By Nick Mulvenney
BRISBANE (Reuters) -Andrew Liveris is happy with the progress organisers of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics have made so far but concedes they will have little wiggle room if they experience delays while implementing the plans they have been working on for the last three years.
The opening ceremony of Australia's third Summer Games will take place exactly seven years from Wednesday, the same period of time that most host cities in the modern era have had from winning the bid to staging
the Olympics.
Under the International Olympic Committee's New Norm policy, however, Brisbane won hosting rights in 2021 only for political wrangling over the venues to delay the decision on the final plans until March this year.
"The venues got a lot of noise," Liveris, president of the Brisbane Organising Committee for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, told Reuters this week.
"The political body was disagreeing on a couple of very big ones and that didn't help, but they got that out of the way and frankly, seven years to go, we have our plans, and I'm happy with where we are ...
"Seven years is enough time, but we don't have a lot of wiggle room."
Liveris is cautious about what impact global economic changes and trends over the next few years might have on the budgets and timelines for the main venue construction projects.
"With 84% of our venues being existing or temporary, we're mostly in good shape," he added. "But the 16% includes the stadium, includes the aquatic centre, it includes a few very important venues. That would be the biggest challenge we have."
There was little evidence around the city this week that the world's biggest sporting event was coming to southeast Queensland in seven years' time.
At the Centenary Pool, which will be redeveloped to host aquatic events in 2032, mainly elderly club amateurs swam laps, read newspapers and sipped coffee in the winter sunshine.
Across a footbridge where the main 63,000-seater stadium for the Games will be built, the larger part of Victoria Park remained a green preserve of dog walkers, picnickers and school sports lessons.
The decision to construct the two biggest new venues in a heritage-listed city centre park with special significance for the local indigenous Turrbal and Yugara peoples has triggered fierce local opposition.
The Save Victoria Park campaign, which has been raising money for a legal challenge, maintains that the stadium plan goes directly against bid commitments on sustainability and First Nations rights.
"It's not that we're anti-Olympics or anti-stadium, it's just that we don't believe this is a suitable site," spokesperson Andrea Lunt told Reuters.
"It's going to concrete over this gorgeous, pristine parkland for an Olympics that is supposed to be sustainable."
The Queensland state government last month enacted legislation to exempt the Olympic building projects from normal planning rules but Liveris said the concerns of the campaigners would still be addressed.
"I'm not saying that they won't be heard," he said.
"Everyone's going to get some accommodation, and the government's going to have to be seen to be saying, 'okay, we understand the concerns, here's how we're going to mitigate them'."
GROWING PAINS
Liveris went to school and university in Brisbane before building a highly successful career around the world with multinational corporation Dow Chemicals, which he served as chairman and chief executive for 14 years.
While the 71-year-old has overseen multi-billion dollar projects before, his current role also involves work that can be less easily managed with spreadsheets and a firm hand.
Near the top of his in-tray is how to engender the enthusiasm of the people in Australia's fastest growing region for the Olympics.
Liveris said Brisbane had learned a lot from how Paris went about engaging its people for the 2024 Olympics and thought the excitement would grow as the benefits of the Games became more evident.
"What Queensland is going through, southeast Queensland in particular, is growing pains," he said.
"I think a lot of people want to see better infrastructure, want to see their lives getting better. And I think this is where the Olympics can enable that by accelerating that infrastructure."
Liveris was recently re-appointed for another four-year term as president of the organising committee and said, health permitting, he was keen to keep going all the way to July 23, 2032.
"People around me know I'm pretty high energy, I'm pretty high enthusiasm and caffeine is a really good fuel," he laughed.
"I'm treating this like it's the whole way, and we'll see where it takes me. But right now, I'm going to get this job done that's my mission."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Editing by Peter Rutherford)
