COMMENT: Australia had the world’s first green Olympics. It lifted the nation, and this industry in particular, in so many ways. It galvanised innovation, put Australian property ambition and capability on the global map. It probably contributed to the euphoria of those heady Olympic days, even for people who were not at all sports obsessed.
But now, after 100 days of navel-gazing (or whatever the review of the state’s major projects entailed), the relatively new Queensland premier David Crisafulli has kyboshed Brisbane’s commitment to rival the Sydney Olympics. Or come anywhere near them, it seems.
According to Professor Marcus Foth of the Queensland University of Technology, the Brisbane Games were set to be the world’s first climate-positive games. That would have been another star in Australia’s green and gold cap. A signal to the world that we are ambitious, innovative and absolutely determined to star on the global stage.
But now, apparently, the commitment has been buried.
Foth says: “On December 7, 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) initiated an addendum to the host contract. It effectively downgraded the games’ sustainability obligations.
“It was signed by Brisbane City Council, the State of Queensland, the Australian Olympic Committee and the IOC between April and May 2024.”
So the IOC caved in and agreed to this.
Shame.
Foth says failure to deliver on commitments is not new. Other cities have made pledges to do their best in sustainability terms and failed dismally. But Brisbane had promised via contract.
This was “enshrined in the original 2021 Olympic Host Contract, an agreement between the IOC, the State of Queensland, Brisbane City Council and the Australian Olympic Committee.”
There is still some kind of commitment to “focus on specific measures to deliver a more sustainable Games,” a Brisbane 2032 spokesperson said.
But the new wording commits Brisbane 2032 to merely “aiming at removing more carbon from the atmosphere than what the Games project emits”.
It’s no longer binding.
We are deeply disappointed by Crisafulli. He’d come out of the starting blocks as a new premier with some moderate and even sensible ideas than we might have expected from that side of the climate sceptic fence – no nuclear for a start.
Instead, this reversal of commitment for the Green Games is in danger of playing right into the hands of the new US agenda to wind back anything that’s green, clean or plain humanly decent.
Are we now to pretend nothing much happened with the Olympics?
That to wind back commitment will stop at the Games?
With all the ferocity of a nasty virus, this is exactly the kind of mealy-mouthed weakness that will make its way around the place with lightning speed, affecting/infecting all those fence-sitters who are too weak to stand on their own and simply go with the flow.
Let’s hope the architects, engineers and consultants involved in the project still try to outperform on sustainability. We need it now more than ever.
Mr Crisafulli, you got it right with nuclear energy, listen to your inner logic and commit to outperforming on the Olympics – whatever the contract says.
While you’re at it, try not to destroy important Indigenous cultural sites such as the one you now propose to build the Victoria Stadium on. You promised multiple times to not build a new stadium, remember?
And try not to send gorgeous green Brissie back to the stone age. The city was really starting to shine on the national and international stage and throw off its regional baggage.
You don’t want to be blamed for wrecking this precious emerging brand, do you?ecking this precious emerging brand, do you?