Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Commonwealth Games

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:48): (1044) This morning it was reported that Glasgow will host the Commonwealth Games and it will cost as little as $300 million, yet Victoria paid almost double that to cancel it. To rub salt in the wound, most of that $300 million is coming from Victoria. How devastating that Victorian taxpayers will have to foot the bill for a Commonwealth Games that is going to be hosted on the other side of the world and will not have any of the benefit. This is a classic example of Labor’s complete disregard for the taxpayer and their money – $200 million of the $300 million comes from the fee that the Victorian government paid to cancel the contract to host the games here. The other $100 million is predicted to come from ticket sales. So that means it will cost their taxpayer nothing, yet we are going to be paying. While families are struggling to put food on their tables, they are footing the bill for Labor’s financial incompetence.

The sad irony is I spoke to a mum yesterday in Pakenham who said because of the cost-of-living crisis this government has created her kids are now going to have to choose between sport or a musical instrument, and those kids chose a musical instrument. I mention that to remind people in this chamber that decisions made in this place actually mean something. They actually have consequences, and we are not the ones that feel those consequences, because we are on a lot more money – in fact three times the average salary in Victoria. It is the people that put us here that are bearing the brunt of Labor’s financial mismanagement. That is Labor for you – a complete inability to manage money, a complete inability to take responsibility and a complete inability to own up to the mess that they have made in this once great state. We see this every question time, where they refuse to answer questions. They just humour what people are saying, and they make light of the suffering of Victorians.

Labor have destroyed this state’s credibility. They have racked up so much debt that our children will be born into this debt, and they will die paying it off. They will never pay it off in their lifetimes. As a result of the Commonwealth debacle promises have been broken in Gippsland, Shepparton, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, and Victoria’s reputation has been trashed. My adjournment is for the Premier, and the action that I seek is for her to appear before the select committee into the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games to answer the questions, for her to release all the documents in relation to the cancellation, including briefing papers, contracts and memos, and for her to share any other advice she has received.