{"id":142814,"date":"2023-09-08T08:51:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T08:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebritywshow.com\/?p=142814"},"modified":"2023-09-08T08:51:43","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T08:51:43","slug":"a-games-anywhere-is-better-than-no-games-victorias-call-could-move-it-to-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebritywshow.com\/lifestyle\/a-games-anywhere-is-better-than-no-games-victorias-call-could-move-it-to-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Games anywhere is better than no Games\u2019: Victoria\u2019s call could move it to 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Kieran Rooney<\/span> and Rachel Eddie<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Save articles for later<\/h3>\n

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n

The Commonwealth Games was already facing a time crunch for 2026 before Victoria detonated its multi-city regional event. Now, it could be delayed until 2027 and scaled down as multiple inquiries grapple with how the event spun out of control.<\/p>\n

A Senate committee probing the short-lived Games and hundreds of pages of formerly confidential documents published by the Andrews government have laid out the story of how a worthy objective to boost tourism, housing and infrastructure in regional communities became too big to handle.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips speaking at an earlier Senate hearing.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eamon Gallagher<\/cite><\/p>\n

As Eddie McGuire, Visit Victoria board member and sports and television personality put it in an interview with The Age<\/i>: \u201cIt was, on paper, a good idea, until it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

A simple idea was hampered by \u201cinexplicable\u201d decisions from the government, one disillusioned witness, a security adviser to the Games, explained to senators on Friday.<\/p>\n

The inquiry heard confirmation for the first time that Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan, then the minister for delivering the Games, sought $1.3 billion worth of federal funding in a March 2 letter to the federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King.<\/p>\n

That request was still being considered when the Games were cancelled.<\/p>\n

Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips also confirmed the international body in charge of the event may move it into 2027 and scale it down as it searches for a host city to replace Victoria.<\/p>\n

But organisers are yet to settle on a substitute model and have not met with the federal government or any other Australian state about hosting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to rush to a \u2018no\u2019,\u201d Phillips told the inquiry on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the solution, a Games anywhere is better than no Games \u2026 It may be a scaled-back version of the Games, given the time we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillips said organisers would have to dispel the perception that a new host would have to find more than $6 billion, after Premier Daniel Andrews claimed the cost of Victoria\u2019s model had escalated from $2.6 billion to up to $7 billion. The state agreed to a $380 million compensation package with the Commonwealth Games Federation.<\/p>\n

Neil Fergus, an adviser to the Commonwealth Games Federation, who sat on the 2026 security working group, gave evidence on Friday that Victoria pursued some \u201cvery odd\u201d choices before detonating the event in July.<\/p>\n

Money was going to be sunk into an expensive but temporary velodrome for women\u2019s cycling in Bendigo, and hosting women\u2019s cricket in Gippsland was \u201ca very odd one\u201d given it was one of the most sought-after competitions in Birmingham, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion of putting in a temporary [pool] and ripping it up in Armstrong Creek, to me, was somewhat inexplicable,\u201d Fergus said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Happier times, when work was beginning in Geelong.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I raised questions about some of the venues, we were told, \u2018well, it\u2019s coming from the Victorian government\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was impressed with the intellect of the people [on the organising committee]. There were some really competent people, but it was also fairly evident that there wasn\u2019t a lot of events experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victorian Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said the state government showed arrogance by dismissing concerns Fergus raised about the cost of chosen venues.<\/p>\n

The state government defended the experience of the committee, which included the former chief executive of the Men\u2019s ICC T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisions around the mix of sports and proposed locations for events during the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games were made in partnership with Commonwealth Games Australia and the Commonwealth Games Federation, with focus on the lasting legacy for regional Victoria,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

Victorian Labor is still continuing with $2 billion worth of legacy infrastructure, including an aquatic centre in Armstrong Creek, in Geelong\u2019s south.<\/p>\n

Fergus, who has been involved in most Olympic and Commonwealth Games since Sydney 2000, said dispersing villages to spread the benefit was a worthy aim that had been achieved last year in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announcing he was cancelling the 2026 Commonwealth Games..<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AAP<\/cite><\/p>\n

\u201cSo there was, and that\u2019s not the first time, an intention to spread the benefits. It just needs to be measured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

McGuire, who sits on the board of the state\u2019s major tourism and events agency, Visit Victoria, said the push for the Commonwealth Games \u201cmade a lot of sense\u201d as a lead in to the Brisbane 2032 Olympics when it first emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale behind having it made total sense. As usual, Victoria was ahead of everybody on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to go from having an event in Melbourne to the rural areas also makes perfect sense, given the flight to the country that we experienced during COVID.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what we also found is there was a lack of infrastructure, and this was a good idea to kill two birds with one stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Andrews has been at pains to point out, McGuire said material and labour shortages were proving insurmountable for anyone trying to build in Australia.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Premier Daniel Andrews and former major events minister Martin Pakula last year.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Luis Enrique Ascui<\/cite><\/p>\n

Melbourne\u2019s 2006 Games had raised the bar and Andrews was keen to deliver another event \u201clike no other\u201d to stand out on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Once announced, 2026 organisers were inundated with requests from regions that wanted to cash in.<\/p>\n

Bass Coast Shire Council was on the cusp of securing a deal with Team Scotland and Wales to host the athletes in the region.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Senate hearing last month, former major events minister Martin Pakula said there was a \u201cgreat hunger\u201d for the benefits of the Games to be spread and dispersed across the state when first announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember very clearly having people come to me and say \u2018why not Mildura, why not Shepparton, why not Warrnambool and why not Nagambie\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

While the government rejects there was a political overlay that defined some decisions for Games locations and venues, convenient changes to the lineup were made in the lead-up to last year\u2019s state election.<\/p>\n

Aquatics and gymnastics were moved from a safe Labor seat to a marginal one. Rugby sevens and women\u2019s cricket were proposed for Gippsland, where votes were crucial to maintain two upper house Labor MPs.<\/p>\n

Labor was also keen to keep the Coalition out of Shepparton, which was not part of the original three-city model.<\/p>\n

With eight hours\u2019 notice of the cancellation in July, a frustrated Commonwealth Games Federation said the state government had decided to \u201cinclude more sports and an additional regional hub, and changed plans for venues, all of which have added considerable expense, often against the advice of [Games officials].\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the Games grew out of control, business case documents show consultants and bureaucrats were under pressure to work under tight deadlines and unable to talk outside of a small group of those who knew the bid was underway.<\/p>\n

The Age<\/i> this week revealed that consultants DHW Ludus, working on the facilities\u2019 assessment in January 2022, had seven days to analyse the needs and capital costs of three sports belatedly added to the lineup.<\/p>\n

The Games business case, by lead consultants Ernst & Young, warned the information they had to work with was limited given timing and secrecy provisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime has not permitted a more robust \u2018bottom up\u2019 approach as key elements of Games planning are not yet understood,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n

By July 2023, the government estimated transport and security costs were more than double those predicted in the original document and blamed the invasion of Ukraine, COVID-19 and interest rate rises.<\/p>\n

The government has refused to publicly release the workings behind the updated July 2023 costs, which will be provided to the Victorian Auditor-General\u2019s Office. Victoria\u2019s upper house has also launched an inquiry.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This mob of eastern grey kangaroos was being progressively fenced off from the future Commonwealth Games village in Bendigo.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Joe Armao<\/cite><\/p>\n

The government began exploring a \u201cday out\u201d model where many spectators stayed in Melbourne, with additional train services. But three government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said V\/Line\u2019s network was still not built for this demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorwell is a bloody long way away from Bendigo. We\u2019re not going to run a world whereby we\u2019re going to go to rugby sevens in Morwell in the morning and then pop over to watch a bit of netball in the afternoon in Bendigo,\u201d Jeroen Weimar, the government-appointed chief executive of the organising committee said at an event in February.<\/p>\n

Spectators would be unable to park at sports events, meaning thousands of buses would be needed within the Games hubs and accommodation centres.<\/p>\n

Caravan Industry Victoria chief executive Daniel Sahlberg claimed the government had assumed the industry would provide 10,000 caravans to house Games staff and volunteers free of charge, although the government denies there was ever a formal request.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccommodation became a big question mark,\u201d one former government employee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t ask a motel in Ballarat to find room for another 100 people, but we were increasingly finding accommodation in surrounding areas [which] just compounded the cost of transport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the day\u2019s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. <\/i><\/b>Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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