Anika Wells set to join Brisbane Olympics committee
Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells is set to join the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic organising committee.
Wells will take the place of her predecessor, Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck, who left the panel along with Liberal National Party MP Ted OāBrien after the coalition lost the May 21 federal election.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Wells, the member for the northern Brisbane seat of Lilley, would sit in a committee meeting on Friday as an observer ahead of her formal appointment by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
āItās fantastic, sheās a Queenslander, sheās a woman and itās wonderful sheās been appointed sports minister,ā she told reporters.
āAnd my advice is that sheāll be joining us as an observer until she is fully endorsed by the federal government.
āSheāll be joining us at our first meeting today, so looking forward to having her on board.ā
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Labor MP Milton Dick is one potential candidate who could replace OāBrien on the Olympic committee.
Dick, whose Oxley electorate covers southwest Brisbane, was part of the Australian Olympic delegation that travelled to Lausanne in Switzerland in 2019 as part of the 2032 bid.
Meanwhile, the organising committee president has defended the premierās removal of Scott Morrisonās appointees.
Palaszczuk wrote to OāBrien and Colbeck to inform them they were no longer on the committee.
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The premier added that as the Olympics minister, it was her role to deal with board appointments and dismissals.
Committee president Andrew Liveris said the process had been conducted by the book.
āLook, itās very clearly the premierās job,ā he told reporters on Friday.
Liveris said he was focused on using the 2032 events to highlight the culture, truth-telling and aspirations of Indigenous Australians.
The committee president said he toured some Indigenous communities on Thursday and heās keen to learn more.
āMy generation was in the dark, especially in the cities about what really went on,ā Liveris said.
āBuilding that narrative is so important to not just the Olympics, the nation, thatās the part that I heard yesterday, and a lot more.ā
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