Victorian Premier Andrews will not apologise

Premier Daniel Andrews says he will not apologise for cancelling the 2026 Commonwealth Games that was going to be held mainly in country Victoria.

Daniel Andrews stated of the Commonwealth Games organisers that they, “are asking for me to apologise for cancelling the games. I’m not doing this because we’re not running them. Because to run them is billions of dollars over and above the original budget.”

Costs Blowout

The Victorian government is also standing by its funding commitment of $2.6 billion to the regions for infrastructure upgrades. Premier Daniel Andrews claims the budgeted $2.6 billion cost of hosting the games in the larger regional towns in country Victoria, had blown out to $6 billion and could have reached $7 billion.

“Last year when the Commonwealth Games Authorities approached us, [they] needed someone to step in to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, as a state we were happy to help out,” Andrews said.  But, Andrews reiterated that the government could not justify the cost blowout. Andrews stated that “I understand people are disappointed; I’m disappointed.”

The Decision to Cancel

But the Victorian state premier stated also, “that the state would have been more disappointed if the government had remained committed to an event that would have cost billions of dollars.”

The Premier concluded, “If you’ve made the decision, you’ve got to push on and that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Addressing the Housing Crisis

Andrews has also stated that the money that was made available for the Commonwealth Games is now funding several initiatives in rural Victoria. One of the initiatives is a new $1 billion Regional Housing Fund to deliver more than 1300 new homes across regional Victoria. The new homes will include a mix of social and affordable housing.

The Guardian Australia and 9 News have more on the Andrews Commonwealth Games cancellation.