Victorian Politics

[UMike]

Yea on the amount of Nepotism and crony's that must be paid off for every job taken on.

The inefficiency and waste of the public system is breathtaking.

 

[Knobby22]

Own goal.
To his credit, at least he cancelled it rather than get the state into even greater debt.

This has happened due to rushed decisions made on the run from poor advice. Very inept. An election losing decision.

The Commonwealth Games were never going to go near the budget set aside. I know because I worked on the previous games.

I would like to know who gave the advice?
The Public Service with due process or one of the big 4 accounting firms together with the Premier's staff? I would bet hands on it is the latter. Poor governance.

 

[JohnDe]

And the politicians expect voters to believe them when they say, 'we have nothing to fear from the Voice changing the constitution'.

The Commonwealth Games Federation says it was given eight hours notice of Victoria's move to pull out of the 2026 event, despite Daniel Andrews saying there had been multiple meetings about the decision.​

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"We were informed today that the Victorian government has walked away from their agreement to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games," a statement from the Federation read.​

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"This is hugely disappointing for the Commonwealth Sport Movement, for athletes around the Commonwealth and the Organising Committee who are well advanced in their planning and preparation.​

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"The reasons given are financial. The numbers quoted to us today of $6bn are 50 per cent more than those advised to the Organising Committee board at its meeting in June."​

Andrews' $6bn Games cost 'doubled in a month'
ELLIE DUDLEY

The Commonwealth Games Federation says it was given eight hours notice of Victoria's move to pull out of the 2026 event, despite Daniel Andrews saying there had been multiple meetings about the decision.

"We were informed today that the Victorian government has walked away from their agreement to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games," a statement from the Federation read.

"This is hugely disappointing for the Commonwealth Sport Movement, for athletes around the Commonwealth and the Organising Committee who are well advanced in their planning and preparation.
"The reasons given are financial. The numbers quoted to us today of $6bn are 50 per cent more than those advised to the Organising Committee board at its meeting in June."

The Federation said the Victorian government had elected to include more sports and an additional regional hub – against the advice of the Federation and Commonwealth Games Australia – which bolstered the additional expenses.

“We are disappointed that we were only given eight hours’ notice and that no consideration was given to discussing the situation to jointly find solutions prior to this decision being reached by the government," the statement read.

Daniel Andrews on Tuesday said conversations were ongoing about the costs of terminating the host agreement, but said meetings so far had been "cordial".

"We are going to let our team that are in London work through these issues and as I said, it has been cordial, it has been particularly productive and we have had a couple of meetings already," he said.

 

[mullokintyre]

Own goal.
To his credit, at least he cancelled it rather than get the state into even greater debt.

This has happened due to rushed decisions made on the run from poor advice. Very inept. An election losing decision.

The Commonwealth Games were never going to go near the budget set aside. I know because I worked on the previous games.

I would like to know who gave the advice?
The Public Service with due process or one of the big 4 accounting firms together with the Premier's staff? I would bet hands on it is the latter. Poor governance.

I have a suspicion that he was never going to hold the games.
The announcements about regional expenditure were all about the election.
Promises of new stadia, pools, cycling tracks, social housing, all commitments to regional areas to shore up regional seats like Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong etc.
Then once the election is done and dusted, some serious number crunching done that shows it was never going to work, but I suspect that the State Govt already knew that.
Mick

 

[JohnDe]

I have a suspicion that he was never going to hold the games.
The announcements about regional expenditure were all about the election.
Promises of new stadia, pools, cycling tracks, social housing, all commitments to regional areas to shore up regional seats like Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong etc.
Then once the election is done and dusted, some serious number crunching done that shows it was never going to work, but I suspect that the State Govt already knew that.
Mick

It would have happened if his mate, the Prime Minister, was gullible enough to open the Federal cheque book.

Someone can’t count.​

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Or, perhaps more importantly, didn’t want to do the proper sums in the run-up to a state election.​

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The Victorian goal of running the Commonwealth Games in five regional centres was a political strategy designed to maximise Labor’s vote in crucial seats.​

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The multi-city model never made budget sense and was never going to be delivered with a skinny, $2.6 billion allocation.​

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It was, to be frank, a dog.​

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The task was made significantly more difficult by the Albanese government’s refusal to find matching funds, which is what Victoria wanted.​

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(L-R) Chief Executive Officer of the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, Jeroen Weimar, Victorian Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Victorian Minister for Regional Development Harriet Shing. Picture: AAP

 

[Knobby22]

I have a suspicion that he was never going to hold the games.
The announcements about regional expenditure were all about the election.
Promises of new stadia, pools, cycling tracks, social housing, all commitments to regional areas to shore up regional seats like Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong etc.
Then once the election is done and dusted, some serious number crunching done that shows it was never going to work, but I suspect that the State Govt already knew that.
Mick

Probably partially that and also incompetence.

He will retire soon as he knows he is gone.

 

[mullokintyre]

Probably partially that and also incompetence.

He will retire soon as he knows he is gone.

As the article pointed out, Jacinta Allan, the anointed one to perform the spotted dress Kirner impersonations , is also the minister for sport, and thus responsible for the games.
That will not help her cause.
Mick

 

[Sean K]

Can't believe Albo refused to answer any questions on this at his presser this morning. Actually, I can, he needs to deflect this away as much as possible. A national embarrassment. He said he was only told about it this morning too, which is very, very odd for a major international event of national importance. Makes me wonder a little. For example, if all options were really on the table for still running it, it could have been shared by a couple of States, or offered to another State as a back up. Even offering half of it to NZ. Something sniffs about all this.

 

[sptrawler]

I can't get over that Daniels years ago, smugly paid out $1billion contract break fees, for cancelling a road (east/west link I think) now the States in huge debt, I hope he chokes on his smugness. Obviously spending other peoples money is his forte, absolute wank@r IMO.

 

[JohnDe]

I can't get over that Daniels years ago, smugly paid out $1billion contract break fees, for cancelling a road (east/west link I think) now the States in huge debt, I hope he chokes on his smugness. Obviously spending other peoples money is his forte, absolute wank@r IMO.

That was crazy, but the worst part was that the majority of voters didn’t punish him and his government for it.

I suppose that’s what happens when the majority of people are receiving some sort of handout or kickback.

 

[Knobby22]

I would like to know who gave the advice?
The Public Service with due process or one of the big 4 accounting firms together with the Premier's staff? I would bet hands on it is the latter. Poor governance.

An easy get...

Insiders say the initial work by government, Ernst & Young and the Commonwealth Games was inadequate with the uniquely decentralised event not having been properly accounted for.

 

[JohnDe]

An easy get...

Insiders say the initial work by government, Ernst & Young and the Commonwealth Games was inadequate with the uniquely decentralised event not having been properly accounted for.

The Victorian government office staff must have followed the story line of Utopia on the ABC, the only thing they did not account for was the anger and truth that Craig Phillips would unleash.

It was not until his phone rang at 6.30am on Tuesday that Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips learned of the “gross exaggeration” that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was about to make to justify walking away from hosting the 2026 games. ​

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What’s more Andrews claimed he had “looked at every conceivable option” to cut the soaring costs of the games, including holding more events in Melbourne rather than in regional cities as originally planned.​

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Phillips was stunned. He had never heard anything like a $6bn cost estimate. But he did realise that inflationary pressures were sending estimates “north” and as such, he had discussed with the Andrews government possible ways to reduce costs.​

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These included more Melbourne events rather than building temporary facilities in regional centres.​

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But those cost-cutting suggestions were ignored by government officials. Phillips received push-back from them whenever he suggested ways to cut costs. The officials even argued for more events to be included in the program. So when Andrews announced Victoria would not host the games, claiming hospitals and schools would have borne the brunt of the cost blowouts, a furious Phillips chose to deliver a brutal take-down of the Premier’s spin.​

Shock dawn phone call: sorry but your Commonwealth Games are off

It was not until his phone rang at 6.30am on Tuesday that Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips learned of the ‘gross exaggeration’ that Daniel Andrews was about to make.

It was not until his phone rang at 6.30am on Tuesday that Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips learned of the “gross exaggeration” that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was about to make to justify walking away from hosting the 2026 games. As recently as its board meeting in June, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee was told by the Andrews government that the estimated cost of hosting the games was still less than $3bn, similar to the original budget of $2.6bn. In the Victorian parliament as recently as June 8 the government reconfirmed the $2.6bn cost estimate for the games.

Yet in his press conference on Tuesday – just a month later – the Premier suddenly claimed that the cost of the games awarded to Victorian in April 2022 had ballooned from $2.6bn to between $6bn and $7bn.

What’s more Andrews claimed he had “looked at every conceivable option” to cut the soaring costs of the games, including holding more events in Melbourne rather than in regional cities as originally planned.

Phillips was stunned. He had never heard anything like a $6bn cost estimate. But he did realise that inflationary pressures were sending estimates “north” and as such, he had discussed with the Andrews government possible ways to reduce costs.

These included more Melbourne events rather than building temporary facilities in regional centres.

But those cost-cutting suggestions were ignored by government officials. Phillips received push-back from them whenever he suggested ways to cut costs. The officials even argued for more events to be included in the program. So when Andrews announced Victoria would not host the games, claiming hospitals and schools would have borne the brunt of the cost blowouts, a furious Phillips chose to deliver a brutal take-down of the Premier’s spin.

“The stated cost overrun, in our opinion, is a gross exaggeration and not reflective of the operational costs presented to the Victoria 2026 Organisation Committee as recently as June,” Phillips said. “Gold Coast was $1.2bn to run the Games. Birmingham was $1.8bn. I’m not sure how we get a leap of more than double that to run the Games. I find it a little hard to believe.

“Beyond this the Victorian government wilfully ignored recommendations to move events to purpose-built stadia in Melbourne and in fact remained wedded to proceeding with expensive temporary venues in regional Victoria.”

In a statement the Commonwealth Games Federation added: “Since awarding Victoria the Games, the government has made decisions to include more sports and an additional regional hub, and changed plans for venues, all of which have added considerable expense, often against the advice of the Commonwealth Games Federation and Commonwealth Games Australia.”

Games organisers had been left in the dark. The Andrews government gave no clue that it was about to pull the plug on the 2026 Games just 15 months after it agreed to host them. Even when he announced the decision, Andrews gave no details nor a clear timeline about the escalation of costs that he claims forced the government to abandon the games. He released no evidence to back up the claims of a cost blowout. What’s more the Premier gave no explanation as to how his government could have got their financial estimates so drastically wrong in such a short space of time.

He refused to say how much the state had already spent to prepare for the games and refused to comment on the potentially eye-watering amount that taxpayers may have to fork out for breaking the contract to host the event.

Above all, Andrews refused to admit any blame for one of the most astonishing episodes of mismanagement of a global sporting event.

No apologies were forthcoming for the athletes or for the fans or for the five regional centres that were due to host the events.

Instead, Andrews dismissed the Commonwealth Games as merely “a 12-day sporting event” and cast himself as a saviour of schools and hospitals by choosing to abandon the event and the accompanying debt. It was hard to imagine that this was the same Premier who chased so hard for the right to secure the games, sending former tourism and trade minister Martin Pakula to Europe in March 2022 to lock in Victoria as host of the 2026 games.

Andrews saw the global event as a potential vote-winner and further confirmation of Victoria’s reputation as Australia’s sporting capital. He proposed that the games be held in five regional centres, an unusual move that would add significantly to the cost of holding the event but one that was designed to maximise Labor’s vote in those regions.

Labor holds most of the seats in the regional centres where the events were to be held: Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Gippsland.

When Victoria was awarded the games in April 2022, Andrews described it as a “great honour” that would boost jobs, hospitality and the economy. He predicted that the games would contribute more than $3bn to Victoria’s economy, creating more than 600 full-time equivalent jobs before the games, 3900 jobs during the games and a further 3,000 jobs beyond the closing ceremony.

Andrews’ enthusiasm for hosting the games was likely undermined by the growing criticism he has received over mismanagement of the state’s finances. Victoria’s net debt is forecast to jump from $135.4bn this financial year to $171.4bn by 2027, the highest of any state.

Yet the Premier’s sudden decision to walk away from the games has delivered a sharp blow to Victoria’s reputation as the nation’s sporting capital – the very thing that Andrews wanted the games to promote.

“This is a terrible embarrassment to Australian sport,” said John Coates, vice-president of the International Olympic Committee and former long-time president of the Australian Olympic Committee.

“We shouldn’t be bidding for events unless we know that we have the necessary commitments and support of the various governments. I haven’t studied the financials for it, but I was always sceptical about the viability of a regional games … how the government could have got it so wrong – I don’t know.”

Phillips says he was misled by the Premier and by his government about their commitment to host such a major sporting event.

“We thought we had a willing host in Victoria but obviously that wasn’t the case,” he said.

“I would be very careful if I was an international sporting body coming in and doing business in this state in the future.”

CAMERON STEWART CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

 

[sptrawler]

Well this fiasco, goes a long way to explaining Victoria's financial mess, a one man band Govt works great, untill the boss is shown to be a sandwich short of a picnic. Lol
Are they really expecting people to believe that they weren't aware of the financial implications ages ago, I mean really? It isn't as though Victoria is a start up business, with no historical data and minimal staff. Lol

 

[mullokintyre]

Well this fiasco, goes a long way to explaining Victoria's financial mess, a one man band Govt works great, untill the boss is shown to be a sandwich short of a picnic. Lol
Are they really expecting people to believe that they weren't aware of the financial implications ages ago, I mean really? It isn't as though Victoria is a start up business, with no historical data and minimal staff. Lol

I can see some of the advertising execs licking their lips as they start to dream up the ad campaign for the next Victorian election.
They have been given some massive amounts of material to work with.
I assume that the tiddlers in opposition will bring on a well deserved no confidence motion in Dan Andrews, but it will go nowhere, unless some of his enemies in the party decide to knife him.
Mick

 

[JohnDe]

I can see some of the advertising execs licking their lips as they start to dream up the ad campaign for the next Victorian election.
They have been given some massive amounts of material to work with.
I assume that the tiddlers in opposition will bring on a well deserved no confidence motion in Dan Andrews, but it will go nowhere, unless some of his enemies in the party decide to knife him.
Mick

He has strong backing from the unions.

 

[UMike]

But those cost-cutting suggestions were ignored by government officials. Phillips received push-back from them whenever he suggested ways to cut costs. The officials even argued for more events to be included in the program.

Of course. They never planned for it to actually take place once they won the election.
It then became an exercise in how they could destabilize it.

 

[UMike]

He has strong backing from the unions.

Of course. They are the ones benefitting from Government excesses.

 

[sptrawler]

It certainly sounds like the whole games thing, was a political ploy, it will be interesting to see if Victoria get's sued yet again over breaking contracts. ?
It certainly makes Australia look like a Country full of jerks, not long on the heels of the last time, over the French subs fiasco..?

‘Astounded’: Julie Bishop hits out at decision to scrap Commonwealth Games

“Is this premier, from one of the wealthiest countries on the planet, signalling the death knell of this sporting contest?” the ex-foreign minister asked.

www.theage.com.au

London: The organisers of the Commonwealth Games say the Victorian government repeatedly assured them it could meet the costs of hosting the event spread across several regional centres and gave no prior warnings before withdrawing from its contract.

Katie Sadleir, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, said the state’s withdrawal as host of the 2026 Games was devastating for the event. The federation was now considering legal avenues after Premier Daniel Andrews withdrew from a contract signed in February last year.
Andrews blindsided the sporting world on Tuesday when he said the state was no longer prepared to hold the 12-day event in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Gippsland and Shepparton because of cost overruns, throwing its staging into doubt.

Sadleir questioned whether the costs had risen as much as the $4 to $5 billion increase claimed by Victorian government officials yesterday, as the federation was told at a meeting in April that a projected rise in expenditure was roughly half that amount.

Andrews said on Tuesday the 2026 Games would have an estimated cost of more than $6 billion.

Sadleir said that during the past year, the body had repeatedly questioned whether the Victorian organising committee had thought through the dispersed model for staging the Games, including when they increased the number of regional hubs from the original proposal.
“When Victoria came to us, and it’s important to stress that they came to us, they said they saw an opportunity to employ a dispersed model, using multiple cities across the state, to drive economic growth in their region,” Sadleir said.

“They assured us that they had the money they needed. So to hear yesterday that it’s not the case, that the government has decided it was too expensive, was a surprise.”
Sadleir said Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips was correct in his statement earlier on Tuesday that Victoria had wilfully ignored recommendations that could have reduced costs, such as using existing facilities in Melbourne.

“We had previously gone back to them several times to say, ‘are you sure?’ and were assured,” she said.
She said the federation was blindsided by the decision, having been contacted by representatives of the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet on Monday (UK time), who informed her they were in town and hopeful of securing an afternoon meeting. She said she was led to believe it was a friendly “meet and greet” at the federation’s offices in Westminster.

“Suddenly, we were presented with a fait accompli,” Sadleir said. “They had decided the Games were no longer viable, and they were planning to make an announcement at 9am their time. So, they gave us eight hours’ notice.”
Sadleir said the federation had entered into a contract with Victoria to deliver the Games and would be seeking suitable compensation because the Andrews government was “defaulting on that contract”.

“There are a series of clauses that articulate the kind of cash flows that would have happened if the Games had gone on,” she said. “We are sitting down to look at options to come to a resolution that we will be happy with.”

 

[JohnDe]

There's a poll on the Australian website, about 50/50 at the moment -

 

[sptrawler]

There's a poll on the Australian website, about 50/50 at the moment -

View attachment 159756

I would rather see the question, should Victoria have offered to hold the Commonwealth games in the first place, when they couldn't afford it?

The way it is worded, is asking "even though it was dumb to offer to hold the Commonwealth games".
Do you think we should bite the bullet and blow the money, or just admit we are dumb. ?

ATM all it is showing is, there are a lot of dumb people, who are dumb enough to answer the dumb question, as presented.
Maybe Dan reads the audience well after all.