‘We’ve got this covered,’ Victoria told Canberra before Commonwealth Games collapsed

The Victorian government told Canberra it didn’t need additional funding to secure the Commonwealth Games and made no formal request for a federal government contribution towards costs before it walked away from the event.

This is despite Victoria’s own business case assuming the federal government would provide up to half the total capital expenditure required to stage the Games across multiple regional centres.

Former federal sports minister, Senator Richard Colbeck, told this masthead of a telephone conversation he had with Victorian counterpart Martin Pakula on the day the Andrews government announced it had entered into an exclusive arrangement with the Commonwealth Games Federation to bid for the 2026 Games.

Colbeck said that on February 16 last year, when Pakula called to inform him that Victoria was bidding for the Games, he assured him that Victoria did not need any money from the federal government.

“The context was, ‘We have got this covered, we don’t need anything from you’,” Colbeck said. “I have got to say, dealing with a state government, that was a very rare conversation.”

This masthead put Colbeck’s version of events to Pakula, but he declined to comment on the conversation.

The revelations raise further questions about Victoria’s commitment to a hastily planned, multibillion-dollar venture that has left the state with no Games and a $380 million compensation bill.

A source familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss it publicly, said that after the telephone call, officials from the federal Office for Sport repeatedly contacted Victorian departmental officials seeking details about the state government’s plans.

“We had real difficulty getting much information out of Victoria,” Colbeck said.

Victoria last month abandoned the event after its estimated costs blew out to $7 billion – more than double the estimate contained in last year’s business case.

Premier Daniel Andrews said no financial contribution from the Commonwealth would have made the Games cost-effective.

“Nothing the federal government did or didn’t do was material to this,” Andrews said on Tuesday. “Nothing the Commonwealth government did or didn’t do would have got that cost down where the benefits outweighed the costs.”

The government’s Commonwealth Games business case, prepared by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and external consultants in January 2022, assumed a federal government contribution of between $205 million and $212 million – or 50 per cent of capital expenditure on sports venues.

Victoria secured the Games on April 12, 2022, and terminated the contract on July 18 this year. A spokeswoman for the federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King, said cost-sharing arrangements were still being discussed at the time the Games were cancelled.

“The Victorian government had only proposed a preliminary program of works to support the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games,” the spokeswoman said on Tuesday. “This was still actively being considered by the Australian government prior to the Games’ bid cancellation by the Victorian government.”

King has previously said that the federal government’s interest in the Games was centred on proposed athlete villages that could later be repurposed for affordable housing.

A Victorian government source, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the state was seeking an in-principle agreement for Canberra to fund 50 per cent of some infrastructure costs.

IllustrationCredit: Matt Golding

Victorian opposition spokesman for major projects David Southwick said the absence of a formal federal funding request was inexplicable.

“This shows the Andrews government was never serious about delivering the Commonwealth Games, and it was all about winning votes in regional Victoria at last year’s election,” he said.

“There’s no logical reason why the Andrews government wouldn’t seek federal funding for a major national sporting event. Had it done so, it could have helped save hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money and avoided reputational damage to Victoria.”

Victoria did not make a request to Canberra for Games funding before last year’s federal budget was handed down in March 2022, Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ first budget in October last year, or this year’s federal budget, handed down in May.

This masthead has previously revealed that by April, senior Victorian government officials knew that projected cost of the Games had ballooned. The Office of the Commonwealth Games, the government department responsible for overseeing the planning and delivery of the event, submitted an updated $5 billion games budget to Treasury ahead of the May state budget.

No new funding for the Games was announced in the state budget. The only reference to the Commonwealth Games in the federal budget is a note under a section titled “statement of risks”.

This relates to a written guarantee provided by the previous federal government to the Commonwealth Games Federation to provide immigration, security and other government services required to bring athletes and officials to Australia.

“The Australian government has provided guarantees for the Victorian government’s hosting of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in regional Victoria,” the note read. “The financial implications of this support are not quantifiable at this time.”

Victoria’s unilateral approach towards securing the Games is in stark contrast to the protracted discussions Queensland’s Labor government had with the federal government in the lead-up to and months after Brisbane’s successful 2032 Olympic bid.

On the day Brisbane was confirmed as host city, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and senior International Olympic Committee officials said one of the strengths of the bid was the support it had from all levels of government.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced in February that his government would contribute $3.4 billion towards the estimated $7 billion cost of preparing for and staging the Olympics.

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