Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Deputy Premier

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (15:12): I rise to acknowledge the utter incompetence of the Deputy Premier in her role as the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure and Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop and, most notoriously, as the former Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery. The Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery – more like the minister for Commonwealth Games failure. Every single project the Deputy Premier has had her fingerprints on has experienced a massive cost blowout, the total of which is many billions of dollars. The decision of Jacinta Allan and her mentor Daniel Andrews to cancel the 2026 Commonwealth Games wins the gold medals for betrayal, deceit and incompetent governance.

We now know that Ms Allan was aware as far back as April that the cost of running the 2026 games was at least double the $2.6 billion indicated in the May budget, proving that she misled every Victorian in the budget papers. What we do not know is the detail of Ms Allan’s claim that the 2026 Commonwealth Games will cost up to $7 billion or the cost to Victorian taxpayers of her decision to rip up the contract between the government and the Commonwealth Games Federation.

Of course the Deputy Premier has a history of incompetence regarding major projects, with the West Gate Tunnel Project more than $4 billion over budget and at least six years behind schedule, not to mention the disastrous Suburban Rail Loop project, which has blown out to cost Victorians up to $300 billion. Ms Allan needs to apologise to all Victorians for her incompetence, and she needs to resign.