VOLLEYBALL BILL BLOCK

IF gold medals were awarded for taking credit, the State Government would be a shoo-in for a place on the podium.

When it announced beach volleyball would be part of the mix of official sports at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and that a temporary 5000-seat beach stadium would be set up in Queen Elizabeth Park near the Kirra groyne at Coolangatta, the Government gave itself a big pat on the back.

The then-Games minister, Stirling Hinchliffe, happily posed with a couple of beach volleyballers for the cameras and later fended off a storm of outrage from Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey, who was not invited to the announcement even though she was the local MP and had held the Games portfolio in the previous LNP government.

Mr Hinchliffe said Ms Stuckey missed out because while she was minister she had “spiked beach volleyball’s request to be included in the 2018 Games’’ as a competition sport.

We might remind his Government of that if its MPs are ever snubbed in years to come because, along with the Games organisers, they failed to recognise surfing as a sport worthy of inclusion.

This was despite the city’s image as a surfing mecca. It has been left to Tokyo to recognise surfing’s true status as a sport for its Olympic Games in 2020, much to the Gold Coast’s embarrassment.

Fast-forward a year and we learn that while the Palaszczuk Government made a big show of including beach volleyball, it is not contributing to the cost of staging the event. The public might be stunned by the figure – GOLDOC has been left to find the $10 million it says is needed – and the Government obviously baulked at what it will cost. Jump in for the photos but dodge the bill. That’s Queensland politics.