As it happened:Brisbane on Monday,March 18

Thanks for joining us today.

It’s been a momentous day for Brisbane news,with the release this morning of thelong-awaited review into Brisbane 2032 Olympics venues.

The review,led by former mayor Graham Quirk,recommended scrapping the planned upgrade for the Gabba in favour of a new – more expensive – solution:a new stadium at Victoria Park.

Quirk’s old party-mate Campbell Newman,who had also once occupied the top seat in City Hall,blasted the idea,saying it “stinks”. “Let’s be ridiculous:why didn’t he propose New Farm Park? That’s how ridiculous Victoria Park is. I’m vehemently against it. I hope people crush this,” the former premier thundered.

Quirk haddefended the proposal,saying it wasn’t an Olympic spend,it was a “spend on facilities needed by the Queensland community”.

But in a bombshell,Premier Steven Milesrejected the recommendation from the review he himself had ordered,opting instead for the government to invest in upgrades to QSAC in Nathan,the same stadium that hosted the Opening Ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

IOC heavyweightJohn Coates would approve – upgrading QSAC was an idea of his.

And that’s where we’ll leave the live updates for today. We’ll return tomorrow with the fallout from today’s decision.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli admitted he had not read Graham Quirk’s report this morning,but told 4BC Radio that Queenslanders wanted new rail and road infrastructure over new Olympic stadiums.

“It’s increasingly becoming more and more frustrating for Queensland,” Crisafulli said of the Olympics.

He said the state needed an independent infrastructure delivery authority.

“It’s been nearly 1000 days since we were awarded the Games and the government has done absolutely nothing apart from create a sea of discontent among the people.

“If you’re asking if my priority is sporting stadiums,the answer is ‘no’. My priority is generational infrastructure.”

Olympic supremo John Coates is uncontactable today but has offered comments for the Queensland government’s statement outlining its new plan for Games venues.

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Coates saidupgrading QSAC – a proposal he made to the review panel but they rejected – would leave a legacy for the development of athletics in Queensland.

“Sydney 2000 left a competition and warm-up track legacy for athletics,a legacy missing from the London,Rio,and Tokyo Games,” he said.

“The IOC will make available its Games construction experts to advise in respect of the potential upgrades to QSAC,including specifically whether the full $1 billion of suggested upgrades are needed.”

Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee President Andrew Liveris issued his own statement,thanking the review panel for their work and acknowledging the government’s response.

“The Olympic and Paralympic Games must fit the region,not the region fit the Games,and we will use venues and infrastructure made available to us,” Liveris said.

Liveris did not comment on any specific recommendation,decision or venue.

The state government is going to adopt a proposal by former International Olympic Committee vice-president John Coates which will give Brisbane three upgraded stadiums and a Brisbane Arena “all within existing funding”,the Premier says.

“I know I said I would do what the[Graham] Quirk review recommended,but I cannot support the option that they have landed on. I cannot support building a brand new stadium while Queenslanders are doing it as tough as I know that they are,” Miles said.

Instead,the athletics will be hosted at an upgraded Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC),formerly known as QE II Stadium,at Nathan in Brisbane’s south.

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Suncorp Stadium in the inner-city will be upgraded to host the opening and closing ceremonies.

And the Gabba will be refurbished to host the cricket at the Olympics.

Premier Steven Miles has sensationally ruled out building a new 55,000-seat Olympic stadium at Victoria Park,rejecting the key recommendation of the Graham Quirk review he commissioned.

“When Queenslanders are struggling with housing and other costs I cannot justify to them spending $3.4 billion on a new stadium,” Miles told reporters while standing outside Suncorp Stadium this afternoon.

“I ordered this review because I had heard from Queenslanders that $2.7 billion at the Gabba was too much. So I know that for Queenslanders $3.4 billion at Victoria Park will be too much. So I am ruling that out.”

Read more about Miles’ decisionhere.

The Queensland government has commissioned Brisbane-based Urban Arts Project to deliver a permanent tribute to the Matildas at Suncorp Stadium.

With public support for the national women’s football team surging after the World Cup,the government has committed to a bronze sculpture outside the venue. It will measure approximately 6 metres wide and 2.5 metre high,dwarfing the Wally Lewis statue.

The sculpture will be based on one of the photos of Matildas players celebrating a win.

“Queenslanders rode the unbelievable high of the quarter-final penalty shootout win over France,lifting the roof off the best football stadium in the country,” Sport Minister Michael Healy said.

“Around Australia,we were united behind this fantastic team. They made us all incredibly proud.

“The tribute may be a snapshot of a moment in 2023,but that moment will now live forever and inspire future generations of young footballers to take on the world.”

A local action group for residents living around Victoria Park has called suggestions to build a new Olympic stadium at the park “environmental vandalism”,labelling it “shortsighted” and “unbelievable”.

“I listened to Graham Quirk on the radio this morning talking about it not just being for the Olympics but a legacy for Brisbane and Queenslanders,” Victoria Park Resident Action Group (VPRAG) spokesperson Sue Bremner said. “Well,for us,the longest-term legacy is clean air.”

Bremner said growing densification in the suburbs surrounding Victoria Park,along with the established health precinct,made the calls to turn green space into a sporting stadium even more perplexing.

“[For those involved in the 60-day review] it seems easier to pour a whole bunch of concrete into a pristine green space than it is to put the thought and time and dollars into repurposing sites that already exist,” Bremner said. “It’s just unbelievable.”

VPRAG was formed in 2020 in response to Brisbane City Council’s plans to redevelop the park.

Bremner said other community groups representing suburbs including Herston and Kelvin Grove had been “running hot” since reports of a stadium at Victoria Park started spreading on Sunday.

“[People are] absolutely frothing at the mouth over this … I don’t think the community is going to take this lying down,” she said.

A final word from Campbell Newman on the proposal for a stadium at Victoria Park ...

“The last thing people want right now is $3.4 billion spent on a stadium,” Newman told 4BC Radio.

“If we want to have a successful Olympics,let’s work to that,let’s use the existing facilities. That’s what the IOC[International Olympic Committee] were told,that’s what they get.

“I would like to continue to support these Games,but that’s the basis that it has my personal support.”

Former premier and lord mayor Campbell Newman has railed against the proposal to build a $3.4 billion Olympic stadium at Victoria Park,saying the idea “stinks” and would rob Brisbane of precious green space.

“I think it stinks,and I’m totally against it. We can’t just fill pieces of green space with bits of infrastructure,just because they’re vacant,” Newman told 4BC Radio this morning.

An independent review by former lord mayor Graham Quirk has recommended building a 55,000-seat stadium on part of a former golf course at Victoria Park in inner-city Brisbane for the 2032 Olympics rather than revamping the existing Gabba ground.

“The reason I’m cranky about it is ... it’s suddenly been thrown up in the air,but secondly,Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has taken a principled stand in the last few years to reclaim precious green space for the benefit of all people in Brisbane – all people.

“And then suddenly Quirk and some people in the business community … are saying,let’s plonk a stadium here.

“Let’s be ridiculous:why didn’t he propose New Farm Park? That’s how ridiculous Victoria Park is. I’m vehemently against it. I hope people crush this.”

Newman said the idea for a stadium at Victoria Park was a “bolt from the blue” that was at odds with the initial proposal for an “economical” Olympic Games that would use existing infrastructure.

“If this is the cost of the Olympics,they’ve just lost me. It’s too expensive,and it’s precious green space,” Newman said.

This morning,Quirk defended his review of Games infrastructure,saying it made more sense economically to build a new stadium at Victoria Park rather than spend billions refurbishing the ageing Gabba,which could never be a tier-one facility.