The Olympics should make our city better for regular people.
Unfortunately, Labor and the LNP are using the Olympics to help their developer and property speculator mates get rich by driving up house prices and rents, selling public land and giving billions in handouts.
Despite spending $15 billion on the Games, their Olympics plan gives almost nothing back to regular people while making developers rich. Their plan includes no new public or affordable homes, no extra public transport projects, and a big reduction in green space.
Every Olympics is a thrill, and everyone wants the Games to succeed, but right now regular people aren’t invited to the party.
We need an Olympics for the people. The Greens’ Olympics for the People campaign will be a six year push for a better deal for Queenslanders. Under this banner, we’ll fight for a city we can afford and that we’re proud to live in. The Olympics should create decent public and affordable homes on public land, better public transport, greener cities, and a better life for locals.
Thanks to grassroots campaigns in the 1980s and 90s, Expo88 had a lasting positive legacy for Brisbane with the creation of South Bank as a beloved public space.
We’re pushing for the same kind of legacy for 2032 - a city that works better for regular people rather than making the rich even richer.
Watch my speech to parliament here.
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Olympics for the People Summit
On February 28, I co-hosted a one-day summit with Maiwar MP Michael Berkman on what an Olympics for the People could look like. We heard from leading academics and practitioners in housing, transport and urban planning about what kinds of legacies the Olympics could and should deliver for everyday people. Experiences from Sydney 2000 and Expo 88 were shared by academics and people actively involved in the delivery of (and protest against!). We also heard from campaigners on the Protect Victoria Park/Barrambin campaign about the impacts on green space and cultural heritage of the government’s indefensible decision to build a stadium on that site.
The clear message was that without a dedicated plan to deliver benefits to everyday people in Brisbane and across Queensland, the Olympics will be a bonanza for rich developers while making housing more expensive and not delivering benefits for locals.
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Announcement: Greens call for Games Day public holiday
As part of our Olympics for the People Summit, the Greens announced that we will be pushing for a new public holiday to celebrate the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, called Games Day, starting in 2027 and continuing beyond 2032.
The Federal Labor and State LNP government are spending $10 billion on the Olympics, but without creating a single new public home, or any new public transport. The Greens have launched the Olympics for the People Campaign to fight for a better deal on housing, transport and greening the city.
Games Day would celebrate the Olympics, creating a legacy beyond concrete and stadiums. It would mean more time away from work for Queenslanders starting before the Games and continuing after.
Queenslanders love sport, and the new public holiday would create more time for games of every sort and at every level: a kick around in the park with the kids, a day at the big match, or a board game with mates.
Games Day would be celebrated on the second-last Friday in July, starting next year on 23 July 2027 and continuing beyond 2032. That means locals would get the day off work to watch the Opening Ceremony on Friday 23 July 2032.
This date would create a public holiday and a long weekend in July where none currently exists. It would fall after the end of the mid-year school holidays, generally in week two of school term.
More announcements to come. Join the mailing list to hear more.