Newsroom

March 26, 2025

Queensland’s regions will be bled dry and the State’s already-struggling economy could cross the Rubicon as a result of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has said.

Speaking in response to the Crisafulli LNP Government’s Olympic Plan, unveiled yesterday, Mr Katter said the Premier’s announcement that Queensland would build three stadiums within a 3km stadium in inner-city Brisbane for the Games was deeply concerning.

He said there was no way any Government could adequately address the crime, health, housing and economic issues facing the State whilst staging the Games, which could cost about as much as $64 billion in direct and indirect funding according to economist predictions.

“To do all this in seven years is simply impossible, and it is the average Queenslander – probably out in the rural and regional areas – who will suffer,” Mr Katter said.

“My objection to the Olympics, and especially the extreme social infrastructure spend that was announced yesterday, transcends any parochial interests in my own electorate but rather it is out of genuine concern for how as a State we’re going to be able to keep the lights on and the engines running whilst simultaneously putting on this massive event.

“I have no idea how we will pay for this – all of the industry that has been propping up the Government’s bottom line is stumbling with no satisfactory plan to address its future.

“Fast-tracking social infrastructure like light rail and a few stadiums down in Brisbane is going to be abjectly insufficient in fixing the economy – I wish it was that easy, but it isn’t.

“Someone needs to be the grown up here and say ‘can we afford this? Is this the priority?’”

Mr Katter said it was inevitable that the Olympic Games’ spend would subordinate other, more pressing, priorities.

“There are other priorities in this State, and I don’t think this is good economic management at all,” he said.