Premier Jacinta Allan snubs invite to front Comm Games inquiry

Jacinta Allan has again refused to provide answers about her part in the botched Games saga, instead doubling down on previous evidence she gave saying “tremendous progress” had been made.

Jacinta Allan has again snubbed a formal invitation to front a parliamentary inquiry, refusing to provide answers about her involvement in the botched Commonwealth Games.

The Premier has also stood by the evidence she provided to a post-budget parliamentary committee in June, where she boasted about the “tremendous progress” the state was making to deliver the Games.

This was despite Ms Allan – who at the time was the Minister responsible for delivering the Games – being told personally about cost blowouts of up to $2bn as early as March.

Responding to the fresh evidence heard at the Victorian parliament’s inquiry into the handling of the Games’, Ms Allan on Tuesday insisted she did not mislead parliament in June.

“I stand by the evidence I gave at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee because it was about talking about the progress,” she said.

“We were asking officials to provide us with advice, but no final decisions had been made about the budget at that point in time.”

Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allan addresses the floor during at Parliament House. Picture: Getty Images

Ms Allan said she didn’t reveal information that the Commonwealth Games was under threat because “advice was still being updated”.

Despite her involvement in the Games fiasco, Ms Allan on Tuesday again refused to face the inquiry.

On Monday, the nine-member upper house committee passed a motion to formally invite Ms Allan – who is a lower house MP – to front up.

Lower house MPs can’t be compelled by upper house committees to give evidence.

“I’d say there are rules and processes around the appearance of members of parliament in each house of parliament,” Ms Allan said.

“As is standard practice for members of the Legislative Assembly … We don’t appear before committees in the other place and that holds true for members of the Legislative Council, to not appear before committees and hearings that are called by the Legislative Assembly.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan stood by the evidence she provided to a post-budget parliamentary committee in June. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

“This is a well established precedent and practice in the Parliament’s around the world, and I’ll continue to respect that process.”

Ms Allan said she followed “proper government decision making processes”.

“When you’re given advice, you need to consider all range of options around that advice that is proper government decision making processes, and we needed time to get that information and advice,” she said.

“It’s not one day you make a decision to do something and announce it the next day. You have to make sure that you’re getting the proper advice and proper information because remembering to, we were working on how to best.”

The Premier said “further work was requested” after advice the costs would blowout to $4.5m.

Ms Allan refused to put a date on when she was first aware the Games would soar to over $2.6bn but said “unacceptable” costs were coming through from March.

“There was submissions put together over that March, April period that contains numbers that were unacceptable to government,” she said.