The Aroma Persists.

There is a smell that follows certain politicians around. Not corruption exactly. More the smell of conclusions reached before questions are invited.

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has been busy. At the former Visy glass factory site in South Brisbane, the government has selected Lendlease as its preferred development partner for a riverfront precinct of some 4,000 apartments, parkland, promenades and an over-river pool. The terms on which a $165 million public asset has changed hands are not, at this stage, something the public needs to know. The Deputy Premier declined to confirm whether the land had been sold.

The site was purchased by the previous government for $165 million. It was earmarked as the Olympic broadcast centre, then quietly un-earmarked, then offered to the private sector. The community consultation, the government notes, will come once a masterplan is proposed. So the public will be invited to have feelings about a plan it had no hand in shaping, for land it owns, on a riverfront it cannot currently reach.

This is called unlocking potential.

At Coochin Creek, the Sunshine Coast Council and the State Assessment and Referral Agency had both knocked back the Comiskey Group's proposed tourist park near Pumicestone Passage. Concerns included bushfire risk, the site is accessed via ten kilometres of pine plantation, and impacts on wetlands. Bleijie called it in. A "comprehensive assessment" followed, which found in January that the project could proceed. The council's objections were noted and set aside. The appeal rights that would ordinarily follow a council decision were not available, because there was no council decision to appeal. There was only a ministerial one.

This is called a tidy arrangement.

The Victoria Park stadium is further along. Three weeks ago the Games Infrastructure Authority took possession of the heritage-listed park and initial works began. The legislation exempting the stadium from existing planning, heritage and environmental laws had already passed. The Save Victoria Park group had successfully expanded heritage protections over the entire park in 2025. The new legislation made those protections irrelevant. Bleijie described the group as "just a bunch of NIMBYs who don't want anything to happen." It is worth recording that the people who want a thing to happen are rarely required to win that argument on planning grounds.

Three projects. Three different pretexts. One recurring method.

It is also worth recording the sequence of events in the wider frame. In February this year, the Crisafulli Government passed legislation lifting Queensland's ban on property developers donating to state political campaigns, a ban that had stood since 2018. Queensland's own Crime and Corruption Commission warned at the time that the change created "increased risks of actual or perceived corruption," and noted specifically that Queensland was entering a significant period of Olympic-era development in which developer interests would align closely with major decisions. The CCC recommended enhanced disclosure requirements.

This is called a level playing field.

Four months later, a property developer has been awarded a government site on undisclosed terms by the minister who holds the planning portfolio. No connection is alleged. The sequence simply exists.

Bleijie's office has become practised at generating milestones. Every week brings a new "historic day," a new "once-in-a-generation opportunity," a new first contract awarded after Labor's alleged 1,200 days of chaos. The press releases are impressive documents. They tend to be light on what was agreed, with whom, and at what cost to the public.

Show the paperwork. The milestones can wait.

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The views expressed are those of the correspondent. Factual claims draw on publicly available sources.