‘Bad trade-off’: Wesfarmers boss (and Olympian) joins Games criticism
Former Olympic rower and Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott has criticised the Andrews government for not considering a scaled-back version of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne instead of scrapping them altogether.
But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews claimed on Wednesday that holding the Games in Melbourne, rather than spreading them across regional areas as his government originally planned, would still cost more than $4 billion and was never going to happen.
Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott this year, and after winning Olympic silver in 1996. Tevor Collens and Getty
Mr Scott, a silver medallist at the 1996 Olympics who now runs one of the country’s largest companies which owns Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks, said the Melbourne option should have been further explored.
“It is a shame that there wasn’t an opportunity to review the costings and format, and make use of Melbourne’s world-class venues and amenities to stage a lower cost games in the capital city,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“The regional format was always going to be more expensive, especially when we know that Melbourne has a proven track record for hosting world-class sporting events.”
But Mr Andrews said on Wednesday: “We were never going to run the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The only reason we were remotely interested is if it was regional. We signed a contract that does not involve Games in Melbourne.”
The Victorian government had bureaucrats working on options including a scaled back version in Melbourne, but insiders said Mr Andrews and regional MP and Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan refused to consider it.
Simon Balderstone, former adviser in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments and general manager at the
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