PH: 55611264 Bligh returns to see dream come to life
SHE was there at the nailbiting beginning of the Gold Coast’s Commonwealth Games journey and Anna Bligh will be there at the end.
The former Miami High student and Queensland premier, who jumped and danced with elation when the bid was successful in 2011, watched from the stands at Carrara Stadium as Migaloo floated across the sea of dancers at the opening ceremony – and she’ll be back on the Gold Coast to see the Games close on Sunday.
The CEO of the Australian Bankers Association said the Games had been a welcome and proud distraction from the wranglings of her current sector, which has been savaged on several fronts as a royal commission peels the skin from the lending practices of her most powerful members.
She said the city had made good on the pledges she made as premier as she drove the bid for the first ever Games in an Australian regional city.
“Gold Coast has delivered everything that I stood up in front of the Commonwealth Games Federation and promised that it would,” Ms Bligh said.
“I’m relieved of course, but mostly I’m just thrilled.
“It was my job to make a big promise that the Gold Coast would deliver for the Commonwealth and they have.”
Ms Bligh first announced her dream of a Queensland Games in 2008, using a Gold Coast Bulletin business lunch to declare the city would undergo a billion-dollar transformation in an attempt to secure the Games.
She wrote to Australian Commonwealth Games Association president Sam Coffa that same year, nominating the Gold Coast as a potential bid city.
The momentum from there.
“We made the preliminary pitch for the Gold Coast Games in Delhi in grew 2010 and, at the time, it always seemed like it was a long way away,” Ms Bligh said.
“I felt a real sense of pride in how Queensland has delivered the Games.
“It’s terrific to see the light rail, to see some of the stadiums.
“I was thrilled to be at the opening ceremony and will be returning on the 13th, 14th and 15th – and I’ve been keeping a keen eye on the events. I was delighted to feel a real buzz on the Gold Coast on Wednesday (last week).”
Seeing a decade-long dream in technicolour reality on Wednesday brought back nostalgia for the bid process, Ms Bligh said, with many of those who had been there since the beginning, still along for the ride.
“I remember Jess Mauboy singing at the voting pitch – she was so young then and it was so exciting for her,” she said.
“Kurt Fearnley was part of the bid team – and here he is still competing at an elite level.
“It was a really exciting process to be part of and there were some really nailbiting parts in the end.
“To be there on Wednesday, and walking along the path on the way to the stadium, I met people who didn’t even have tickets, but just wanted to be close to it.”