LNP Senator Gerard Rennick has told Sky News he doesn’t want to see the federal government commit 50 per cent of funds to the Olympics given funding to essential services is “way down in Queensland”.
The Morrison government agreed to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s request to jointly fund the Olympics should the frontrunner city Brisbane win the games.
Senator Rennick said while he was not against the Olympics if it could be done “cost neutral,” he is “extremely sceptical” it could be done.
“In regional Queensland, we’ve seen a decline in essential services over the last 30 years under Labor governments,” he said.
“When Annastacia Palaszczuk came out two weeks ago and said she wanted to spend a billion dollars on knocking down the Gabba only to rebuild with another additional 8,000 seats, I just thought that was a step too far.
“I just don’t think we should be committing funds to that sort of reckless expenditure.”