Peak Commonwealth Games body ‘yet to hear’ from Australian government over next steps

The federal government has yet to reach out to Australia’s peak Commonwealth Games agency to discuss next steps, a bombshell senate inquiry has heard.

Plans for the 2026 games were completely up-ended earlier this year when Victorian Premier Dan Andrews made the unprecedented decision to pull out of hosting the quadrennial event, citing concerns over ballooning costs.

Appearing before a senate inquiry into Australia’s preparedness to host Commonwealth, Olympic, and associated para-athlete games on Friday; representatives from Commonwealth Games Australia said despite every state premier ruling out hosting the 2026 iteration, the goal remained to keep the competition on home soil.

But the peak body told the committee that no federal minister or departmental staff member had reached out to them to discuss support and next steps, an admission met with incredulity by Coalition members.

“This is a fairly significant decision … and you’re saying (the federal government) haven’t reached out to check on what the situation is or how they can help?” chair Matt Canavan asked.

CGA chief executive Craig Phillips replied: “nothing at all”.

He had earlier told the committee that rather than invest in infrastructure, the agency wanted the federal government to help stage the games.

“We know that in previous games the government has made a commitment to the cost of the games … The Gold Coast games (received around) $160m,” he said.

“As a precedent of the Gold Coast and Melbourne, we would expect that’s the sort of quantum of support in terms of staging the games.

“We think also the assistance of the federal government in working with state governments to get potential hosts would be critically important for us.”

Mr Phillips noted that the Commonwealth Games should be considered a critical tool for the government to continue its commitment to sports diplomacy – noting the engagement of Pacific Island countries and India.

The committee heard that if necessary, the games could be pushed back to 2027 to ensure the new host had adequate time to prepare.

But the committee also appeared taken aback by the revelation that CGA had yet to hold conversations with other states or territories to host the 2026 event.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has indicated the southern Queensland city – which hosted the 2018 games – was prepared to do it again, or share with 2022 hosts Birmingham.

Perth had also been floated as an option in the aftermath of Mr Andrews’ announcement, an idea later scrapped by Premier Roger Cook despite the ongoing support of mayor Basil Zempilas.

Mr Phillips said the organisation was simply “not ready”, but sought to assure concerned senators that finding a replacement host within Australia was a priority of the agency.

“It’s absolutely critical the games be in Australia,” Mr Phillips said.

“(But) a games anywhere is better than no games.”

NN Commonwealth Games

Premiers Annastacia Palaszczuk, Chris Minns and Peter Malinauskas, Peter Gutwein, and Mr Cook have all ruled out hosting the event, but Mr Phillips said all mainland capital cities had the capability to host games.

“One of the things we will be doing is developing multiple models and multiple solutions across different cities and different states and the reason to do that is we need to make sure that the games match the host, and not the other way round,” he said.

“So it’ll be a tailored solution depending on where it will be.”

Chef de mission and Olympic gold medalist Petria Thomas pointed at the recent rallying of support around the Matildas as to why the games should be held in Australia.

“If the World Cup had been held on the other side of the world … it wouldn’t have had near the impact as it did at home,” she said.

Mr Philips assured the committee that it “didn’t appear” as though the international governing body – the Commonwealth Games Federation – held any concerns about moving to another Australian host.

“Australia is recognised as a safe pair of hands for the games,” he said.

He said the CGF “are open” to the games moving into 2027 “to give any potential host more time”.

“That’s certainly something we’re looking at in terms of any state or any host city that we talk to,” he said.

Sports Minister Anika Wells’ office has been contacted for comment.