Southeast Queensland's mayors will meet next week to "consider a regional bid based around Brisbane for the 2028 Olympic Games," according to Wayne Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said he would add "discussion of a combined regional Olympic bid proposal to the agenda of the next Council of Mayors (SEQ) meeting on March 6." Quirk said that following its "successful staging" of the G20 in November, Brisbane was the "obvious choice to be Australia’s next candidate city to host the Games." He said, "It's Australia's new 'world city.' We have demonstrated we are capable of staging world events, staging them safely and staging them successfully with attention to detail." Discussion of a new Brisbane bid -- it campaigned unsuccessfully for the
1992 Games -- comes "hard on the heels" of IOC President Thomas Bach's call
for a "fresh Australian entry for either the 2024 or 2028 Games." The IOC allocates Games to "cities, not countries but for any southeast
Queensland bid to get off the ground, the federal and Queensland
governments would need to give financial backing." Quirk: "It's early days. We've got to get the conversation going" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/26).
