How Victoria ‘wasted’ $600m on Commonwealth Games

VICTORIA’S COMMONWEALTH GAMES BUDGET BLOWOUT:

* January 28, 2022 – Original business case estimates cost between $2.5 billion and $3 billion

* February 16, 2022 – Victoria makes an exclusive bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games

* April 12, 2022 – Victoria awarded the Games, to be hosted across regional centres

* May 3, 2022 – Victorian state budget outlines $2.6 billion to be spent delivering the Games

* November 26, 2022 – Labor wins state election in a landslide

* February 22, 2023 – Games organising committee formally requests a $722 million boost to its original $1 billion budget

* March 2023 – Then-Games delivery minister and now-Premier Jacinta Allan briefed on revised budget estimates by the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions

* April 4, 2023 – Organising committee chair Peggy O’Neal writes to Ms Allan to highlight critical timelines for decision-making

* April 2023 – The government, in principle, approves a revised gross target budget of $3.6 billion

* May 9, 2023 – No money set aside for Games in the federal budget

* May 23, 2023 – The revised budget of $3.6 billion updated in the state budget but not shown separately in budget papers because it formed part of a “general contingency allowance”

* June 2023 – The department provides another submission to Ms Allan seeking $4.2 billion

* June 13, 2023 – Ms Allan tells a parliamentary budget estimates committee Victoria is making “tremendous progress” on the event

* June 14, 2023 – Law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler hired as the Victorian government seeks legal advice

* June 30, 2023 – Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule arranges a meeting in London with the Commonwealth Games Federation’s chief executive and president

* July 14, 2023 – The department’s $4.2 billion budget submission rejected

* July 15, 2023 – Mr Moule flies from Melbourne for London

* July 17, 2023 – Victorian cabinet signs off on cancelling the Games

* July 18, 2023 – Then-premier Daniel Andrews announces the decision, citing estimated costs blowing out to between $6 billion to $7 billion

* August 2, 2023 – Auditor-General Andrew Greaves writes to the opposition to confirm he will examine the costs associated with securing, planning for and exiting the Games

* August 2, 2023 – Victoria’s upper house votes to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the fiasco

* August 19, 2023 – Victorian government agrees to pay Games bodies $380 million in compensation to terminate its contract and releases the revised business case costing of $6.9 billion

* March 20, 2024 – Victoria’s auditor-general reveals the decision to bid for, plan and withdraw from the Games cost state taxpayers more than $589 million with “no discernible benefit”. His report finds the cost estimate of $6.9 billion was “overstated and not transparent”