Comm Games gooorn?
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Don't care where it goes.. just drag this fluffybunny through the mud but make it stick, seriously why do victorians vote for this Ahole?
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@bayimports the short answer is most people dont think he's an ahole, still pretty wide support in general, might have dropped the ball on this one but at least he did it before spending loads
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@Kiwiwomble his government signed a contract and went against advice to run it leveraging Melbourne assets, so he still could be spending loads... in penalties..
I have no problem with anyone not hosting an event because a business case doesn't make sense, that is sensible just don't commit first.
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@Kiwiwomble said in Comm Games gooorn?:
@bayimports the short answer is most people dont think he's an ahole, still pretty wide support in general, might have dropped the ball on this one but at least he did it before spending loads
It is testament to the cunning politician that he is - credit where it is due - that people don't unilaterally think he is a lying arsehole. The way he deflects criticism is really quite extraordinary.
This was a great take-down in the AFR today - reserved in it's language being a proper publication, but no less scathing. For those with limited time, this was paragraph summarises where he has led Victorians relative to their Australian compatriots:
Needless spending is now normal in the fantasy governance of Victoria. It already has the highest debt at $171 billion by 2027, the most damaging taxes, the highest business costs, and the lowest credit rating of any Australian state.
The Andrews shambles takes the global stage
Surely this is the last straw for Premier Dan Andrews and the madness of his left-wing populist governing model.Updated Jul 18, 2023 – 6.43pm,
first published at 6.04pmSave
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Just before last November’s state election, Victorian Labor Premier Dan Andrews rode in with a $15 million sponsorship for Netball Australia after mining magnate Gina Rinehart had been told her money wasn’t welcome anymore.Yesterday the debt-laden state blew up the 2026 Commonwealth Games at eight hours’ notice to the Commonwealth Games Federation and its 72 member nations.
July 19, 2023 David Rowe
Mr Andrews ludicrously dressed himself in fiscal rectitude to say that scrapping the Games was not a difficult decision to make. Regrettably it is the right decision for Victoria’s parlous budget, the state of which Mr Andrews is very largely to blame.
It was also a shocking error of judgment – and that special kind of Dan Andrews chutzpah – to bid for an international commitment in April 2022 and then walk away from it 15 months later.
The reputational damage and sovereign risk will weigh on anyone who wants to deal with Victoria in future, and perhaps Australia as well.
At best, the Victorian government looks utterly inept by taking on the Games and then failing by a massive margin to anticipate the cost of an event it last held in 2006.
Surely this is the last straw for Premier Andrews and the madness of his left-wing populist governing model in excessively locking down the state during the pandemic while racking up debt on one spending monument after another.
The latest result of abruptly cancelling the Games, with nearly 300 events and 5,000 athletes, now puts the whole Andrews shambles on the global stage.
It’s a solution straight from the ABC’s satire Utopia.
But even after cutting his losses by trashing Australia’s sporting name, Mr Andrews’ money spending twitch continues.
In 2022, he still thought a Commonwealth Games held largely around the state’s regions would be a great election winning idea.
The ever-wily Mr Andrews hopes he can still win the political medals by continuing the boondoggle spending on regional venues using most of the original $2.6 billion Games budget. He hopes that will keep voters in Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Gippsland onside.
There just won’t be any international events at those venues. That will save the $4 billion to $5 billion or so extra that having real running and jumping athletes at the Commonwealth Games would have cost.
It’s a solution straight from the ABC’s satire Utopia. And some of the higher costs came from changes which the Victorian government had insisted on itself because of the political wheeze of the regional venues.
Needless spending is now normal in the fantasy governance of Victoria. It already has the highest debt at $171 billion by 2027, the most damaging taxes, the highest business costs, and the lowest credit rating of any Australian state.
Its total post-pandemic debt levels are comparable with NSW. But it’s Victoria that sets off alarms with a debt to revenue ratio at Japanese levels of 200 per cent because of the run-up in debt-funded projects and payroll costs.
Its response has been to squeeze business by doubling down on the most inefficient taxation. This time, there are no public asset sales to bail out the state.
Instead, Mr Andrews is resurrecting the State Electricity Commission, the same electoral gimmick that a regional Commonwealth Games once was.
Delaying the Melbourne airport rail link and the Geelong fast rail link were among the few savings options left. Now the Games has gone, but the empty stadiums will live on. So does Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop, which may blow out to $200 billion by the time it is finished.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese demanded in opposition that all big projects with federal funding be assessed by Infrastructure Australia to prevent pork barrelling. But that does not seem to apply to Victorian Labor allies.
Mr Andrews might hope that long-suffering local investors, never mind foreign ones watching on, will be impressed by his financial call. But the blunders in risk and reputational management just blow all that away.
Events like the Olympics, the Pan-American Games and the Asian Games have never left their four-year cycles except for war or pandemic.
Durban in South Africa lost its right to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games over financial worries.
But it’s hard to find a host government unilaterally dumping a massive sporting event itself. Until now.
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@bayimports please dont get me wrong, not so much defending the current situation as a vague attempt at trying to find a "could be worse"
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@SBW1 saying they're keen to host...but suggesting event be scattered across two countries and admitting he doesn't have the money...does just come across like a bit of publicity stunt, chch's main stadium is going to be a rectangle so cant even host the track and field
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@bayimports said in Comm Games gooorn?:
Don't care where it goes.. just drag this fluffybunny through the mud but make it stick, seriously why do victorians vote for this Ahole?
There's no effective opposition and the Victorian mentality is reflective of its founding. It's also the birthplace of the modern Australian labour movement.
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Brisbane could host it together with Toowoomba. Huge amounts of free accommodation available there.....
Wellcamp report finds more transparency needed, but government deal was 'reasonable'
A report from the Queensland auditor-general's office found the government should have better considered other quarantine options such as home and hotel quarantine.
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@antipodean said in Comm Games gooorn?:
And yet the clown is going to still build the infrastructure:
WTAF !!!
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@MiketheSnow That's the attraction of the Comm Games. For sports like Athletics it's not really going to feature for the world class stars. Many of them have decided to give it a miss over the last couple of Games. But for the next tier of athletes or more importantly the less mainstream sports it is the pinnacle of a competitor's sporting career.
Tom Walsh was on the radio making this point yesterday. He said he liked the Comm Games but at least he has the Olympics, Worlds, Diamond League as alternatives. He felt for people like the lawn bowlers for whom the Commonwealth Games was the ultimate event for their sport
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What I think here and what I do actually have little in common on this point (and probably many others in the MP life).
Really disappointed that it's facing struggles and mignt not continue as I think it's a great event.
But I've not watched it in years and think the last time I actually got proper interested in it was Kuala Lumpur. Couldn't even tell you where the last few games were held. But it would be a shame, especially for the competing athletes, if it were to cease.
