Government’s Games Bid a ‘Stuff Up’ From the Start

Victoria’s bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games was rushed and based on “grossly underestimated costs”, a parliamentary inquiry into the cancelled event has found. When tabling the inquiry’s interim report on Tuesday, committee chair and Libertarian MP David Limbrick said Victoria’s decision to bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games was a “stuff-up”. “These Games were doomed from the beginning because they were built on the shaky foundations of a business case that grossly underestimated costs,” he told the upper house. “The committee found that the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions put limitations on the consultants that built the business case, including an unreasonably short time frame and strict confidentiality provisions preventing even site visits from occurring.”...