GETTING GAMES ON TRACK
He’s the man tasked with delivering the biggest event in Australia this decade. Student reporter Makenzie Newton sat down with GOLDOC CEO Mark Peters ahead of next year’s Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Q What does your role entail?
A. The biggest issue for us is there are so many stakeholders so my role as CEO is to ensure our board and our stakeholders understand what we are doing and are always reassured that we are on track and, most importantly, on budget.
Q How many people are you responsible for?
A. At the moment we are responsible for 600 staff, in December we will have about 900, at Games time we will have about 1500 and the week after the Games we will be down to 300. That’s not counting the 15,000 volunteers who are now being interviewed. We also have 40,000 contractors who do transporting, catering in the village, police and 5000 private security people.
Q I understand there are about 800 jobs you are wanting to recruit now.
A. Yes, we are going out with one of our sponsors, Seek, and throughout both theirs and our websites to try and find 250 people who will work from September through until Games time. Then in August we will try to recruit another 550 staff who will be employed from January until February. This is a big challenge for us because some people are already in fulltime employment and they will go to a three-month job and then possibly not have a job to go back to. This is also exciting as this is a fantastic place to work!
Q What is your average day like?
A. I’m normally up at 5am and three or four times a week I’m at the gym. I normally start work at 7.30am and might get home at 7pm. Two or three times a week I have functions to attend. We also have lots of indigenous functions where they show us some of what they used to do in the past. There is lots to do, but it’s fun. But it’s important to always remember you have family and try to see them as much as possible.
Q What is your professional background?
A. Before this I had a pretty fun time. I spent 10 years heading up the Australian Sports Commission and Australian Institute of Sports. That’s where some of the nation’s most talented athletes go with their coaches to give them a chance to be successful. That was a great 10 years.
Q What are the biggest challenges of your job?
A. It was unusual that I led the bid and then came on as CEO as it doesn’t often happen because once you win the bid, you have to consider whether you have the fire in the belly to deliver the Games in seven years’ time. But why wouldn’t you, on the Gold Coast? In the bid, we said we wanted to help the Gold Coast diversify its economy which is very much tourism and construction and when the Aussie dollar goes down, we don’t normally get as many tourists. Some people have been looking at how we create more jobs for kids so when they graduate they can stay and work on the Gold Coast before they go out on adventures. So our bid was about how we introduce the education sector to the Gold Coast.
Q Is traffic and transport a problem to be overcome before the Games?
A. Yes, but it’s going to be a big problem for a long time and one of the things we, the Mayor Tom Tate and Commonwealth Games Minister Kate Jones, are trying to do is work out what things we can do in the Games to try to create more places for people to drive their cars and then park them and hop on shuttle buses or walk. At the moment, if you go to a Gold Coast Suns or a Titans game you have to park somewhere and then get a bus which is what we are hoping for. The Gold Coast is a long skinny city where the more it grows the more traffic problems are going to increase. We are trying to figure out ways for people to get out of their cars and walk. Q Did you get the opportunity to meet the Queen in London? A. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to meet the Queen as there was only a very small group that did which contained my chairman Peter Beattie, our two indigenous people, which was fantastic because Patricia O’Connor, one of our elders, had been driven by her mum back in the 1950s from their central Queensland location to Rockhampton to see the Queen drive past. So, Patricia was able to share that story with the Queen. I waved at the Queen and I like to think she waved back, but to be honest, I can’t be sure it was me she was waving at. Q What will your role be after the Games are over? A. I’m going to have a big rest and reintroduce myself to my wife and kids. But my philosophy is “good people get jobs” so it is not just me, 1300 other people who are working for us a week after Games time won’t have a job either. They have to have confidence in their own ability and we’ll try and help them get jobs elsewhere. But for me it’s have a rest and then something will happen.
Q What sport are you most looking forward to see?
A. I love all sports but I’m looking forward to seeing track and field so I can see Sally Pearson run. I want to see Cameron McEvoy come back after Rio and win in the swimming finals. I also want to see the Australian netball team and the Australian Rugby Sevens team.