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Hospitals and schools
The money that did leave was $589 million. Glasgow ran on the settlement.
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.
Daniel Andrews, 18 July 2023. The moral of the cancellation. ABC: “I will not take money out of hospitals and schools” for a Games at three times the budget. The Premier’s release the same day: “more than $6 billion for a 12-day sporting event just doesn’t make sense.” Not at any price.
This card files that ledger. It does not file “always host.”
What did have a receipt:
- VAGO: bidding, planning and walking away cost Victorians over $589 million with “no discernible benefit.” $380 million of that was the settlement with the Games bodies. The rest was staff, the organising company, drawings for venues that did not open. “This waste would have been avoided” if the advice before the bid had been frank.
- 19 August 2023, Andrews on the $380 million: “the best outcome that Victoria could get.” “Not a dollar more.”
- July 2026, Glasgow opened a slimmed Games on existing venues. AFR: “the finest cut-price Commonwealth Games that Victorian taxpayers’ money can buy.” SportsPro, quoting Commonwealth Sport: about £160 million to run; most of it from a £100 million slice of Victoria’s settlement. Hospitals and schools did not receive that transfer. Glasgow did.
Grammar: will not take, hospitals, schools. Logic: a cancellation cheque is still an outlay. Rhetoric: 12-day event.