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Queensland Premier Annastascia Palaszczuk had
confirmed the decision to postpone their work on the bid in a
letter to the state parliament on Friday, The Australian
newspaper reported.
"As Queensland's and Australia's focus has been placed on
responding to coronavirus (the candidature leadership group)
agreed that the 2032 Games candidature discussions be put on
hold until further notice," Palaszczuk wrote.
Coates, who is also the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC)
President, said everyone understood there were pressing issues
of public health and community wellbeing for governments to
address.
"The candidature will have its role to play in terms of jobs and
growth in the Queensland economy once we have seen our way
through the current crisis," he said in a statement.
Coates added the AOC had recommended in late March that it defer
any meetings with all levels of government about the bid as they
dealt with the pandemic.
Australia has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in Melbourne in
1956 and Sydney in 2000. The Queensland bid would be centred on
the state's largest city, Brisbane.
Coates, who is head of the International Olympic Committee's
inspectorate for Tokyo, warned earlier this week that Japanese
organisers faced "real problems" hosting the postponed 2020
Games next year due to the coronavirus.
(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Lincoln
Feast.)
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