00:00 Documents given to Parliament yesterday show that Victorian taxpayers had to fork out $1.3
00:07 million in legal fees for the government to hire lawyers to withdraw from the Commonwealth
00:13 Games.
00:14 Now that's on top of the $380 million it paid, Victorian taxpayers paid in compensation after
00:20 a settlement was reached with those organising bodies.
00:24 Now these documents also reveal that the government hired these lawyers in June.
00:28 That was three weeks before it actually made the announcement public on July 18 that it
00:33 would be cancelling the Games.
00:35 The then Premier Daniel Andrews came out on July 18 calling that snap press conference
00:40 shocking the nation really when he said that the budget blowouts were just too big and
00:44 just too hard to overcome that the Games in regional Victoria would not go ahead.
00:50 Now we asked the new Premier Jacinta Allen about these revelations today.
00:54 She said that the government needed to seek advice from its lawyers before it made the
00:59 decision.
01:00 Now even though she was actually the Minister responsible for the Commonwealth Games at
01:04 the time, she couldn't actually say when the government first engaged those lawyers in
01:08 June.
01:09 Here's what she had to say.
01:12 As the costs were materialising, and we said this at the time making the announcement,
01:17 advice was sought from the public service.
01:20 As you would expect as normal proper government decision making, when you have to make a decision
01:27 you weigh up the options, you get the advice from the public service.
01:31 Often when you're weighing and making decisions that does include legal advice.
01:35 So there was a range of advice sought from across the public service and that included
01:40 legal advice.
01:41 Bridget, what happens next?
01:43 Well the state opposition says this is a sign of chaos for the new government.
01:48 It is only new Premier Jacinta Allen's second official day at parliament.
01:53 They are calling on her to front an upper house parliamentary inquiry into the decision
01:58 to cancel the Commonwealth Games, which actually begins public hearings next week.
02:03 There's also a federal senate which is looking into this, as well as the Victorian Auditor
02:07 General's office which is looking into the decision of the government to cancel the Commonwealth
02:11 Games.
02:12 So it's an issue that's not going anywhere anytime soon.
02:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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