Major firm lashed over ‘absolute cop out’ amid probe into Commonwealth Games cancellation

Two partners of a big-four firm have been lashed for their “rubbish” answers during a probe into the bungled 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Senior partners at Big Four consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) have been accused of being in breach of Senate rules after the bulk of questions remained unanswered during a government probe into Victoria’s cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Facing the committee, senior EY partners Dean Yates and Leigh Walker maintained they were confident at the $2.6bn projections they gave the state government in early 2022.

But by June 2023, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he had to cancel the games following cost blowouts of more than $5bn.

Tensions were inflamed during the senate probe when Mr Yates and Ms Walker refused to answer questions related to the figures, citing “confidentiality” to the Victorian cabinet and “professional standards”.

The responses from Ernst & Young (EY) drew immense criticism from the Senate committee. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Aaron Francis

In one tense moment, Senator Sarah Henderson questioned why EY stated the federal government would give the state government $205m as a worst case and $215m as a best-case scenario to host the games.

“You just take that as face value. You don’t query it, you don’t question it?” she said.

“What basis was that assumption made?”

When Ms Walker said they couldn’t answer the question because doing so could reveal confidential information, which Senator Henderson lashed as “rubbish”.

“With the greatest respect, that is just an absolute cop out,” she said.

“On what basis did you put such a large amount of money in the business case? You surely don’t just take a figure from the department and say thank you very much.”

Further attempts to extract information from Mr Yates and Ms Walker were stymied, with the pair citing prohibitions due to confidentiality and professional standards.

Tensions came to a blow with Senator Henderson stating the pair were “in breach of the rules of the Senate“.

“This is obviously a very serious matter. We have EY blatantly breaching rules of the Senate in answering questions”.

Ms Walker then suggested the committee “consider in a private session whether it will insist upon an answer,” to which chair Matt Canavan accepted.

No review into former numbers

Questions around figures put forward by EY were repeatedly questioned during the inquiry, Ms Walker maintained multiple times that they “stand by the quality of our work”.

Senator Canavan questioned why the firm wasn’t prepared to undertake a review after their figures were “out by a factor of six or seven”.

Flabbergasted, he said: “You’ve done no review at all of why that might be the case.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to know if you’ve made mistakes?

“How is that consistent with your professional standards not to at least inquiry into what potentially went wrong.”

Despite multiple attempts, his questions were met with the response of: “We stand by the quality of our work”.

Her comments come amid a federal inquiry into Australia’s preparedness to host future Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Senator Matt Canavan appeared baffled at the answers given by EY partners, Dean Yates and Leigh Walker. Picture NCA NewsWire/ Aaron Francis

‘Appalling disrespect to the committee’

Earlier in the inquiry, the consultants were also criticised for their “appalling disrespect” towards the inquiry by Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.

“(As senior members, you’re) saying you’re not prepared to be public about what you were paid to actually develop a business case that has seen Victorian taxpayers fork out hundreds of millions of dollars for non-existing Commonwealth Games,” she said, launching a furious spray.

“(This) is an appalling disrespect to this committee, (and) Australian taxpayers and I would say professional standards. Everyone is watching KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY to see if you actually do take your professional standards seriously.

“So as a member of the senate inquiry, I’m asking you what you were paid, what EY was paid for the cost analysis of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.”

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie unleashed a furious spray at two Ernst & Young partners afters they refused to answer how much they were paid for providing consulting work to the Victorian government. Picture NCA NewsWire/ Aaron Francis

Senate committee member Richard Colbeck also said he wasn’t convinced that the “contract value is something that should be a confidential matter”.

“It’s a matter of disclosure of public expenditure of public funds,” he said.

“You’re entitled (to take a question on notice) but I don’t accept that it is a matter of confidentiality because in our Commonwealth system, reporting of contract values is part of the public process of managing the expenditure of public funds.”

EY officials claimed they couldn’t answer the questions due to a confidentiality agreement. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ James Gourley

The terse moment came after Senator McKenzie asked Mr Yates and Ms Walker to account for the $2.6bn figure for the Games cited in the May state budget before Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said costs had increased by more than $5bn.

“What economic indicators changed … to see a blowout particularly in construction costs to the levels seen in the figures that have been maintained publicly. Let’s go macro,” Senator McKenzie asked.

Ms Walker said he wasn’t at liberty to answer the question and claimed “breaching confidentiality with a government contract is of heightened sensitivity”.

Her comment was in reference to the PwC tax leak scandal after a former senior partner was found to have shared confidential government information with colleagues.

Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) officials also spoke at Monday’s inquiry after they publicly lashed the Victorian government’s decision to cancel the 2026 Games.

The Victorian government has since confirmed a $380m settlement with the Commonwealth Games Federation for pulling out of its hosting duties.

CGA chief executive officer Craig Phillips said the board had been alerted to budget pressures from April, about three months before the Victorian government cancelled the Games on July 18.

Commonwealth Games boss Craig Phillips has been critical of Victoria’s cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Monique Harmer

Although the board presented recommendations to lower costs, it had not received any feedback prior to the scrapping of the sporting event.

Mr Phillips said a key reason behind the soaring costs was the multi-hub regional model, which “was more expensive to host than traditional models”.

Asked about the cost of an average Games, CGA officials quoted the $1.5bn price tag associated with the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games; however, Mr Phillips said the figures did differ.

“It will come very much to what the Games will actually look like,” said Mr Phillips, citing factors like the number of sports, the existing venues and whether the state will build athlete villages.

“One of the key drivers for them at the time and I think remained was the need for housing in regional Victoria.”

Mr Phillips also confirmed that he had not received any correspondence from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or federal Sports Minister Annika Wells since the Games were officially cancelled.