Extract from ABC News
The Queensland government will soon seize control of a prime piece of public land for the Brisbane Olympics. (Tom Hartley)
The last ditch effort to save Brisbane's Victoria Park from becoming home to the Olympic stadium has been taken all the way to the offices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
There, a petition bearing 10,000 signatures, documents raising questions about how Brisbane's Olympic projects are being approved and who is scrutinising those decisions was presented to senior IOC officials, calling for intervention in May.
It was a bitterly cold May morning in Lausanne, at the edge of Lake Geneva when Peter Valepyn walked into the IOC Headquarters looking for answers.
A petition signed by 10,000 people was presented to senior IOC officials, calling for intervention. (Supplied: IOC)
"The Queensland government is not listening to the community's objections, so I thought I'd take it a level higher," Mr Valepyn told 7.30 from a Swiss hotel room.
"I decided to go straight to the IOC, because they have the power to stop the madness."
Travelling from Brisbane, Mr Valepyn managed to secure a brief meeting with senior officials from the IOC's sustainability department.
He says he presented them with documents, outlining concerns that the Victoria Park proposal conflicts with commitments made during Brisbane's Olympic bid process, including those made to the IOC's "New Norm" reforms.
Victoria Park is set to house the main stadium for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
Introduced in 2018, the reforms were designed to reduce the cost, complexity and environmental impact of hosting the Games, by encouraging host cities to maximise the use of existing venues and temporary infrastructure wherever possible.
Mr Valepyn is among a coalition of concerned community groups that argue Brisbane's decision to build a new 63,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park, a 64-hectare parcel of heritage-listed parkland, runs counter to those principles.
Opponents of the stadium took their concerns to the IOC office in Lausanne, Switzerland. (Supplied)
"I even read them the clauses in the host contract I believe the government has breached, which they said was a matter for interpretation," he said.
The Olympic Host Contract for Brisbane 2032 states that permanent Olympic infrastructure should not be built "in statutory nature areas, cultural protected areas and World Heritage sites."
Renders of the proposed Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park. (Supplied: COX Architecture and Hassell)
"It's black and white: no new stadiums, no cultural areas to be touched, and the Queensland government is doing just that,"Mr Valepyn said.
Mr Valepyn says he left his meeting feeling "frankly exhausted", and believing the IOC had deflected responsibility.
He says he was assured the petition and the concerns raised would be forwarded to IOC president Thomas Bach and other senior officials for consideration.
But while the documents were accepted, there was no indication that the IOC would intervene.
Questions the IOC wouldn't answer
Seeking clarity on the issues raised by Mr Valepyn and other campaigners, 7.30 put detailed questions directly to the IOC.
They included whether the IOC had formally approved the decision to build Brisbane's main stadium at Victoria Park, whether the organisation retained the power to object to proposed venues, and what role it played in assessing environmental and cultural heritage concerns associated with Olympic infrastructure.
Concerned residents have opposed the development within Victoria Park. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)
7.30 also asked whether unresolved cultural heritage issues at Victoria Park could trigger compliance concerns under Brisbane's Host Contract obligations, and what weight the IOC gives to community and First Nations objections when assessing the suitability of Olympic venues.
The IOC did not directly answer those questions.
Instead, a spokesperson said the organisation remained committed to ensuring the Games deliver "sustainable, long-term benefits to host communities" and that infrastructure decisions "rest with local authorities, who are best placed to assess the needs and aspirations of their communities".
The budget for Brisbane's Olympic venues is $7.1 billion. (Supplied: Queensland Government)
The spokesperson pointed to Queensland's infrastructure review process and referred further questions to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA).
GIICA referred 7.30's questions to Queensland's Deputy Premier's office, which declined a request for an interview.
Professor Marcus Foth, a strategic design academic at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) who has written extensively about Brisbane 2032, says the current delivery model differs markedly from the vision presented during the bid process, led by former Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Brisbane was announced as the host city for the 2032 Summer Olympics in 2021. (Getty Images: Toru Hanai)
"The pitch was restrained, regional, sustainable, and pragmatic: use existing venues, minimise new construction, align with long-term public benefit, and deliver the world's first 'climate-positive' Games," he said.
"That promise has since been progressively diluted."
Following its election victory, the Crisafulli Government ordered an independent review of Olympic infrastructure. Its recommendations formed the basis of a revised delivery plan featuring 10 new venues and a further seven upgraded sites, backed by a $7.1 billion venue budget.
The revised plan came with an apology from the Premier, who walked back from an election commitment of 'no new stadiums'.
"Public communication continues to lean heavily on the language of legacy, sustainability, and opportunity, even as the delivery model moves in the opposite direction," Professor Foth said.
Mr Foth says the current delivery model differs from the vision presented during the bidding process. (ABC News: Lucy Loram)
The most significant change for Victoria Park came through legislation converting the site from trust land held by Brisbane City Council for public purposes into freehold land vested by GIICA.
The switch removes the Deed of Grant in Trust that governed the land and transfers control of the entire 64-hectare site to the authority responsible for delivering Olympic infrastructure.
The transfer takes effect on June 1.
The rolling green space of Victoria Park currently contains parkland, a golf driving range and a wedding venue. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has repeatedly said the park will remain publicly accessible and this week ruled out selling any part of the land.
"My commitment is that parkland has to be available for free for every Queenslander every day,"he said.
'Salami' tactics
With six years until the opening ceremony, and urgency mounting for construction to commence, so far all that's been publicly produced are conceptual 'visions'.
GIICA will soon take ownership of the inner-city park, fencing it off from the public to commence early works, though it's unclear what those works will include.
The authority also hasn't provided the public with a finalised stadium design, business case, or a full breakdown of projected costs.
A full breakdown of projected costs for the stadium build is yet to be provided. (Supplied: COX Architecture and Hassell)
Dr Neil Peach is part of a community committee that calls itself the Games Watchdog, and says the public is being treated to a "standard development approach, generally referred to as 'salami tactics'."
"That is, you just slice off a little piece of information at a time without disclosing the whole plan, and then when you disclose the whole plan, it's all over red rover," he told 7.30.
Dr Neil Peach is part of a community committee that calls itself the Games Watchdog. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
Professor Foth warned the public could become entranced by promises of "global prestige".
"Mega-events concentrate public spending, accelerate planning decisions and create enormous opportunities for private gain," he said.
"This is fertile ground for what some economists call the "game of mates": a system of informal, often legal, but deeply unequal and unethical exchanges in which well-connected corporate actors benefit from public decisions."
'Perfect storm' for corruption risk
The foreboding analysis of Professor Foth is echoed by integrity and corruption watchdogs.
In March this year, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie, the state's development, infrastructure and planning minister, told a group of influential Queensland business leaders of his government's measures to ensure "this huge swathe" of Olympic infrastructure is "completed on time and on budget".
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie addressing Queensland business leaders at a function in March 2026. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
His government introduced legislation exempting all 17 Queensland Olympic venues from 15 state planning, environmental and heritage laws, which Mr Bleijie said was about "making up for the 1,200 days of lost opportunity, chaos and crisis under the former government."
The announcement came in the same month that the government also lifted a ban that previously blocked property developers from making political donations.
Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission warned that "could exacerbate real and/or perceived risks of undue or improper influence" in the lead up to the Olympics.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is pro delivering the venue to the site. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)
Integrity watchdog, Transparency International Australia, is closely monitoring developments.
"It's sort of the perfect storm, that we're seeing with the rollout of the Queensland Olympic Games projects," chief executive Clancy Moore told 7.30.
"When you see billions of dollars of public money going towards infrastructure projects, quick timelines, fast-tracking, there's going to be a risk of corruption.
"It's really important that the government ... does all it can to prevent corruption taking hold in the first place."
Clancy Moore is part of an international anti-corruption group, closely monitoring the Brisbane Games. (Four Corners: Craig Hansen)
Those concerns were put to Mr Crisafulli this week, asking how Queenslanders could have confidence in the project's oversight.
He replied by saying: "People will see this project delivered and they'll see it as a world-class project."
He then turned his attention to green space in the Victoria Park plan.
Excavators are on-site and ready to begin work on the Victoria Park stadium from June 1. (ABC News: Will Murray)
"We've already increased the amount of public green space that will be upgraded for free for every Queenslander," he said.
"I think that just shows that we are fair dinkum about doing this properly."
Deadline looming
For protesters camped at one of the two tent embassies in Victoria Park, the fight is no longer simply about a stadium.
The project has become a test case for how Brisbane's Olympics will be delivered, and whether extraordinary powers granted in the name of meeting the 2032 deadline are matched by equally robust scrutiny.
When 7.30 asked the IOC whether it had approved the Victoria Park stadium and what role it played in assessing cultural heritage concerns, the organisation replied that infrastructure decisions "rest with local authorities".
Mr Valepyn, still abroad, two weeks on, is waiting to hear if the organisation has considered his community’s petition or concerns.
"We just expect more, in this day and age," he told 7.30.
For Turrbal and Jagera woman Gaja Kerry Charlton, the stadium saga raises a major question that remains unresolved.
Gaja Kerry Charlton pictured with one of the dozens of ancient trees at Victoria Park. (ABC News: Will Murray)
"Who is the state government accountable to, if not the IOC?"
With fencing due to go up on June 1, it is a question likely to outlast the battle over Victoria Park itself.
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