John Coates has been described as the best politician in Australia, and he demonstrated it yet again in Tokyo when he “ordered” a Labor Premier and a Liberal federal minister to attend the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies | OPINION auspol
John Coates has been described as the best politician in Australia, and he demonstrated it yet again in Tokyo when he “ordered” a Labor Premier and a Liberal federal minister toQueensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk fawned obsequious agreement and federal Sports Minister Richard Colbeck obediently confirmed he would attend, following the announcement Brisbane had won the bid to host the 2032 Olympics.
He was pivotal in canvassing the votes for the 2000 Sydney Games by travelling through Africa with former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam.China had poured billions of aid into Africa and it was the votes of some of its then 48 countries that pushed Sydney one vote ahead of Beijing. Both Liberal and Labor politicians acknowledge the power of this “Coates of many colours”. At an intimate lunch in December to celebrate Coates’ 30 years as president of the national Olympic committee, NSW Labor’s minister for the 2000 Olympics, Michael Knight, attended, as did John Hewson, a former Liberal leader and investment banker who oversees the AOC’s future fund.
Coates incited the Melbourne-based Olympic sports when he delivered a putdown of Swimming Australia president John Bertrand, whom Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie had earlier declared should have a statue built akin to Rio’s Christ the Redeemer.
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