Referring to the Queensland Government’s move to abandon plans for an independent Olympic coordination authority and instead putting the State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s department in charge, Higgins told Australian newspaper The Courier Mail: “It’s not going to work, is it?”

Sir David claimed that Olympic planning had to be done at arm’s length from the Government with bipartisan political support, with taxpayers being told what is happening at every stage.

"You’ve got to have a clear brief, proper governance and an independent board so that it can work with the various sporting bodies and the International Olympic Committee," he said.

"I think what is happening in Brisbane at the moment is a bit of a challenge."

The Government and International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president John Coates have strongly defended the structure.

Sir David, knighted for his work on the London 2012 plan, which came in under budget and a year ahead of schedule, claimed he had been asked to join the newly established Brisbane Delivery Committee.

"Someone asked me to put my name forward and I looked at it," he said.

"It had 20 people on it, and I thought it was a waste of time.

"It was just too many people, and I didn’t think it was going to work.

"There were five from Federal, five from State, five from City Hall and I thought, 'That’ll be a talking shop.'"

Sir David claimed that Palaszczuk’s Committee did not seem to resemble the IOC’s preferred model that had successfully delivered the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, which Coates was closely involved with, and London 2012.

"The history of Olympics is nasty and even if you look at Sydney which is a massive success that must have gone through four heads of their Organising Committee and a couple of heads of their delivery body and they fought like cats and dogs," he said.

"But ultimately, they came up with the right model that became the IOC blueprint.

"They decided you need to set up two arms-length bodies; one to put on the event itself and one to get the sponsors and to be commercial."

Sir David was managing director and chief executive of construction company Lendlease when its developments included the Olympic Park in Sydney.

He explained that the first body ensured the Olympics was funded by private contributions through global broadcast rights and international sponsorship deals.

"The second body is where all the public Government money goes into from various sources," Sir David said.

"Both of those need to be arms-length governing bodies; have a clear brief and have a contractual relationship between one other."

That was the Sydney model Sir David took to London when he was appointed chief executive of the ODA. 

"In the end it was such a good governance model - even though there were a lot of changes of people - that became the IOC’s preferred model," he told The Courier Mail.

"It’s the right model to go to [for Brisbane 2032].’’

Coates, meanwhile, commented: "David Higgins did a great job but the situation in Brisbane is different.

"Since Sydney and since London, we have required that venues are already existing or the plans are there for them to be put in place.

"What David is reflecting on is a different situation."

Palaszczuk has also defended the move, claiming it was more efficient.

"It cuts red tape while at the same time provides input from all of our Games partners," she said.

But Sir David believes the Premier faces an impossible task to coordinate five different Government departments while negotiating with the Federal Government and the IOC.

"That is going to be a challenge," he said.

"It’s not going to work, is it?

"I can’t see how any Prime Minister and Premier’s department can co-ordinate that because you have to have a bipartisan approach.

"You have to have an approach where an Opposition clearly knows what it going on so when they get in they are not going to say, we just inherited a mess."