I- look this- having lived through the Sydney experience, like we all did, the last thing Brisbane wants is 10 years of brawling. And I get the feeling, early on we had a brawl between the Lord Mayor and the Treasurer over the venue of an international broadcast centre, like anyone in Brisbane cared. And then there's been a brawl over a 22-person committee, which, if you ask me, is about 10 or 12 too many. Because there’ll lot, too many fingers in the pie, like, it to start with. Is this going to be a cohesive arrangement leading up to the Olympics in 2032? That's the question.
Richard Colbeck:
Well, that was the point of me writing the article that was published yesterday, was to set out, quite clearly, as you've indicated a moment ago, who's doing what. The impression that was cast by some announcements last week didn't leave what I saw as the impression of the discussions we’d been having with the Queensland Government and with the other Olympic partners. So I believed that it was important to put on the record what was being proposed, so that everybody could understand that what we're looking to put in place is a committee that does endure that 11 years between now and 2032. This is a really important event for Australia. It's a very exciting event for Australia, obviously. We’ll become one of a few countries to have ever hosted the Olympics three times and so very exciting. A lot for us to gain. We need a good and strong committee that’ll endure that 11 years and put on a cracker event in 2032.
Neil Breen:
Yeah, exactly right. That's exactly what we need. One of the things that troubles me leading up to the Olympic Games is the spend. Because I've been through the 92-page document that our bid committee sent to the IOC and accepted, and it's basically a cost of 5 billion, give or take. And one of the line items is, infrastructure, 690 million for new and existing infrastructure. But already, there's talk of a billion-dollar rebuild of the Gabba. The maths don't add up for mine, Richard Colbeck.
Richard Colbeck:
Well, that's, again, one of the things that I wanted to clarify in the article that I wrote yesterday. So the Premier asked the Prime Minister to go 50/50 in the cost of the infrastructure. The Prime Minister agreed to that. But it wasn't, we're just going to hand over 50 per cent of the cost. So we said, if we're going to be 50 per cent partners, we’ll be genuine 50 per cent partners in this entire process. That goes to the arrangements that we agree to form the organising committee, but there's also going to be an intergovernmental agreement between the states and the Commonwealth in respect of a range of these things. Plus, we’ll also establish a delivery agency for the infrastructure, and that will be managed by my colleague, Paul Fletcher and his counterpart in Queensland, Steven Miles. And that will provide us with a genuine partnership in the overall process of delivery of that infrastructure, including some of the strategic decision-making that’ll be undertaken as well. So, we're determined to establish a very, very strong, sound and solid arrangement between the Commonwealth and the state, so that as [ indistinct]…
Neil Breen:
[Interrupts] But the state’s already had a press conference saying they're going to spend and a billion dollars at the Gabba. So is the government, is the Federal Government going to tip in half a billion of the billion for the Gabba?
Richard Colbeck:
That was the announcement that prompted the Prime Minister to say, these will be the arrangements in the context of the 50/50 partnership. So that's what we're negotiating now. We're working, our officials are working together to agree the terms of all of those things. I've been working on that. I've been working closely with, Ted O'Brien, my colleague from Queensland who's the Prime Minister's envoy, looking after things in Queensland. And so we're continuing to work very closely together on making sure that all of the frameworks are in place for the appropriate delivery, making sure that the spend is A) appropriate, but also it's cost efficient in the context of [indistinct]…
Neil Breen:
[Interrupts] But the spend we got told would be 5 billion. So the public was taken along for the ride on five billion all up. Are you confident it'll be five billion all up? Because I reckon it'll be 15.
Richard Colbeck:
Well, that's not the figure that I have. It'll probably be a bit more than five, given the infrastructure for transport and the infrastructure for the Games. But a lot of the infrastructure for transport-
Neil Breen:
[Interrupts] So the 70- so the document that was sent to the IOC that they signed off on in July of five billion, the 92-page document, we've already blown past five billion. I'm not blaming you for that, by the way, because the Premier had a press conference for a billion-dollar Gabba, like the- we're not- the public's not stupid.
Richard Colbeck:
No, well- Can I say that the Gabba announcement was a bit of a surprise to a lot of us, but that's what's promoted the process that we've put in place now, the agreement between the Prime Minister and the Premier with respect to 50/50 founding of the Game’s infrastructure. A lot of the spending little be done for the Games and particularly, in the context of transport infrastructure, will be infrastructure that will be built in anyway, in the interests of the community and [indistinct]…
Neil Breen:
[Interrupts] That’s right. [Indistinct]…
Richard Colbeck:
… Queensland. So all of those things are going to be important. But the frameworks around delivery of that is being negotiated at the moment, so that we A) get- we deliver what we- show to the IOC that we're going to deliver it, but we also need to do it in a cost effective way. You're quite right to be concerned that that's what happens.
Neil Breen:
Okay. Richard Colbeck, the federal Minister for Sport. It was a good piece he wrote, clarifying everything. Thanks for coming on the show.
Richard Colbeck:
Cheers, Neil.