: I present the interim report of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee on Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games preparedness. I move:
That the Senate take note of the report.
The nation was shocked a few months ago, back in July, when the Premier of Victoria announced that he would be cancelling the proposed Victorian Commonwealth Games and potentially raised the prospect of the first Commonwealth Games not to go ahead since the Second World War. We’d already established this committee when that decision was made. It was really established to be bit of a goodwill tour, if you like. We were hoping to visit regional Victoria, of course.
This committee was also looking at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032. We’re really about trying to maximise the benefits of these major events to communities that will be involved right across of Australia. Our focus did change a bit then, after the cancellation. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. I won’t have time this evening to go through all of the barriers we faced as a committee. I want to thank those witnesses who came along, especially from those country towns that we visited, people from other towns who came to Bendigo and also the affected communities in Brisbane, which I’ll get to.
I want to thank the members of the committee who worked hard on this report. Senator Allman-Payne has been working on these issues for a long time in Brisbane. I thank shadow ministers Ruston and McKenzie, who have responsibilities in these areas. We were also lucky enough to have the former federal minister for sport, Senator Richard Colbeck. Senators White and Sterle were also involved.
I think this is a very important report because it’s time for action. The nation was shocked. No-one is blaming the federal government for this monumental stuff up. It’s squarely at the feet of the Victorian government and others will hold Mr Andrews to account. I am really focused now on what we do to solve a problem. Being in government is about sometimes solving problems. Not all the problems that come across your desk are your fault. Sometimes they’re completely out of your hands. Sometimes they’re acts of God. But being in government, being the Prime Minister, means that ultimately the buck stops with you to help solve issues. As was often said to our committee, the problem we have is that while the Victorian government has cancelled these games, ultimately if we do not proceed with the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the world will blame Australia for that happening. It’ll be our reputation and our nation that is on the hook for it.
Our committee’s report, that I table today, is making a simple request of the government, and that is to get their hands dirty and try and help with solutions. Maybe there can’t be a solution. Maybe it’s too expensive. Maybe it’s too difficult. At the moment the federal government, you’d have to say, is doing next to nothing to help. That’s being generous. This committee heard that the Minister for Sport, Minister Wells, is yet to even receive a briefing about the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games from her department. There hasn’t even been a written briefing and certainly not any sort of sit down: ‘Let’s have a bit of a roundtable discussion about what we can do; whiteboard it. What can we do to help?’ Nothing like that. The department itself has only had a cursory discussion with the Commonwealth Games Australia organisation, who are the responsible organisation for running the games. They have not had a formal meeting. They seem to have had a little bit of a chat on the side of a seminar.
What is going on here in Canberra? Why isn’t there more proactivity? In contrast we have the mayor of the Gold Coast, from a non-capital city town, doing more to try to help than the whole federal government. Councillor Tom Tate is a good mate of mine. He’s a force of nature. But at least he’s trying to do something. He’s having a go. All we ask now with this report is: please, please can the federal government just have a go? Have a go, try and help support our athletes who have all been shocked and disappointed by this decision and had their future training plans for the next few years completely up-ended. They’re having a big go. See if you can have a go to help fix this.
Briefly, too, I wanted to touch on the affected communities of Brisbane. Our report makes some interim recommendations for the Queensland government. I want to put on the record that the Queensland government cooperated with our inquiry. They did haven’t to, of course, as a state government, but they made available their relevant agency and departmental heads. We very much appreciate their cooperation. That was in contrast to the Victorian government, which I’ll just finish with briefly.
It seems to me that a better job could be done in Queensland to consult with the local communities of East Brisbane and Redlands about the impact of major infrastructure that’s going into the area. In particular, at this stage, the plans are to remove the East Brisbane State School, which has a long heritage. We think that the plans to do that should be reviewed. The plans to host athletics at the Gabba were not part of our original bid. It wasn’t explained very clearly to us why there was this change. We think there should be an immediate review that involves the local communities, which weren’t involved in this decision, before we go too far and cannot reverse this decision. More importantly, if athletics were to stay at the Gabba, there needs to be a much better job in providing a solution for the school students and families in East Brisbane. The current proposal has the school shifted to Coorparoo. It’s not fit for purpose for that community. It is two kilometres away from the existing school. A lot of these people do not have car transport because it is an inner-city suburb, so they rely on public transport or they walk or ride to school. It’s going to cause upheaval for so many young students. Surely there is a solution that can be found within East Brisbane with the billions of dollars that are being spent on finding an appropriate spot for a school there if the Gabba is to be redeveloped in the current way.
Finally, I might have a longer contribution on the issues that arose with the Victorian government stonewalling in this inquiry. There are major issues around the powers of the Senate to compel the production of documents and information. We have these powers for a reason. This is an area where clearly there is a legislative interest of the Commonwealth government given our involvement with hosting major events like the Commonwealth Games. The Victorian government was within its rights not to cooperate with our inquiry. That is a well-established precedent to ensure the comity between our house of parliament and state government houses of parliament. But in this instance the Victorian government sought to extend that shield, that protection, to third parties, such as Ernst & Young, legal firms, former ministers, areas that I don’t think the Senate has properly considered before. It is one thing to allow state governments not to appear at inquiries; it is totally another thing for them to be able to somehow stop other individuals or organisations from giving evidence to a federal parliamentary inquiry in an area that we have a clear interest. We are seeking further advice on this. This is an interim report and more might be said about that issue down the track.
