Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan defended her unenlightening evidence to parliament in the months after she knew the 2026 Commonwealth Games was running $1.9 billion over budget, before the state unceremoniously cancelled the event in five regional hubs in July.

An upper house inquiry in the Victorian Parliament is probing the cancellation, and yesterday heard Allan was briefed in March that costs had reached $4.5 billion, almost $2 billion beyond the budgeted $2.6 billion.

Bureaucrats were asked to find savings, but were unable to bring the Games back within budget.

“Well, clearly, these numbers were becoming unacceptable to government, which is why we sent officials back to do more work to further explore the options and at that point, through that March-April period, it was considering the options about how to best deliver the Games in line with the agreement that was signed,” Allan said today.

“The numbers were continuing to increase.”

Three months after the March briefing, Allan gave evidence to the parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee that the government was making “tremendous progress”.

“We can do this, we know we can do this,” she said in the June 13 hearing, when she was the minister for Commonwealth Games delivery.

Asked why she was not more forthcoming in her evidence, Allan said:

Let’s be clear, I gave evidence to the public accounts and estimates committee in line with the questions that were put to me by committee members.

I stand by the evidence I gave to the [committee] because I was talking about the progress. The progress at that point in time was working out how best to deliver the Games.”

Her evidence to parliament did not touch on the updated cost estimates and work the government was doing to try and keep the Games within budget.

The committee states the purpose of budget estimates is to promote transparency and accountability.

On the same morning that Allan gave evidence, on June 13, then-premier Daniel Andrews was informed the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Treasury and Finance would not support providing the funding needed to deliver the Games.

Andrews informed Allan the next day, on June 14, when the state government engaged law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler for advice on cancelling.

Allan was also asked in question time last week when the government first knew costs were exceeding the projected budget but did not directly answer.

Andrews and Allan announced Victoria would no longer go ahead with the Games, citing an almost three-fold cost blowout to up to $7 billion, on July 18.