Pollie keen for slice of Olympics
TOWNSVILLE should be capitalising on Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic bid, Federal MP Phillip Thompson has said, revealing he has been pushing for the Rugby Sevens to be played in the city.
The Brisbane 2032 Olympic bid has proved divisive in regions, with firebrand Senator Pauline Hanson going to the extent of ordering 52 One Nation billboards to campaign against the bid.
Mayor Jenny Hill’s latest slap down of the bid has been criticised as “harmful” by Mr Thompson, who said Townsville needed to leverage the opportunity as it was obvious the State Government would not be backing down.
Cr Hill has been vocal about her disdain for the bid, calling it an infrastructure grab by the southeast Queensland councils that would be detrimental to places such as Townsville.
“I wanted to see how we can help generate things in Townsville rather than turning our backs on it and turning away,” Mr Thompson said.
“It’s harmful to say we don’t want it and that’s that.”
He said he been in talks with Ted O’brien, Fairfax MP and Prime Minister’s representative in the Olympics bid, for months about getting the Rugby Sevens portion of the games at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
The bid’s sports program and venue selection has yet to finalised by the State Government, according to the Australian Olympic Committee.
But the AOC appears to favour holding the preliminary rounds of soccer in Townsville instead of the Rugby Sevens.
AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said there was an “economic picture” that lay beyond hosting events and camps, citing the benefits to tourism, small businesses, and youth engagement.
“It’s important to understand that the benefits of hosting an Olympic Games are more than a few weeks of sport,” he said.
“When you have the world talking about Queensland 10 to 12 years out, there’s an enormous opportunity to drive trade and investment and to build skills in the workforce.”
The Olympics bid, according to the AOC, is expected to be cost-neutral for Queensland due to the significant changes made to how the games are run and the use of existing infrastructure unless the building of new ones would leave a lasting benefit.