Queensland Media Club Speeches and Q&A here: https://youtu.be/f2DeHcivspg?si=guNHL0f1ZCkMWhwz

 

JOURNALIST: It’s been 100 days since the Government’s 100-day review. When can Queenslanders expect to see tangible shovels in the ground, concrete rising in Victoria Park? Because as you’ve touched on in your speech, we don’t have a lot of time.

JARROD BLEIJIE: Well, yes, you’re right, [Journalist], we don’t. And that’s why today we’ve- [Indistinct] have authorised now to start a little preliminary work. So all the geotechnical work that’s got to take place, the soil testing that’s got to take place, is going to be starting from, I would suspect, next week you can start seeing some work. I wouldn’t say the excavators are going to be there next week, but certainly all the prelim work has to take place in terms of the soil testing. Now, that has to happen because each of them have to work out the best location for Victoria Park once they do the testing of the park.

JOURNALIST: One thing you mentioned in your speech but didn’t touch too deeply on was Brisbane Arena. It sounds like we’re not going to get Brisbane Arena before 2032; can you make a guarantee that we will?

JARROD BLEIJIE: Oh, we absolutely will get there before 2032. The Gabba will come down in 20- after 2032, but the Brisbane Arena, we are actually- so the document that I just came back from the United States to be part of Brisbane’s next iconic destination which is the Brisbane Arena. We’ve had over 2,200 expressions of interest put in through the website already on that. We are talking to the market at the moment about the Go Print site and then the secondary site which is the Gabba location, about whether it should be combined or two separate sites, depending on what the private sector want to do. But we absolutely will partner with private sector. We will go to procurement on the Brisbane Arena by the end of this year. So I would suspect in the next couple of months my Department, Department of Infrastructure and Planning, will actually formally go and procure them to build the arena. And then next year will be the planning, and I suspect you’ll start seeing it being built from end of next year and into 2027, and it will be built absolutely before 2032. 

JOURNALIST: You mentioned in your speech too you’d like to see more transport investment from the Federal Government. Minister King, are you open to that? How much money will Queensland provide? Perhaps we can just get our GST back. 

[Laughter]

CATHERINE KING: I knew someone would mention that, I just wondered if that would happen. Already the Commonwealth is investing, I think it’s over $27 billion in transport infrastructure here in Queensland. I think in the equivalent states, it’s- I think you’re the highest amount. Every other state is less than that, believe me. So that is the first thing I’m saying. I think also, there are issues around capacity. We can only build so much at any one time. Our priority has absolutely been Bruce Highway. You saw us come in January with the Prime Minister, acknowledge that that is an unfinished piece of business for all of us, and we’re very determined to get that done. That being said, we’re already investing over $12 billion in [Indistinct] infrastructure. We will look at new requests that come through, and they come from every state and territory pretty regularly, I can say. They come through for Queensland in our normal budget processes. We don’t have a budget yet until next year, but really, we’ve been very determined to make sure, you know, we put planning money in, we put planning work in, we get a good idea about what the costs are and then we progress from there. And I’m sure Queensland will do what every other state does and ask for its share of funding. 

JOURNALIST: Might I come to the working media table for the first question? Is there a microphone here to [Indistinct]…?

CATHERINE KING: I think we’ve stolen them. We’ve got three up here now. 

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, Fraser Barton from the Australian Associated Press. I asked you when the delivery plan was announced in March about workers and construction and how we’re going to get all these workers. How has the government progressed that? Is- are we still going to quote ransack New South Wales and Victoria for people? And where will all of these workers live given housing shortages in the state?

JARROD BLEIJIE: Well thank you, great question. I don’t think I used the word ransacked. I said beg, borrow and steal. And now that I’ve signed the deal with the Federal Minister, I guess I can trash Victoria because, who would- do you want to live in Victoria or Queensland? So, interestingly, yesterday I had the Infrastructure Partnerships- I had a meeting with Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, and we talked about the very issue about the workforce and where they’re going to come from. It’s going to be mixed. It’s going to be home-grown talent with the apprenticeships and traineeships coming through the system. It’s going to be new businesses coming into Queensland. It will be looking to New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and getting businesses to relocate to Queensland. Unashamedly, we need to do that. It’s going to be looking at migration, the school migration sector. So that’s how we’ll get the workforce. The second question I always get about the workforce is where are you going to house them? Well, 20,000 in Logan, because I’ve just given the Mayor 135 million, but that 135 million is- pales in- is insignificant compared to the rest that I’m about to announce over the next two weeks, which is the Residential Activation Fund. And that’s a catalytic infrastructure fund designed to help councils get the infrastructure to build the houses. So Mayor Raven at Logan, he said in the media last week that the Logan Council would stop approving buildings if they didn’t have the new wastewater treatment plant. So the $135 million the state are co-contributing with the Council will allow that wastewater treatment facility to be put in place, opening, unlocking 20,000 homes. 

Now that $2 billion infrastructure fund is happening all around Queensland, and over 50 per cent of that is going to be in regional Queensland. So we’ve got to make sure that we support councils to unlock the land. And as I always say, the issue of the housing crisis is supply, supply, supply. It is the biggest inhibitor at the moment for building houses in Queensland. We’ve already abolished the tax. We abolished our [Indistinct] for first homeowners buying or building their first home in Queensland, so that’s great. We’ve got a better taxation regime. We’ve increased the first home owner grant to $30,000, 15 to 30, we kept that in the budget last week, so that’s a good incentive as well. So we’ve got to build the houses, but you can’t just do it in isolation. You’ve got to look at all of it at the same time.

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, Alex Brewster, ABC News. You’ve refuted reports about the infrastructure around Victoria Park Stadium this morning. When can we expect to see the detail of things like a potential train station, pedestrian bridge, and even a warm-up track around that stadium?

JARROD BLEIJIE: You used the word refute, Alex, I used the words – I think TMR may have done some brainstorming on where they would like to see certain things and stations. Government have not made decisions on that connectivity yet. And GIICA now, as part of legislation we passed last week, a big proportion of that is transport and mobility. So, those plans now- because the legislation has been put in place, those plans now have to get out to GIICA with Department of Transport and Main Roads.

And I’ll repeat, on the transport front, it’s the state’s responsibility, a rail between the Gold Coast and Brisbane. The way [indistinct] Sunshine Coast with a Federal Government are giving(*), 50 per cent funding in stage one of that project. So, look, it’ll happen fairly quickly now, I anticipate, that GIICA have the Victoria Park, they’ll have a CEO in a very short period of time, and they’ll be able to get on with the job and work with TMR to find the best location for Victoria Park. And that’s why you can’t put the cart before the horse, because you’ve got to do all the geo tech, which we are now doing on Victoria Park to understand where the best location for the stadium actually is, and then look at the transport hub. 

Incidentally, I would note that if you look at Victoria Park, Centenary Pool, which is going to be the new National Aquatic Centre, and the Ekka, we just opened Exhibition Station, over at the RNA; there is three or four hubs within 15 minutes of walking already around that. If we can increase it, that’s great, but we will now get to work with the Brisbane City Council and TMR. 

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, Harry Clark from Sky News. How committed are you to holding Olympics rowing on the Mighty Fitzroy in Rockhampton given resistance, including that which is coming from the International Olympics Committee?

JARROD BLEIJIE: Very committed. It’s in our delivery plan and I spoke to the IOC. Look, I’ve got to say that the International Olympic Committee were very good with us in our discussions with that. As Minister King points out, [indistinct] alterations before. Like any of the venues, we have to go through the PVR process, the project validation process. The five projects that have already been validated, that’s what we’re going to procure on from today. But all of the minor venues obviously have to go through project validation. We did a lot of the project validation whilst the Federal Government was in caretaker mode from my department to look at the costings and all of that. 

We believe it’s vitally important for Rocky and the kids in Rocky to have a facility, and there has been a lot of public commentary about it. But my God, if you go to Rocky, which I think I’ll be there in a couple of days, if you go to Rocky this time of year, in July, where the Olympic and Paralympic Games are going to be held, the Fitzroy River is a mirror. It is the most beautiful thing, hence why they do state championships and national championships on the Mighty Fitzroy River. 

And I respectfully said to the International Olympic Committee when they were over here, I said, if it’s okay for Rocky kids and Australian kids to row on the Mighty Fitzroy River, it’s okay for Pierre from Paris to row on the mighty Fitzroy River. And look, the IOC took that well.

[Laughter]

JOURNALIST: Has anyone contacted Pierre and asked him? It is the [indistinct].

JARROD BLEIJIE: I know we did- someone was in a crowd and he did jump up and he said, I’m actually Pierre from Paris. He said, but I’m not a rower. I said, well, maybe you should be. 

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, it’s serious though. The Government has been staunch. Your Sports Minister colleague said he isn’t certain Olympic rowing will be held in Rockhampton, but do you acknowledge that it is not only the Government’s decision? It’s the IOC, the International Federation. And, is there a plan b if they say it’s not good enough? 

JARROD BLEIJIE:  Well, okay, but is the IOC paying for it? If they don’t want it in Rocky then they pay for it, but they’re not, it’s the State Government and the Federal Government. So, I’m not sure the IOC- we had put it back a little bit on the IOC, but we’ve done it very respectfully. Because we wanted the games to be about regional Queensland and we committed to the people of Rockhampton, who have a great rowing facility, and they’re going to have a better rowing facility. 

And Minister King and I, and I hope I’m not breaching confidence, we’ve had this discussion about rowing. It’s got to go to the International Olympic Committee Rowing Federation who are actually over here in July. They’ll do all their technical assessments. But that happens with every venue. And in LA the rowing facility does not meet the International Olympic Committee requirements. It’s too short. But do you know what they did? They just said, for the LA it’ll be okay, and they signed off on it. So, they do bend the rules for other venues, including rowing in LA which does not meet the requirements for international rowing. 

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, hi. Jess Bahr here from SBS World News. Just a couple of questions from NRTV. Are you consulting with Traditional Owners to reach an agreement on preserving cultural heritage at Finn Park? And do you think you’ll reach an agreement, or will you override cultural and heritage laws? 

JARROD BLEIJIE: I think we’ll reach an agreement. Two points, observations I’ll make on that. In the legislation that we passed in Parliament last week, there were two elements to the overriding provisions. One was dealing with environment laws, heritage laws, planning laws, local government laws, and there was a complete override, but we actually did carve it up with cultural heritage provisions for First Nations Australians. So, we actually will still go through a process of consulting with First Nations about Victoria Park. 

Now, ultimately, if an agreement can’t be reached then the laws have to override. But we actually have put a special provision pursuant to the cultural and heritage legislation that exists in Queensland at the moment, to still go through that process. And part of the deal that we’ve struck with the Federal Government, it was one of the requirements from Minister King and the Federal Government, is that consultation does take place, which we’ve committed to. And that’s in the legislation, that will go through a process through Minister Fiona Simpson’s department, as it does with existing legislation.

We’ve also committed to Minister King and the Federal Government that community consultation, looking at the precinct plan; looking for as much green space, open space that we can retain in Victoria Park, and we’ve committed to that. So, I’m confident that we will secure support, and we’ll just go through the motions as it is. But we did carve out a particular provision in that, recognising the significance of that issue. 

JOURNALIST: Andrew from The Guardian. This is a question for both of you. Both of you have gone through elections in the last year, in fact, one two months ago. And in no case was this plan, the Victoria Park plan, brought to the electorate? In fact, at that state level it was explicitly ruled out. Should the electorate have known about this before they voted on that? It’s a big old stadium in the middle of a suburb. Surely, the people would have liked to know that before the decision was made. 

JARROD BLEIJIE: Well, thank you. I’ll start and, thankfully, you’ve got a question I’ll be able to build you up to divert all the questions to you. Look we were, when we announced the delivery plan, the Premier and I were pretty up front. We apologised, we said sorry. We took the position to the election of no new stadiums. We did the 100-day review and there was also the former government did the [Indistinct] review that recommended Victoria Park. We did take it to the elections about the stadiums.

But it became apparent during the GIICA review and the 100-day review that there was just no other option, alternative. There was no time now to knock down the Gabba and rebuild the Gabba. The displacement of AFL and cricket was too great and too costly. So, we were pretty up front. I think we said in a room of a thousand people and journos, we stood up and apologised and we said we’ll cop that. It’s not the position we took to the election but it’s the position now that we think is in the best interest of all Queensland, and particularly for the 2032 Games, particularly for AFL, the Lions, the Mighty Lions, and cricket.

So yeah, I’m not hiding behind the fact that we had a different position from the election, but I think we tried as best we could to explain ourselves and why would we change our position, and why we put in the delivery plan and accepted the recommendations from GIICA. Because if we hadn’t of, you would end up with a Government making political decisions again, and it would’ve gone around in circles, and you would not be in a room today with the Federal Minister and a State Minister, having done the deal, struck the deal to deliver the 2032 Games. You’d be talking about temporary stadiums [Indistinct] spending $2.25 billion, and no procurement process underway. 

I think it is a different position we took to the election, but we’re pretty up front with it, we apologised. And we said to Queenslanders, this is now our job to explain why we took that position to the election, and explain why because it is now in the best interests of Queenslanders to get on and proceed and do the best that we can.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks. I’d say, equally, from our point of view is that the delivery plan was provided and the Queensland Government’s response to that in March of this year. We wanted to take some time to look at it and to get the details about what are the costs of new venues, what does that look like. You know, publicly I’ve been very upfront about that. It’s been [Indistinct] as has the Prime Minister, that we’re really keen to see the arena. 

It’s why we put the Commonwealth’s money there. We know the Prime Minister’s a pretty big fan of live music and we felt, from our point of view, that was good legacy. But that project has now being procured by the private sector. That is a decision the Queensland Government has made and we’ve been faced with the decision, well, given that it is no longer a Games venue and the agreement is about Games venues in terms of funding, what do we do about it? 

And that’s why we’ve taken our time. We’ve looked at the finances. We have put conditions around the stadium. We recognise that it is a challenging issue for First Nations people, for local green space. We want to make sure that it’s got right and that it is a precinct that everybody can enjoy, and that’s why we’ve taken our time to do that and we’re making this an [indistinct] too.

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, Alex Brewster again. Have you turned your mind to what you might like to see the stadium called? I know you’re a proud monarchist. Would you perhaps like to see it named after a royal name?

[Laughter]

JARROD BLEIJIE: Actually, thinking about that, Minister King did not put in her letter of agreement anything about how- King’s Stadium in honour of either Charles or Catherine. Thank you. Food for thought. Thank you, Alex. 

No, look, we joked in Parliament that it would be the John Sosso Stadium. Well, some people in Queensland have a big fascination with my Director General. He just wants to get on with the job and stay out of the press. But, look, GIICA recommended it be named the Brisbane Stadium - iconic. Just travelling back from the States, all the stadiums over there are named- they do funding deals. Incidentally, all the stadiums are built by the private sector, so if there’s anyone in the room today who wants to chip in as well and help Minister King and I balance our budgets a little more and invest. Because I kept asking all the other- I went to SoFi, I went to AT&T, and I said, how did that level of investment from Government in having all these? And they said, oh no, the building heads of the sporting teams just build these things - and jeez, wow. Lions have got to put in a bit more I think, in cricket. 

But no, we had I haven’t turned our minds to that yet. We’ll just get shovels in the ground and start building it and then we’ll work out the name of it.

JOURNALIST: Minister King, can I just jump in there and ask you, when you were negotiating with the State Government, did the Commonwealth put to the state that rowing could be held in Penrith?

CATHERINE KING: So, what we’ve done as part of the agreement is we’ve provisioned money for Rockhampton, but that is conditional or dependent on the federated body for rowing determining that rowing can go forward there. Obviously, we’ll await that decision, but we’ll provision money for Rockhampton for that to occur. And again, that’s the decision that the Queensland Government has done, and that’s what it wants to do. And obviously, if there’s a different decision taken, we’ll work with the Queensland Government on that. But the Deputy Premier is pretty determined that’s where rowing is going to be.

JOURNALIST: We’ve also had the Prime Minister suggest Penrith. What’s your view?

CATHERINE KING: Again, I think that the Prime Minister is a problem solver and I think he knows that there are some challenges with Rockhampton, but we’ll let the Rowing Federation go and have a look at those and make a decision from there. And we’ll provision money for that venture as part of the Minor Venues Program and we’ll work through the processes. And there’s a [indistinct] plan B, then that’ll be a matter for discussion with the Queensland Government. But as I said, the Deputy Premier’s pretty determined and that that’s where rowing’s going to be. We’ll let the Federation do its work.

JOURNALIST: Mackenzie Scott here from The Australian newspaper. Obviously, you’ve looked into this $7.1 billion deal today but the Treasurer, David Janetzki, has launched his team to start privatisation of certain large infrastructure projects. How much do you expect the public- sorry, the private sector to give in a monetary sense into Games infrastructure?

JARROD BLEIJIE: Well, we have provisioned for $7.1 billion, that’s the deal. That was the Federal Government that have got to account for that as well. So, it equates to, if you look at the 7.1 billion, it’s not 50-50. It’s nearly 50-50. We’ll call it 50-50. It’s a couple hundred million less than the Federal contributions, a couple hundred million less than our contribution. We’ve stuck to that $7.1 billion figure. 

Now, that doesn’t include private sector investment. We’ve budgeted on a provision that that is what it’s going to take for the state and the Commonwealth to get those venues, the major venues and minor venues done. If the private sector come into the market and assist GIICA with the stadium develop, minor venues, then that’s a bonus. That’s a bonus for the Federal Government and for the State Government. Those discussions have to take place with GIICA, but that will go through the procurement process.

So, it’s not that we’ve announced that the private sector will build Victoria Park. We haven’t announced that at all. We have budgeted the money. As I said, our budget is $5.15 billion over the next four years for Olympic and Paralympic infrastructure. So, it’s state and Commonwealth funding, and we’ve kept it at 7.1.

Catherine and I were talking about this before we came in today, and there’s a lot of people talking to us, oh, but blowouts, blowouts, blowouts. And I said: don’t be guided by the 10 years of blowouts from previous governments in Queensland. There are businesses in Queensland and nationally that actually deliver things on time and on budget. We can’t be in that mindset that everything is just going to blow out. We’ve got to make sure we try and do it on time and on budget. And our budget is 7.1. We’ve not shifted from that. 

JOURNALIST: Deputy Premier, Rosanna Kingsun from Seven News. Can you rule out whether there will be a new train station at the Olympic Park there as in the paper, or is that not a consideration at all? And a question for Minister King. What would you like to see the State Government and Brisbane City Council include in their new precinct plan?

JARROD BLEIJIE: Rosie, thank you for the question. I’m not really anything in or out about the transportation. Because what we need to do is work out what will be the best public transportation system around RNA, Victoria Park, the new stadium, and also the National Aquatics Centre. So, I’m not going to rule anything in or out. I’ll be guided by the experts. They’ve got a job to do now to work out what that transportation plan looks like - new stations, no stations. So, we’ll be open to any of the suggestions that come forward, but it’s got to be in the best interest of the commuters to get people around all the venues.

CATHERINE KING: And that’s really what we will dig for in terms of the transport and mobility plan and not just obviously how people are going to move around the venues, and obviously, the IOC and Australian Olympic Committee will also be interested in those issues.

In terms of precinct overall, I think what you will see across the globe at the moment is that where stadiums are being built- we’re not the only country that is facing challenges of people being concerned about the cost of those, loss of green space, all of those things. And what you’re seeing- and I think there’s some really interesting examples in the US, in Queens for example. I had the incredible privilege of being able to go and have a look a couple of years ago now, at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium and what they did around there around being able to provide education opportunities for a really incredibly disadvantaged community. 

As I said in my speech, really I’m interested in more infrastructure [indistinct], not just in sport. We can see what that legacy looks like. But really, the opportunity we have here is to really shape cities, and to shape the way people live and dream about and enjoy those cities. And really, that’s what we’re looking for in the precinct plan. Because we know, long after the Games have finished, there’s people who live in these communities and we want them to be able to utilise those facilities, utilise the green space, be able to utilise transport and love where they live. And that is challenging. 

As I said, that we’re not the only country in the world who might be aware there’s an election in Tasmania at the moment, and the issue around that there. In the same way, as we’ve said, we’ve funded Macquarie Point Precinct. We just haven’t funded just a stadium, what the life is going to look like down in that particular part of the world. So that’s really the sort of thing we’ll be looking for from both the transport and the precincts point of view.

MC: Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, that’s where we’ll have to leave it, but I’m sure we’ll have many more of these events in the lead up to 2032. Please join me in thanking the Deputy Premier and Minister King.

[Applause]