Speech fallout rolls on
QUEENSLAND Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says it “would have been nice” to speak at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as fallout from blocking her doing so festers.
Games organising committee (GOLDOC) chairman Peter Beattie will speak at the showpiece on Wednesday alongside Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Louise Martin and Prince Charles.
The decision not to include the Premier – made by the CGF, which endeavours to avoid politicisation – had sparked surprise among senior State Government ranks.
Ms Palaszczuk, part of the Anna Bligh-led Government which won the right to host the Games in 2011, told the Bulletin earlier this week she “would have loved to have given a very warm Queenslander welcome at the opening ceremony”.
She repeated that on Thursday, saying: “It would have been nice, my message would have been to all the athletes ‘Welcome to Queensland’. At the end of the day it was what the CGF says and we accept their decision.”
But claims have surfaced that despite the CGF confirming the speaking arrangements via a letter to GOLDOC in October, the Premier had been under the impression up until as late as February that she would speak. Mr Beattie, who has said CGF CEO David Grevenburg wrote to GOLDOC to confirm arrangements in October, refused to say when that was then passed on to State Government.
Mr Beattie said: “I know the answer ... I’m not going to tell you. We have to move on. The Premier was relaxed about the position and so was I.”
Pressed on when the letter was sent, he said: “State Government can tell you if they want. People are interested in the opening ceremony, this is about people, not politics.
“I’m trying to put the eruption back in the bottle. The opening ceremony is the most important thing happening at the Games. It’s going to send the first signal of the Games.”
Asked if the reason he didn’t want to say when the CGF letter was passed on was because it was an embarrassingly long time, he said: “No, no. The letter arrived when it arrived and then it was passed on.”
A GOLDOC statement said speakers were confirmed by CGF and “communicated to GOLDOC Board in October: The GOLDOC Board has representation from State Government with the (Tourism department) Director-General as a full member who is responsible for reporting back to (Games) Minister (Kate Jones).”
Mr Beattie also defended his status as a Queenslander after a senior Games source queried how there could be no Queenslanders on stage.
Mr Beattie pointed out he was Sydney born and moved to Queensland aged four and any suggestion he wasn’t a Queenslander was “bulls--and I find it offensive”.