The Queensland and federal governments have reached a $7 billion funding agreement for an overhaul of Brisbane’s sporting and event venues ahead of the 2032 Olympics, including rebuilding the Gabba.
Key points:
- The Queensland government is set to fund the entire Gabba stadium rebuild
- The federal government will support other Olympic venue projects ahead of the 2032 Games
- Among them is a new entertainment arena that will seat between 17,000 and 18,000 within the Roma Street precinct
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is travelling to Brisbane today and is set to announce the details of the plan alongside Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
The plan is expected to include the Gabba rebuild, a new “Brisbane Live” entertainment arena at Roma Street that will seat between 17,000 and 18,000, existing venues to be upgraded and the construction of some smaller facilities.
Federal Sports Minister Annika Wells told ABC Radio Brisbane the state government and Commonwealth had agreed on a near-50:50 funding split.
“The Australian government are going to pay for Brisbane Live and the Queensland government are going to fund their redevelopment of the Gabba,” Ms Wells said.
“It’s almost exactly a 50:50 split when it comes to the money that we’ll be investing across these two venues, but also the 19 other venues that are going to get built or upgraded.”
She said while the Commonwealth supported the Gabba rebuild, which is now estimated to cost about $2.7 billion, it would not contribute any funding to the project.
“We felt as the Australian government that we wanted to contribute something to Brisbane that was iconic and that would not have happened but something as momentous as an Olympic and Paralympic Games and for us, that was Brisbane Live,” she said.
“We wanted to leave an iconic piece of history that Brisbane taxpayers could point to and say: ‘we would not have had that but for hosting the Games.’
“After the Olympics and Paralympics have packed up and moved on … Brisbane people [will be able to] experience live music and cultural stuff for decades to come.”
State government going it alone for Gabba rebuild
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC Radio Brisbane the landmark funding agreement would leave a “lasting legacy” for Queensland.
“We’re announcing that Brisbane is good to go,” he said.
“This announcement of infrastructure funding [will] make sure that the Games provides not just a great experience while it’s on but of course, a lasting legacy for the people of Queensland.
“I’ve been talking with Premier Palaszczuk for some time to make sure that we went through all of the details to make sure that the Brisbane Games is just a cracker of a Games.”
Despite leaving the state government to go it alone on the Gabba redevelopment, Mr Albanese said he supported the “entire program”.
“What you need to do is … always be looking towards the big picture and this is a visionary project for Brisbane that will make an enormous difference,” he said.
‘We’ve got a hard deadline’
Ms Wells said the Commonwealth would contribute around $3.5 billion, including $2.5 billion for the Brisbane arena, and a further $1 billion for the new venues and facility upgrades.
She said it was too soon to lock in a time frame on when construction will be completed.
“They’re still in the planning, architecture phase … it’s no secret, we’ve got a hard deadline,” she said.
“We’ve committed to working together to make sure that we do get all of this done.”
The Queensland government and the former Coalition government had a shared funding agreement for the redevelopment, but after the Labor government was elected in 2022, it wasn’t clear whether the agreement would remain in place.
The president of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Andrew Liveris cast doubt over the plan late last year, implying it might prove too costly.
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