Beyond the Games: Designing Australia's Infrastructure Legacy

Learning from the record

Historical precedent provides both warning and direction.

Paris 2024 achieved strong sustainability outcomes, yet the need to accelerate progress in the later phases of the program imposed significant cost and delivery pressures. Globally, Olympic programs have averaged 156 per cent cost overruns. Applying this trend to Brisbane implies potential venue costs exceeding AU $19 billion ($12.35 billion USD).

These figures are not abstract; they highlight systemic risk. Cost certainty is never a function of chance but of design.

Jacobs’ global experience confirms that programmatic contracting, alliancing models and disciplined design management drive predictability and performance. Programmatic delivery spreads risk and increases efficiency. Alliancing aligns incentives and builds collaboration. Standardization, modularization and prefabrication improve speed and consistency.

Australia’s recent experience reinforces these findings.

Sydney Metro demonstrated the value of a structured portfolio approach and strong governance.

Inland Rail revealed the cost of midstream scope alteration.

Snowy 2.0 highlighted the consequences of underdeveloped planning and weak market engagement.

Jacobs has observed these lessons first-hand. Its involvement across major Australian and international programs confirms that certainty depends on early governance design, clarity of purpose and disciplined sequencing before mobilization. The challenge for Brisbane 2032 is to institutionalize these lessons at the outset rather than relearn them under pressure.

Managing disruption as a measure of delivery success

Large-scale infrastructure programs inevitably cause disruption. Effective nation building must therefore enable cities to continue to function during delivery.

Cross River Rail demonstrated this reality. As tunnelling progressed into the Central Business District, disruption affected traffic, businesses, schools and hospitals. Managing these impacts required precision sequencing, inter-agency coordination and proactive stakeholder engagement.

Jacobs’ delivery experience confirms that disruption management must be treated as a design discipline, not a downstream communications task. Staged sequencing mitigates congestion. Digital twins forecast and visualize disruption scenarios. Integrated program management aligns utilities, transport and construction schedules to prevent cumulative impact.

Transparency with the community is critical. It is not an addition to delivery but a condition of maintaining social license.

Workforce: The deciding factor

The most significant constraint for Brisbane 2032 is not funding but capability. Nation building at this scale depends on a skilled, scalable and resilient workforce.

Queensland requires thousands of engineers, project managers and trades professionals, supported by digital specialists capable of embedding advanced technologies into every stage of delivery. Equally, regional participation and Indigenous engagement is vital to ensuring the Games create both economic and social value.

Jacobs’ experience across global infrastructure programs reinforces that capability investment must begin early. Apprenticeships, graduate pathways and reskilling initiatives are essential to building continuity of expertise. International mobility should be leveraged where it strengthens capability, while local workforce development must underpin long-term legacy.

Without a coordinated workforce strategy, even sophisticated governance models risk underperformance. With one, Brisbane can establish a delivery capability that endures for future generations.

Redefining the measure of success

Brisbane 2032 provides an inflection point for Australia’s infrastructure system. It offers a platform to redefine how the nation plans, procures and delivers at scale.

Success is measurable. It will be evident when the Games are delivered with budgetary discipline, when venues operate as enduring community assets and when the delivery model itself becomes a template for certainty, collaboration and performance.

These outcomes are achievable through design, not aspiration.

Jacobs’ local and global portfolio demonstrates that disciplined program governance, consistent stakeholder alignment and integrated digital assurance produce measurable outcomes in cost, safety and social value. The convergence of challenges facing Brisbane — housing, energy transition and transport renewal — makes this discipline imperative.

Industry is prepared to act. Jacobs stands ready to deploy its capital advisory, program management and delivery partner expertise to help government make the strategic decisions that will shape the next decade of national infrastructure.

The decisive choice is clear: persist with fragmented, transactional procurement that guarantees drift, or adopt programmatic, outcomes-based partnerships that deliver certainty, legacy and confidence.

A defining moment for Australia

The implications of this choice extend beyond the Games.

Continuing with conventional procurement will perpetuate cost escalation, fragmented accountability and erosion of public confidence. Programmatic collaboration, underpinned by governance discipline, can deliver enduring value and institutional capability.

Brisbane 2032 is therefore more than a sporting event — it is a referendum on how Australia builds.

Failure will echo for a generation. Success will redefine how the nation governs, collaborates and performs.

Readiness is not a matter of time but of design. The frameworks established now will determine whether Brisbane 2032 becomes a case study in constraint or a model of confidence, the point at which Australia demonstrates it can build, govern and deliver at a global standard.

Brisbane 2032 will not only reshape city skylines but determine Australia’s standing as a nation capable of disciplined, world-class delivery. The world will be watching, and history will remember how we chose to build.