# Capture — three times the cost

- **Claim filed:** “What's become clear is that the cost of hosting these Games in 2026 is not the $2.6 billion which was budgeted and allocated.”
- **Who:** Daniel Andrews, 18 July 2023
- **URL:** https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-18/commonwealth-games-regional-victoria-scrapped-daniel-andrews/102613718
- **Date on page:** 18 July 2023
- **Publisher:** ABC News
- **Title:** Commonwealth Games scrapped in regional Victoria as government redirects allocated money
- **Captured:** 2026-08-14
- **Method:** saved HTML (`abc-2023-07-18.html`)

## Verbatim (ABC)

> What's become clear is that the cost of hosting these Games in 2026 is not the $2.6 billion which was budgeted and allocated

> I will not take money out of hospitals and schools to host an event that is three times the cost estimated and budgeted for last year.

ABC also: costs “could have seen the Games cost at least $6 billion.”

## The other meter — VAGO

`vago-withdrawal.html` / `abc-vago-2024-03-20.html` / `guardian-vago-2024-03-20.html`  
https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/withdrawal-2026-commonwealth-games/  
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-20/commonwealth-games-victoria-cancelled-cost-revealed-report/103608858  
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/20/victorias-scrapped-2026-commonwealth-games-cost-589m-in-significant-waste-of-taxpayer-money-auditor-general-says

VAGO, 20 March 2024:

> The original Games budget was unrealistically low, but the $6.9 billion cost estimate the government publicly released when it withdrew from the Games was overstated.

> The cost estimate for the Games that the government publicly released in August 2023 of $6.9 billion was overstated and not transparent. It added significant amounts for industrial relations and cost escalation risks. But it did not disclose that the budget already included $1 billion in contingency allowances to cover these and other cost risks.

Fair presentation of the contingency: about **$5.9 billion**, not $6.9 billion.

On the $2.6 billion:

- DJSIR briefed the minister for a high-case gross budget of up to **$3.2 billion**.
- Final submission the same day recommended the low-case **$2.7 billion** (VAGO: change “at the request of the Minister’s office”).
- 2022–23 Budget printed **$2.6 billion**.
- VAGO: using the best-case was “unwarranted optimism bias.” At worst, “unrealistic and misleading.”

Allan, ABC same day as the audit: the report “confirm[s] that we made the right decision.”

## What this file does not do

It does not file “host at any price.” It files the signed low number and the cancellation high number against the auditor’s two corrections.