It’s day two of the Commonwealth Games cancellation feeding frenzy.
Yesterday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that Victoria would withdraw as host to the 2026 Commonwealth Games because costs have blown out from $2.6 billion to $7 billion.
Comment was instant and hasn’t ceased right across the media spectrum, from the actual news sources to Murdoch’s propaganda machine (News Corp, mainly patronized by conspiracy theorists, crooked politicians, and neo-fascists), and Peter Costello’s Liberal Party echo chamber (Nine Entertainment, emphasis on the ‘entertainment’, for crusty old reactionaries).
But not a single report or comment was based on solid evidence, meaning, of course, the figures. Being the estimates that went from $1.2B to $6B. Are these estimates secret? Written in invisible ink? Indecipherable by ordinary mortals?
How can anyone actually comment on whether this was a bad move or a good call without knowing what the figures say? Specifically, what in hell caused this apparently unexpected blow-out?
It isn’t really good enough quoting vested interests talking generalities. A journalist—any journalist—would have dug into the estimates to track down the precise spending plans: where the money was actually supposed to go. Or to whom it would flow.
It’s not that billions of dollars are just pocket change, or couldn’t be spent much more productively alleviating inflationary pain felt by the poorest Australians than on bread and circuses that will distract none of the really poor from their economic pain.
This is another amateur hour for Australian journalism.
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