Let the games waste begin!

While our politicians, journalists and sport stars are overjoyed by the IOC’s decision to let Brisbane host the 2032 Olympics, the people of regional Queensland appear far less impressed.

How could this be, considering Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk bizarrely claims “the Olympic story is Queensland’s story”?

Well first, many aren’t particularly keen on watching men win the women’s weightlifting and so-called “sportstars” kneeling during anthems in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

However, far more importantly, regional Queenslanders can tell the difference between a wealth-sucking and a wealth-creating infrastructure initiative.

Just look at what Australian taxpayers had to sacrifice for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Although many believe the 2000 Olympics was a highpoint in our history, Aussie taxpayers were left with a $3 billion bill ($420 per household); for months our politicians and public servants were obsessed with a two-week sporting event; and all we got in return was underutilised sportsgrounds in Sydney’s west.

The same thing will happen after Brisbane.

According to Katter’s Australia Party Queensland leader Rob Katter, “despite the widespread reporting that the event would only cost $5.8 billion, and would break even when profits were considered, the true cost to Queensland's economy will be far greater” – in fact, up to $12 billion with a $1 billion redevelopment of the Gabba.

His dad Bob Katter, federal MP for Kennedy, let rip at the firecrackers and parties going off along the Brisbane River when the decision was announced Brisbane will host the 2032 Olympics.

“Well their parties are funded by economic activity in North Queensland such as coal mining and the sugar industry,” the wily regional politician said.

“But the money is soon going to run dry because this Queensland Labor government is trying to close down coal mining and the sugar industry; and they sure aren’t creating any new industries because all the money is spent on frivolities in the South East.”

Bob Katter said there was no vision for nation-building projects such as the Bradfield Scheme, the rail line into the Galilee Basin and the widespread expansion of the biofuels industry.

“We should be focused on a vision for the state out of the pandemic, and I don’t think a two-week sporting carnival is going to be the panacea,” he said.

“The rest of the world doesn’t think so anyway because no one else even bothered to bid for the 2032 Olympics.”

Well said Bob!

With the east coast’s per person water storage set to decrease by 30 per cent over the next decade, the first thing on Premier Palaszczuk’s priority list should be building new dams in the north.

As Advance has said for so long, Australia does not have a shortage of water as “experts” like mammologist Tim Flannery assert.

In fact, 80-90 per cent of our water falls north of the Tropic of Capricorn, in the largely unsettled Top End areas of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory; with more than 50% of it wasted to evaporation and the sea.

Why not dam it and send it south to our struggling farmers as Aussie pioneer John Bradfield envisioned so long ago?

The idea has only been around for a century…

The next key priority must be steel – especially considering Australia produces a mere 0.3 per cent of the world’s steel supply while exporting 70 per cent of the world’s seaborne steelmaking materials (such as iron ore, coking coal and limestone).

To do so however, we’d need to invest in the requisite infrastructure as embodied Project Iron Boomerang – a 3,200km transcontinental railway between our coking coal fields in the Bowen Basin and iron ore fields in the Pilbara with ten steel mills at either end.

Only by addressing Australia’s “tyranny of distance” factor with serious infrastructure can Australia create 100,000 jobs, generate more than $23 billion of tax revenue, undercut the CCP’s steel prices and reinvigorate the north as a world-leading heavy manufacturer of over 44 million tonnes of steel a year. It’s a no-brainer.

The final item that should be higher on Palaszczuk’s priority list than a two-week sporting event is a new coal-fired power plant for Collinsville and a nuclear industry with the assistance of uranium-rich South Australia.

With energy prices having increased by 100 per cent over the last decade, it’s the least Palaszczuk could do to help Australia’s struggling businesses, households and manufacturers – especially given she’s set to receive another $30,000 pay rise on top of the $399,955 she rakes in each year…