The proposed 63,000-seat athletics stadium to be built at Brisbane’s Victoria Park. Photo: Brisbane 2032.
The Queensland Government will introduce laws allowing it to streamline planning approvals for new infrastructure for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
The government says the new laws will ensure Games venues, villages and transport infrastructure are completed on time and on budget. To facilitate this, it says the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements (BOPGA) Act 2021 is being strengthened to streamline planning approval processes and clearly define responsibilities for a successful Games.
The laws will allow the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) to bypass existing planning laws and other relevant acts, including the Queensland Heritage Act, the Planning Act, the Local Government Act, and the Nature Conservation Act, to deliver Games infrastructure.
Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, and Minister for Industrial Relations Jarrod Bleijie said the amendments would ensure legislation was fit for purpose with a clear line of sight for project accountability.
“The 2032 Delivery Plan set a course of action, now we’re getting on with the job of delivering it,” he said.
“These changes will streamline the approvals process and provide clear roles to forge ahead and deliver generational infrastructure for the state on time and on budget after more than 1200 wasted days of Labor chaos.
“We have time to deliver the Games, but we have to get on with it. Queenslanders voted for a fresh start to get the Games back on track, and that’s what we are delivering.
“With the largest infrastructure investment in Queensland’s history, it’s important our legislation ensures clear pathways to delivery with the appropriate oversight.”
However, Rosemary O’Hagan from the Save Victoria Park Advocacy Group questioned why the government has heritage protection and environmental protection acts if it is just going to override them.
“You have to actually question … what is so wrong with these developments that they’re putting in for the Olympics that they have to remove so many legal safeguards to actually build them,” she told the ABC.
Victoria Park, just north of the Brisbane CBD, was named in March as the location for two new Olympic stadiums – a 63,000-seat athletics arena and a 25,000-seat aquatic centre. But Ms O’Hagan said Save Victoria Park remained committed to safeguarding the 64 hectares of green space.
“This is too important to just roll over and let the bulldozers roll in,” she said.
The Save Victoria Park group says more than 64 ha of green space in the city’s north is at risk. Photo: Save Victoria Park Facebook.
The proposed changes to the laws came after the GIICA said in its 100-day report that it was imperative that the authority used streamlined development processes where required.
“The use of special legislation to deliver major projects is not new,” the report says.
“In the past, major urban development and tourism projects, for example, have benefited from the use of special legislation.
“Streamlined, efficient approvals are essential to ensure the procurement phase for the project can be managed in a timely and effective manner.”
In October 2024, just before the Queensland election, then-Opposition leader and now Premier, David Crisafulli, vowed not to build any new stadiums for the 2032 Olympics, and instead undertook to invest in and improve existing infrastructure.
“After being elected based on a repeated promise that he would not build new stadiums, Mr Crisafulli has not just broken his word, he has shattered it. Not once but twice,” the Save Victoria Park group said after the March announcement.
“Mr Crisafulli’s plan? To build two massive stadiums with a combined 87,000 seats, right on top of heritage-listed Victoria Park.”
At the March Victoria Park announcement, the Premier admitted he had changed his mind on the stadium issue.
“I have to own that, and I will, and I am sorry, and it’s my decision, and I accept that decision,” he said.
The Brisbane Olympics are scheduled to run from 23 July to 8 August, 2032.
