Allan adamant she did not mislead parliament on Games progress

afr.com:

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has denied misleading parliament when she said that “tremendous progress” was being made to hosting the Commonwealth Games despite already knowing the event would blow by at least $2 billion.

An upper house inquiry into the cancelled Games on Monday revealed that Ms Allan knew as far back as April that the event would cost at least $4.5 billion, nearly double the original budget of $2.6 billion.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan faced a fiery exchange with Opposition Leader John Pesutto over the cancelled Games in parliament last week.  Eamon Gallagher

Ms Allan spoke to a parliamentary hearing on June 13 about the “tremendous progress” being made and gave no indication that there were major cost pressures.

Hours later Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule flagged cost blowouts with then-premier Daniel Andrews. Law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler was hired the next day to look into cancelling the Games.

But Ms Allan on Tuesday said she stood by her evidence on June 13 and denied misleading parliament, arguing she could only answer questions that were asked.

“Let’s be clear in the time sequence here — advice was being received by government. Budgets get updated (and) decisions get announced when decisions are made,” Ms Allan said.

“We update the budget, we update the Victorian community when decisions are made.

“When you’re given advice, you need to consider all range of options around the advice. That is proper government decision-making processes. We needed time to get that information and advice. It’s not one day you make a decision to do something and announce it the next day. You have to make sure you’re getting the proper advice.”

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto