Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Select Committee on the 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid

Inquiry into the 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:29): How timely that I am after Mr Galea, because I too am going to speak about the 2026 Commonwealth Games report that was released yesterday. There were a significant number of issues that were raised by the committee in the report, with evidence coming from a wide range of people, including individuals, sporting associations, small businesses, tourism operators, athletes and events.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Joe McCRACKEN: And Mr McIntosh, you are right: many regional Victorians did feel that it was indeed a slap in the face. That is what they felt, and that was the clear evidence that we received. But it was also clear from the start of the inquiry that the government should have known that the games were doomed to fail. Despite this, the government took it to the people of Victoria at the November 2022 state election. The business case was poorly put together because input was extremely limited. The consultants made it explicitly clear when preparing the business case that they could not make accurate assessments on all aspects, and a large number of caveats were put in that report. Despite this being made explicitly clear and incredibly obvious, decision-makers still chose to rely on that document to justify bidding for the games. This turned out to be a catastrophic decision which led to a chain of events and a string of failures in oversight, communication and collaboration.

Finding 7 of the report says:

… proper processes were truncated or not undertaken at all, and warnings were not heeded by the Victorian Government and government agencies.

Finding 5 of the report notes:

The high cost and inability to host the Commonwealth Games should have been discovered earlier, highlighting a distinct lack of due diligence and robust planning that never occurred.

Finding 35 is even more damning:

It is evident that there was a clear lack of communication and collaboration between responsible ministers, departments and agencies in the planning, preparation and development of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

There are many other findings which highlight more specific aspects of the failures. However, the simple fact of the matter is that the due diligence was not done and what was done was not particularly robust.

Another alarming discovery was from local government CEOs, who gave evidence that revealed that they were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. This effectively prevented them from detailing any discussions they had had with the state government to local councillors, who the CEOs were employed by. This bypassing of local democracy should be a warning sign for all of those across the local government sector, and there is no guarantee that this sort of thing will not happen again. What is abundantly clear is a secretive set of processes designed to avoid scrutiny. Finding 62 of the report says:

At almost every point, the Victorian Government has not fully cooperated with the work of the Committee in providing evidence in the form of documents or the appearance of relevant witnesses. These actions are an avoidance of parliamentary scrutiny and public accountability.

The Premier Jacinta Allan should have attended. It was the moral thing to do, but she chose not to. Victorians can only ask: what did she have to hide?

On the decision made to cancel the games, the report finds that the justification used to cancel the games was not transparent and it is difficult to understand how the $6.9 billion price tag was reached. The impact on regional Victoria was vast. We heard evidence from witnesses in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Traralgon and even Melbourne stating how challenging the cancellations had been. Many key sports bodies and associations were not afforded a heads-up and found out about the cancellation through the media, just like everyone else did. This is let alone the lost business opportunities, which were detailed in the interim report. In particular, the accommodation, tourism and events industries were savaged. Finding 17 of the report notes:

The Victorian Government’s decision to withdraw from hosting the Commonwealth Games had a considerable negative impact on the morale of regional Victoria, which was not confined just to the host cities.

The government may assert that the decision to cancel the games was the right one. However, they are missing the point. It is a position that Victoria should never have got into in the first place, and I hope it never does again.