Western Victoria Region
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:44): (384) My constituency question is for the Minister for Local Government and concerns the Andrews Labor government’s embarrassing Commonwealth Games fiasco. Minister, it has come out in recent days that council CEOs were required to sign non-disclosure agreements – aka gagging orders – which prevented them from disclosing relevant information to their councillors. Given that ministers, including the former Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, answering my questions at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee made great play of the support for the games from local councils and mayors, this news was surprising. Councils were obviously kept in the dark, like the rest of us. We understand from the Senate inquiry that the city of Ballarat and Bendigo CEOs had to sign these agreements. My question, Minister, is: how many other council CEOs and staff were subject to non-disclosure agreements relating to the Commonwealth Games?