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About Kooky and Shaka →The Queensland Budget handed down on Tuesday 23 June 2026 progresses $417 million to deliver Games venues across the state and sets aside $348 million in 2026-27 for planning the athlete villages, according to a joint statement by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie and Treasurer David Janetzki published that afternoon. The statement confirms a total funding provision of $7.1 billion for venues to 2031-32.
It is the first State Budget in which the 2032 program moves from design and procurement into work on the ground. Three weeks earlier the delivery authority took possession of the stadium site at Victoria Park, and the Budget names that project first among the venues now starting.
Queensland Government ministerial statement "Delivering for 2032 and beyond", 23 June 2026.
What the Budget commits
The ministerial statement lists the venues the money supports. It names starting works for the Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park, and work on Barlow Park in Cairns, the Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre, the Logan Indoor Sports Centre, the Redland Whitewater Centre, Sunshine Coast Stadium and the Sunshine Coast Mountain Bike Centre. The National Aquatic Centre is described as being in its planning and design phase.
The stadium-industry publication Austadiums, reporting on 24 June, described the $417 million as covering early works, site investigations, planning, technical assessments and initial construction activity, and as the first substantial allocation toward building the venues. It also reported that bulk earthworks at Victoria Park are expected in late 2026 and that major contracts are expected within twelve months.
On the villages, the statement says planning is progressing for the detailed design of athlete villages on the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and in Rockhampton, with $348 million in 2026-27. That is the first time a single-year figure of that size has been attached to the villages.
Related readWorld equestrian chiefs inspect Toowoomba Showgrounds for 2032The $7.1 billion is not new money. It is the envelope for the Games Venues Infrastructure Program under the intergovernmental agreement between the Australian and Queensland governments, restated as a provision running to 2031-32.
What the named venues are
The venues in the statement are all on the list of 17 that the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority, GIICA, is delivering: seven new and ten upgraded. Published details give a sense of what the money begins to buy.
At Barlow Park in Cairns, GIICA plans a new grandstand that lifts permanent seating from 1,700 to 5,000. At Sunshine Coast Stadium in Kawana, the 2032 Delivery Plan provides for 10,680 permanent seats, up from 1,046. The Logan Indoor Sports Centre, according to a GIICA factsheet, will have nine courts across two halls and hold 7,000 spectators during the Games, with construction due to begin in early to mid 2027. The Moreton Bay centre is at the Mill precinct in Petrie, and the whitewater centre is at Birkdale beside a planned community precinct.
None of these is a Brisbane landmark, and that is the point the Government makes for them: each is sized for local use after 2032.
How this compares with last year
The step up is easiest to see against the previous Budget. An analysis by the law firm Pinsent Masons, published in August 2025, noted that the 2025-26 Budget allocated $4.7 billion toward the 2032 Delivery Plan but budgeted only about $145.5 million of it, around 3 per cent, for spending in 2025-26. The firm described that as a year for consulting, procurement, planning and design, not for breaking ground.
Related readTransport projects tied to Brisbane 2032 and the suburbs they serveTwelve months on, the venues figure alone is $417 million. The two numbers are not a strict like-for-like comparison, since the 2025-26 figure covered the Delivery Plan as a whole, but the direction is plain: the program has moved from paying designers and advisers to paying for works.
| Item | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 spending on the Delivery Plan | About $145.5 million | Pinsent Masons analysis, August 2025 |
| Venues, 2026-27 Budget | $417 million | Ministerial statement, 23 June 2026 |
| Athlete village planning, 2026-27 | $348 million | Ministerial statement, 23 June 2026 |
| Venues program to 2031-32 | $7.1 billion | Ministerial statement, 23 June 2026 |
The 2025-26 figure covers the Delivery Plan as a whole; the 2026-27 figures are reported separately for venues and villages.
The Commonwealth's share was settled in July 2025. The federal Infrastructure Minister, Catherine King, announced then that the Australian Government would contribute $3.435 billion to the $7.1 billion program, a little under half, alongside $12.4 billion of federal investment in Queensland transport projects.
The villages line
The $348 million matters to the property market more than its size suggests, because the villages are housing projects with a sporting deadline.
The 2032 Delivery Plan of March 2025 places the main village at the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills, for more than 10,000 athletes and officials at the Olympic Games, with three smaller villages: at the Royal Pines Resort development on the Gold Coast, in the Maroochydore city centre on the Sunshine Coast, and in the railyards precinct in Rockhampton. The plan counts about 16,400 beds across them.
Design is already under way in Brisbane. The Government announced on 1 June 2026 that five architecture practices would design the 1,800 apartments of the showgrounds village with Lendlease and the RNA as partners. The Budget statement's reference to "detailed design" across all four sites indicates the other three are following.
What the statement does not provide is a breakdown of the $348 million between the four villages, or between design, land and enabling works. Nor does it restate a total cost for the villages. A figure of $3.5 billion for the villages has been used in earlier reporting, first by AAP in January 2025, but the Budget statement itself does not repeat it.
Related readVictoria Park draft legacy plan opens for eight weeks of public commentThe statement's own summary of progress was that the Games were "back on track", a reference to the reset of venue planning in March 2025.
What is not funded: Sunshine Coast transport
The venues have their money; two transport projects that Sunshine Coast leaders tie to the Games do not, at least not in this Budget. Sunshine Coast News reported on 23 June that the Budget allocated no new funding to the later stages of The Wave or to the Mooloolah River Interchange upgrade.
The Wave is the rail and metro project intended to connect the Sunshine Coast to the Brisbane network. The Government's Delivering 2032 transport page describes heavy rail from Beerwah to Birtinya, 26 kilometres in two stages of 19 and 7 kilometres, and a final connection from Birtinya through Maroochydore to the Sunshine Coast Airport by 2032. Sunshine Coast News reports that the first stage, from Beerwah to Caloundra, secured $5.5 billion in 2024, half of it from the Commonwealth, while the second and third stages have no allocated funds. It also notes that the interchange upgrade was left off Infrastructure Australia's priority list in March 2026.
The Premier's response, as quoted by the same outlet, was unambiguous. "The Wave will be delivered and it will be done by the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," Premier David Crisafulli said.
The outlet reports that the Government's position is to seek the largest possible Commonwealth contribution before committing further State money. For owners and buyers along the corridor, from Caloundra to Maroochydore, that leaves a firm political commitment and an open funding question. The Sunshine Coast village is planned for the Maroochydore city centre, at the far end of the unfunded section.
Related readVictoria Park passes to the Games authority as stadium works beginWho it concerns
Builders and trades are the first audience. A year in which seven venues are named as moving forward, in Cairns, Moreton Bay, Logan, Redland, the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, is a year in which tenders are let across several regions at once.
Home owners near those sites are the second. Each venue named in the statement sits in or beside an established suburb: Herston and Spring Hill for the stadium and aquatic centre, Petrie for the Moreton Bay centre, Logan Central, Birkdale for the whitewater centre, Kawana for the stadium on the Sunshine Coast, and Parramatta Park in Cairns for Barlow Park. A place in the Budget does not fix a start date, but it is the clearest sign so far of which projects move first.
Buyers of apartments in Bowen Hills and Maroochydore, owners near Royal Pines on the Gold Coast, and anyone weighing the Rockhampton market, have a third interest: the villages will add completed homes to each of those markets shortly after 2032, and this Budget pays for deciding how many and of what kind.
What comes next
Several dates already announced fall inside the 2026-27 budget year. GIICA has said the builder for the Brisbane Stadium will be selected from two joint ventures later in 2026, with main construction from 2027. The consultation on the Victoria Park precinct master plan, promised in May, has yet to open.
Two details are still to be published: the split of the village funding between the four sites, and the year-by-year profile of the $7.1 billion. Until they are, the statement gives the outline: the venues have a first building year, the villages have a design year, and the Sunshine Coast is still waiting on its rail.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
