Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Commonwealth Games

Sam GROTH (Nepean) (19:10): (255) My adjournment tonight is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for the Premier to produce the financial analysis in full that estimated the Commonwealth Games would cost between $5 billion and $7 billion, as he has claimed since announcing the games’ cancellation. Legacy is an important word and one that we have heard a lot of from the government throughout its time over there on the government benches, but recently we have seen something new for any Victorian government: abruptly cancelling a major international event and destroying much of the certainty around the billions of dollars of legacy projects that would have come with it. And why? Well, because in the space of two months the cost of the Commonwealth Games exploded from $2.6 billion to $6 billion, and then in the next sentence it was $7 billion. Only in Victoria could the Premier in one sentence rack up another billion dollars in costs.

Those legacy projects were not just about adding to the glitz and glam of a major sporting event. They were about providing the bedrock for sustaining community sport across Victoria for generations to come and alleviating one of the worst housing crises that this state has ever seen. Just some of the projects that were supposed to be delivered and are now obviously questionable were millions in investments for Geelong; a new swimming pool at Armstrong Creek and an aquatic centre – 25 metres by 25 metres, a very, very odd project to be committing to for legacy; an artistic gymnastics, weightlifting and para powerlifting venue at Waurn Ponds; new hockey pitches at Stead Park, which we have already heard about winding back from two pitches to one and an upgrade to a facility instead of a rebuild; and investments in the Geelong games village, which we know is up in the air. We heard the member for Caulfield mention that a couple of little holes were dug; that does not seem like much of a legacy project. Major investments in Ballarat include upgrading Eureka Stadium but no events platform, which is what they really need, and out there a housing development that will not go ahead because of contaminated soil. In East Gippsland, as we have heard from the member for Morwell, there is a need for social and affordable housing and a refurbishing of the facilities at their indoor sports stadium in Traralgon.

All of this, though, we were told was funded in the budget back in May and would be delivered in time for the games in 2026. Actually most of this was meant to be delivered in 2025 so they could provide test events at these venues. All that apparent certainty has collapsed under this government’s incompetence – the Premier’s incompetence and the Deputy Premier’s incompetence. This government’s budget – and I will borrow a term coined by the Premier himself – is not worth the paper it is written on. As for the extra $4.4 billion in cost blowouts, I hope we get to see them, but I have very, very little faith that this government, that this Premier, that the Deputy Premier and that anyone who has touched the Commonwealth Games will ever deliver the full figures that these blowouts are based on.