Tag: daniel andrews

The decision to cancel the Commonwealth Games was always going to be difficult and controversial. 

The sporting event was a key selling point for the Labor government in the regions seeking a third term.

And sport being sport it was seen as untouchable, the idea of it being cancelled seemed impossible.

But earlier this year, those working on the project realised it was massively undercooked. The budget had failed to cost security and transport, and having multiple athletes villages was also underquoted.

On late Monday afternoon, cabinet backed the premier’s plan to scrap the Games.

State cabinet’s regular meeting deliberately moved to the late afternoon with a great wall of silence enveloping the government on Monday night.

The prime minister was given “a very short heads up” just before the premier addressed the public.

So it was of little surprise that the custodians of the Games were “blindsided” by a call from Victorian officials that the 2026 Commonwealth Games in regional Victoria were off.

It had been told in June that the budget was still on track at around $3 billion.

The Games’ demise unleashed an outpouring of anger from the sports and business community, with warnings that Victoria’s international reputation had been trashed.

Melbourne’s status as a sporting mecca has been questioned.

Daniel Andrews is arguably the nation’s most formidable politician.

The decision he made would not have been made without a close eye on the politics.

When Andrews fronted Victorians on Tuesday morning, it was with his usual confidence, with a cut through line about how his decision would save Victorian taxpayers billions.

“I’ve made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them. Frankly, $7 billion for a sporting event, we are not doing that,” he said.

This rationale has resonated with many people, but there is anger about the mess Victoria finds itself in. And there is anger in corners about the premier’s handling of the Games.

Within government, senior figures say there is “relief” that the Games have been axed, amid fears that the government would not have met the 2026 deadline.

But the cost blowouts have thrown the spotlight on the government’s track record of managing major projects — there’s tens of billions of overruns — and the apparent lack of process behind big decisions.

The government began chasing the Games in 2021 and the question now is how did it get the cost estimate so fundamentally wrong.

Senior government sources say that the initial budget failed to account for security and transport and underestimated how much duplicating athlete’s villages would add to the bottom line.

Throughout the week the question has been asked: How did we get here?

The opposition began to smell blood during the budget in May when no funding was accounted for in the state or federal budget. There were also warnings from the regions that the Games wouldn’t meet the deadline and would cost too much.

“My concern here, as the alternative premier, is the damage to Victoria’s reputation will be irredeemable if we can’t hold the Commonwealth Games,” Opposition Leader John Pesutto told radio station 3AW at the time.

“We’ll look like a basket case.”

He was on the money.

Seizing on the Commonwealth Games controversy, Mr Pesutto has attacked the secrecy and competency of the government’s decision making.

The events of the week have prompted some Victorians to view the way the Andrews government goes about its business in a fresh light.

The manner in which the premier unceremoniously dumped the Games really added fuel to the raging fire.

The board of the Games were informed during an international zoom call.

“Most people were speechless,” Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) vice-president Kereyn Smith told 7.30.

Like others at home and abroad she took aim at Andrews’s integrity, the experienced administrator describing the Victorian government’s behaviour as “quite unprecedented.”

“There’s respect and there’s integrity around the process and the communication,” she told 7.30.

“It feels to me like those things have been compromised as part of this process.”

Like many others, Ms Smith has questioned the figures quoted by the premier as the rationale for cancelling the Games.

“The last time there was any conversation at the board table around figures around Victoria, it was getting up towards the $3 billion conversation,” Ms Smith said.

Her colleagues in Australia were furious that suggestions to save the Games by making alterations fell on deaf ears.

Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips came down hard on the government, claiming it “wilfully ignored recommendations to move events to Melbourne” and instead “remained wedded” to expensive temporary venues in regional Victoria.

“The velodrome is the best example of that. You have a purpose built velodrome here at John Cain Arena, but we were continuing to prosecute running a Games in a temporary venue in Bendigo that would have no legacy value,” Mr Phillips said.

“These are some of the conversations we had with the government over some months … but [they] didn’t want to hear it.”

Over recent months, Jeroen Weimar and his team have been crunching the numbers to try and find a solution. It even examined how much it would cost to move the games to Melbourne, which successfully hosted the Games in 2006.

“Doing it in Melbourne was probably the cheapest option, and it was still well over $4 billion,” Mr Andrews said on Wednesday.

One set of estimates seen by the ABC show a Melbourne Games would cost more than $3.5 billion, including $1.65 billion of operating costs on top of $200 million to put 14,000 people up in hotels for a fortnight, $600 million for temporary infrastructure and $400 million for transport and policing.

Other sports would also receive compensation payments to get out of the way to use venues — $400 million was allocated for displacement costs to sports like the AFL who have a contract to play footy at the MCG.

Even under the plan to run a regional Games, the opening ceremony was slated for the MCG.

The Commonwealth Games wanted the venue for six weeks and the AFL was seeking $51 million in compensation for its contract to get off the home of football.

Senior figures in sports and the events sector are gobsmacked by the $4 billion price tag for a Melbourne Games but are unsurprised by the cost blowouts for a regional Games, although they caution $6 billion may be a stretch.

Victoria comes to the rescue

In 2022, the premier painted his government as the saviour of the embattled Commonwealth Games. No one else wanted it.

Birmingham had stepped in after Durban, in South Africa, was stripped of the 2022 Games because of financial issues.

But it wasn’t that simple. Victoria had sought out the Games as an option, aggressively pursuing the idea in 2021. Far from it being the white knight.

It again begs the question. How did it get the numbers so wrong?

At the end of a rollercoaster week, the government remains convinced that it has made the right decision to cancel the Games, despite the backlash from heavy hitters.

The premier’s veneer has been scratched but it’s far from fatal, as one Spring Street insider put it, “the veil has been pulled back.”

Mr Andrews is a man whose leadership has survived bigger controversies. Questions about his behaviour and decision making has once again returned the spotlight especially concerns over “reckless spending”, as even some Labor figures concede.

For supporters of the premier in the public, the week has reinforced that this government is prepared to make tough decisions, even if it could be perceived as being damaging.

But even some of the premier’s more ardent supporters are questioning how the government got itself into this mess in the first place.

Was it hubris? Naivety? Or did the government in 2022 overlook concerns in search of a political policy to sell to regional Victoria?

These are all questions that remain unanswered. And that’s before Victorians get the final bill for not holding the Games.