Victoria has officially relinquished its hosting rights for the 2026 Commonwealth Games citing a cost blowout as the reason why. In the bombshell announcement yesterday, Premier Dan Andrews revealed the original price tag of $2.6 billion had expanded between $6 to 7 billion and the Victorian Government cannot afford it.
“I’ve made a lot of tough decisions. This is not one of them. Frankly, 6 to $7 billion for a 12-day sporting event. We are not doing that. That does not represent value for money. That is all cost and no benefit.”
Victoria Premier Dan Andrews
In this episode, former Briefing co-host and state political editor for The Age newspaper in Melbourne Annika Smethurst joins us to discuss the fiasco.
“It came as a huge surprise to the organizing committee, the Commonwealth Games Federation, who were given about eight hour’s notice. Local people who were working on the Commonwealth Games were actually only told, you know, sort of minutes before the announcement. So it really was a huge shock.”
Questions are being raised over the accuracy of the blowout cost as it is revealed Paris’ 2024 Olympic Games are expected to cost the French taxpayer three billion euros, equalling five billion Australian dollars.
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