Barton Green: “Spanish companies are very proud of their cities”

Barton Green is CEO of Committee for Brisbane, a non-profit organization that has contributed for more than 60 years to making Brisbane one of the best places in the world to live. Its forums serve to discuss ideas and issues that help shape the city and its region. Barton has more than 36 years of executive management experience and more than 23 years as a company director.

What have been the main achievements of the Committee for Brisbane throughout its history?

The Committee for Brisbane has a 66-year history and is the oldest organization of its kind in the country. During these years the city has grown from 500,000 inhabitants to nearly 2 million. Throughout this time the city has faced many pressures, and the Committee has been responsible for initiating several changes in the city. This organization pushed the Federal Government to create the Brisbane Port Corporation. We had a port in the city, but we needed an independent entity to manage it properly. We were partly responsible for that, as well as for the creation of the new international airport terminal.

We also helped with the design competition for what is now known as South Bank Parklands, the site used for the 1988 World Expo. We were responsible for starting the conversations about how that land could be used. It is now an internationally recognized public park and a central feature of the city.

Our main interest has been how to improve public spaces so they serve citizens, and how to improve the livability of our region as much as possible.

As with the Spain–Australia Council Foundation, the Committee for Brisbane’s board is made up of both public and private institutions. What advantages do these types of partnerships bring?

The Committee is a non-political organization. We do not have government members, but we do have universities involved. We have many publicly listed companies, global firms such as PwC, Deloitte, Accenture, and Grant Thornton. We also have many small and medium-sized businesses, architects, urban planners, and urban designers.This means we have the opportunity to draw on the global networks of our larger members, while also benefiting from the experience of people who are deeply rooted in their local communities and who think big about what the future might look like. Being able to combine those two perspectives is very powerful. If you are a member of the Committee for Brisbane, you care about the future of the city where you live, work, where your children study, or where you will retire. So there are many people interested in what that future could be. The great diversity of our members allows us to harness a wealth of ideas about what that future might be.

Brisbane is currently preparing for the 2032 Olympic Games. What opportunities does this create for companies that want to establish themselves there, and what might Brisbane need from these companies?

It’s a very interesting question because, apart from hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games, your city—like Barcelona in 1992—becomes a global stage. People start looking at you.

So we want to make sure the image we show the world is the best possible, but we also want to be a bit selfish on behalf of local companies. We want them to benefit from the Games. While we all want foreign and interstate investment, we want to make sure that local entrepreneurs benefit from the event. They won’t be able to do everything required for the Games because it is the biggest event the city will ever host. But if we attract international interest—and we will—we want to make sure those companies transfer their knowledge to the local population, so that our local business community continues to benefit.

What aspects must be addressed to ensure that an event of this scale has a positive impact on the city and its citizens?

In the case of Brisbane, we are the first city to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games under what is known as the “new normal.” The process of winning the Games was very different from before.In the past, cities spent millions and millions of dollars competing against many others. For Brisbane it wasn’t like that: the cost of our initial bid was about 10 million dollars. The process allowed a city to be selected among interested candidates, and Brisbane was chosen.

Under the new normal, the rules of the International Olympic Committee state that you should not build infrastructure specifically for the Games. If you build something, you build it for yourself, allow it to be used during the Games, and then it remains for your own use afterward.

In the past, stadiums were built that were never used again. That is no longer allowed. In Brisbane’s case, we are demolishing an old stadium that no longer serves its purpose. We need a new one. It will be used during the 2032 Games, but we will also use it before and after. I think the International Olympic Committee realized that they were putting the Games out of reach for many cities. This is a new system in which we are the first to experiment. Hopefully it will show the world that the Games can be organized at a much more reasonable cost.

How do you evaluate your participation in this Program this week?

It has been very interesting. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived. It has been a very busy program, but in every meeting we have had we realized something: we all share a common set of challenges and opportunities. Housing issues, the cost of housing, homelessness, climate change and the pressure it puts on communities, transport and mobility… These are the things that struck me most because they are shared.

There are things we heard in the meetings we attended that I can take home with me. It has been very valuable. The people we met have been very kind and very positive toward Australia, but it was very clear how proud the business community we met is of their cities—whether Barcelona, Madrid, or Málaga. There was a very evident sense of pride. It was fantastic and very positive.

Another thing that was very clear is that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are clearly influencing the future of the cities we live in. And people have accepted them—they haven’t complained and said “that is our future, let’s move forward.” In Australia it is not the same. I find it really impressive that this attitude exists, and it is something I will take with me: how we can improve as a city to try to achieve some of those UN goals.We are very far from Europe. We are on the other side of the world. Sometimes it’s not that people forget about us, but we can feel a bit isolated from the rest of the world, which is both good and bad. But we have a role to play, a responsible role. Climate management and the UN Sustainable Development Goals are ambitious, but also achievable and necessary. I think that is something I will take with me.

What has been your favorite meeting or activity during these days?

That’s a very difficult question. I really enjoyed the stay in Málaga, including having a bit of time to walk around. The historic center is beautiful. I was very impressed by the Digital Hub created with the support of the City Council.

My city also has ambitions in this direction. Much of what I have seen has been truly impressive. There have been great things in every city, but the visit to Málaga was wonderful—and the weather was fantastic. That always helps (laughs).

View the Executive Summary in PDF