Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

As co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the Olympic Movement in Australia, along with the member for Forde, it's wonderful news today to see Brisbane and the region chosen as the preferred city for the 2032 Olympic Games. That's great news for South-East Queensland and great news for my electorate of Moreton, where we already have a world-class sporting facilities like the Queensland State Netball Centre, which we could dodgy up for basketball; the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre, with two international-standard running tracks; and the Queensland Tennis Centre, with the Pat Rafter Arena.

It would be wonderful to have the Olympic Games right in our very own backyard. But even more exciting is the economic boom that these games will bring to South-East Queensland, along with improved infrastructure. There would be 130,000 jobs created and, for the residents of Moreton, transport infrastructure will finally see shovels in the ground for the Coopers Plains crossing upgrade, which will be crucial for trains shuffling visitors between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Being host city to the Olympic Games is another reason that the 11 million truck movements a year expected through Moreton's suburbs when the Inland Rail terminates at Acacia Ridge, 36 kilometres from the port, are just not viable. Hosting an international sporting event while coal trains and trucks are belting around our suburbs and creating noise and air pollution is just not viable. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Inland Rail should be bypassing Brisbane and going straight to the port of Gladstone. Everald Compton's original plan should be revisited.

I congratulate Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. It's a great achievement to be named the preferred Olympic City for 2032, and I look forward to all governments working together.

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