Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has clashed with reporters during a fiery press conference on the settlement reached for the cancelled 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Mr Andrews fronted media on Saturday morning hours after a joint statement was released confirming taxpayers have been handed a bill of $380 million.
The statement involved the state government, Commonwealth Games Federation, Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships and Commonwealth Games Australia.
The Premier faced multiple questions about the negotiations which led to the compensation agreement after his government pulled the pin on hosting the games.
Mr Andrews said he was unable to go into detail because of legal constraints, only stating the parties started "in different solar systems".
He also refused to directly answer whether he believed $380 million was a good deal for taxpayers, before turning the issue around to the media after reports emerged in recent weeks Victoria was on the hook for $1 billion in compensation.
"I am not in a position to talk about the Commonwealth Games Federation's opening bid. I'm not, I can't. If I do that then we'll be off in court," Mr Andrews said.
"No one wants that, no one needs that, no one benefits from that. What I can say though is I just refer you to the reporting that you've all done and the speculation that you have run.
"Which is fine, there's been lots of public reporting and it didn't come from us. You know who briefed you on some of these numbers, that it was billions of dollars. That's not what's occurred here."
Pressed further on the negotiations, Mr Andrews snapped back: "I'm genuinely struggling to be any clearer than this".
"I want to be really clear with you, I cannot talk to you about the negotiations and the back and forth," he continued.
The settlement was struck about a month after Mr Andrews announced his government was calling the games off because of a massive cost blowout.
The government last year budgeted $2.6 billion for the sporting spectacle but in July the Premier said the 12-day event was instead expected to cost between $6 to $7 billion.
The games were planned to be held across Geelong, Bendigo, Shepparton, Ballarat and Gippsland in a unique multi-hub regional model.
In addition to the $380 million pay out, the parties "also agreed that the multi-hub regional model was more expensive to host than the traditional models".
Faced with questions about that particular part of the settlement, Mr Andrews simply described it as "a statement of fact", while defending not using Melbourne for the event.
"We were never going to pitch for Melbourne because we were not going to have a Melbourne games. We wanted a regional games," he said.
"And a lot of hard work went in, a lot of people, a lot of senior officials with the support of external consultants worked incredibly hard to estimate what these would cost.
"Now, the actual cost is far different and much, much greater and on that basis it's simply not appropriate to proceed."
The joint statement added "the terms of the settlement will otherwise remain confidential" and "the settlement finalises all matters between the parties".
Victoria's auditor-general is currently probing the government's decision to axe the games, as is a state parliamentary inquiry and a Senate inquiry.
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2023-08-19 04:13:43Z
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