Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Select Committee on the 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid

Inquiry into the 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (17:39): I rise to speak to the 2026 Commonwealth Games bid inquiry and the final report that was tabled yesterday. There has been a lot said about this report and the recommendations and findings of this report but not enough. Unfortunately given the enormous issues in this state, this very thorough and important report was brushed over by far too many people. It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to it. I want to go to the point on the government’s selective picking out of the wording in the Chair’s forward or what they found around that decision to withdraw. In their words, they say it was correct, but it is a very selective piece. They are not going on to say the games should never have progressed in the first place. There are so many elements in this report that talk about that – the business case, the disgraceful way the ministers behaved in front of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and did not provide the full information.

I want to go to the chair’s foreword, which really encapsulates all of this. I just say to the government members: you cannot get away from the facts, and the facts are that there were a string of decision-making failures by the Victorian government as well as inadequate due diligence and planning processes at both the departmental level and the ministerial level. I think that is the crux of the issue here, and the decision-making and the process failures were first and foremost in many aspects of the interim and final reports. There are just so many elements to this report that I cannot give it justice in the time that I have today, but if you look at the summary of the decision-making process and you look at the key failures in the decision-making process that are included in this report, it talks about a six-week timeframe to assess the opportunity and submit a bid to the Commonwealth Games Federation. It goes on to say:

A key reason this important policy –

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: Have a look at this. I note, President, we have got a lot of interjections from some very upset government members. They do understand that this is a complete debacle where the reputation was trashed. I take the comments from Craig Phillips, the CEO, when he said in the annual report that it was a callous decision by the former Premier Daniel Andrews. What a disgrace. It was a hoax on the Victorian people, taking it to the election, then pulling the pin and walking away. Quite rightly people involved in the Commonwealth Games were absolutely scathing of Daniel Andrews, and so they should be. And the current Premier, who was the minister at the time, was up to her neck in it too. They walked away and left this massive bill, close to $600 million, for the taxpayer to pick up. Meanwhile I have got HeartKids, who want $100,000 to get support to help those kids, and I will be raising that in the next adjournment debate. There are all of these issues where families and children and Victorian businesses have just been thrown out by this dreadful government, who do not care. They waste and mismanage. The reputation was trashed by the government, and the Premier is up to her neck in the cover-ups. What she said –

Michael Galea interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: President, there is a lot of chatter from Mr Galea.

The PRESIDENT: Mr Galea! Mr McCracken is not in his place.

Georgie CROZIER: Thank you, President. I know that the government MPs are very upset about it because it is damaging. It is. It goes to the credibility of the Allan Labor government. It goes to the credibility of the Premier and her decision-making. She was the responsible minister at the time.

I will be saying more on this report, because there is so much to say. I think this needs to be spelled out to the Victorian public. With this opportunity today and in weeks to come I will be saying more around the Premier’s involvement, the former Premier’s involvement and the involvement of Minister Shing and others, who have now left this place. They have departed the joint.

David Davis interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Fled. Exactly, Mr Davis. It is the poor taxpayers who are picking it up, and they are paying the price.