Annastacia Palaszczuk and John Coates at the Olympics 2032 press conference (Image: ABC)
If Julie Bishop thinks she suffered from so-called gender deafness as a politician, then Annastacia Palaszczuk must have misogyny muteness after her very public humiliation by John Coates.
The Queensland premier appeared to be struck dumb by the sheer appalling-ness of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president, who chose a global press conference to berate, demean and patronise her.
Despite this morning s efforts of the News Corp Olympic toadies to justify the dinosaur’s behaviour (as opposed to the excellent takedown on him by the great Greg Baum in the Nine mastheads), Palaszczuk’s silent reaction raises questions about how much responsibility female politicians should take for their own problems. Why didn’t she speak up for herself earlier?
The Olympics opening ceremony starts tonight, but here s a side of Tokyo you won t see
After years of planning and setbacks, the Tokyo Olympics officially starts today with the opening ceremony, but it all feels very remote to the people who live here. 23 July 2021
The list of those not attending the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony tells you a lot about how Japan feels about the games.Â
Senior officials from major sponsors like Panasonic, Fujitsu, Asahi and a host of others will skip the ceremony.
Toyota also bailed on the event and said it won t run any TV advertisements linked to the Games in Japan out of sensitivity to the COVID-19 situation .
Friday, 23 July 2021, 4:14 pm
The auguries are not good for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Resignations have filled the ledger, including Japanese
composer Keigo Oyamada, organising committee president
Yoshiro Mori and the creative director Hiroshi Sasaki. Then
there is the lamentable behaviour of the authoritarian
International Olympic Committee and the obsequious conduct
of the Suga government. The continued prospect of COVID-19
infections in the Olympic camp and public, have all been
marked off as manageable.
It will not matter that
athletes suffer infections. It will not matter that they
will be spread. It will be irrelevant that the Japanese
public do not want these games. The IOC will throw money and
‘Not many people took us seriously’: How Queensland mayors drove Games win
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The inside story of Brisbane’s under-the-radar bid for the 2032 Olympic Games.
Credit:Albert Perez/Getty
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Like any good origin story, Brisbane 2032 begins with a band of underdogs and a long-shot premise.
There are villains and disappointments, too, and a plot thread going back to 1986, when Brisbane and a young-gun consultant named John Coates polled a bitter third behind Barcelona and Paris in the race to host the 1992 Games.