Jacinta Allan was giving Commonwealth Games budget assurances until 11th hour

Jacinta Allan was assuring Commonwealth Games Australia as late as April that the budget would be available to enable Victoria to deliver the 2026 Games, despite concern over escalating costs.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Jacinta Allan was assuring Commonwealth Games Australia as late as April that the budget would be available to enable Victoria to deliver the 2026 Games, despite concern over escalating costs.

CGA chief executive Craig Phillips told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the 2026 Games bid that his organisation had discussed cost-saving measures with the now Premier in April, but been assured sufficient funding would be provided to enable the event to proceed.

“As I recall I think … CGA had a conversation with Minister Allan back around the time we were looking at some of those budget pressures in April, and obviously proposed some of the things … around cost savings, but no, we got the impression that she was very confident the budget would be available,” Mr Phillips said of assurances given to him by Ms Allan, who was then the minister responsible for delivering the Games.

On July 18, 15 months after agreeing to host the Games, the Victorian government announced the event would not be going ahead, claiming costs had ballooned from an estimated $2.6bn to “$6bn to $7bn”.

Mr Phillips said he was never concerned the government would not provide the funding necessary to host the Games. “We knew there was budget pressure, and we were involved in some of those discussions through April into May … but no, I think we were always confident that the government would meet the requirements,” he said.

Asked whether he had been “blindsided” when it became clear the government would not provide the funding, Mr Phillips said: “It was surprising.”

He confirmed the Victorian government was yet to pay an agreed $380m in compensation to the Commonwealth Games Federation because of concerns from the federation about a potential UK tax liability.

Then Commonweath Games organising committee CEO Jeroen Weimar and then minister for Commonwealth Games delivery, Jacinta Allan, making an announcement regarding a hockey facility upgrade in the Geelong suburb of Corio in 2022. Picture: Alan Barber

Event industry veteran Simon Thewlis told the inquiry that “This is a story of astonishing arrogance and hubris that has seen Victoria going from having once been a leading event state to one responsible for the biggest debacle in the history of events in Australia”.

“We suffered by the lack of support and lack of listening during Covid, and we suffer now because a great event … was bailed on. At the end of the day, a bunch of people with little to no real operational major event experience tried to organise one of the largest events our country has seen. They thought they knew better than the event industry.

“The Victorian government owes the event industry an apology.”

The CEO of Volleyball Australia, Andrew Dee, told the inquiry Victoria would be a “place to avoid” for future sporting events after the government scrapped the beach volleyball world championships lead-in tournament and then cancelled the Games.