Sporting group blows whistle on showgrounds consultation failure
WHO would have thought ping pong could get the Victorian Government into so much trouble.
Amid developing controversy over plans to redevelop the Prince of Wales Showgrounds at Bendigo, damning testimony has come to light from a 2023 Federal Senate inquiry into the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games that was to be hosted by regional Victoria.
Bendigo had been selected as the site for the table tennis competition and a new government-funded stadium was to be built at the showgrounds for the purpose, but the project was shelved when the games were called off.
A separate project to build a new pavilion – funded under the Regional Sports infrastructure Program with the proponents listed as Sport and Recreation Victoria, the City of Greater Bendigo and the Bendigo Agricultural Society – was announced last year.
This time there was no mention of table tennis, with the pavilion described simply as “multi-purpose”.
Plans for the pavilion and an arena upgrade have been travelling swiftly since the work was put out for tender in September last year.
Tenders have been shortlisted and the planning application process under Clause 52.3 started.
Things hit a snag last week however, when the issue of consultation was raised.
Showgrounds stakeholders attending an Engage Victoria webinar on the project on March 18 believed that was what they were there for but were told all major works were now set in stone and the consultation on these elements other than “tweaking and refinement” had already been completed.
No one asked us, said equestrian users.
It appears no one asked the ping pong people either.
At a Federal Senate inquiry following the cancellation of the games in August 2023, the president of the Bendigo and District Table Tennis Association Gary Warnest said the group had been blindsided by the news Bendigo was to not only host the Commonwealth Games table tennis, but get a new pavilion to house the competition as well.
The following is an extract from Commonwealth Hansard (Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, August 29, 2023):
CHAIRMAN SENATOR MATT CANAVAN: Mr Warnest, do you have an opening statement?
MR WARNEST: I do. Thank you for the invitation to attend. My response to you is about table tennis. When the 2026 Commonwealth Games were originally announced in 2022, table tennis was allocated to Geelong. I'm aware that the Geelong Table Tennis Association made an offer to sell their facility to help fund a new venue that would also be used for the Commonwealth Games. In May 2022 I submitted an expression of interest to the City of Greater Bendigo to use the Bendigo table tennis stadium as a country training venue as I knew from my experience that it was not large enough to host the Commonwealth Games table tennis itself. Nothing has come of that.
In October 2022 I was officiating at a national tournament in Darwin when I received a call from Andrew Cooney from the City of Greater Bendigo, inviting me to a photo opportunity to announce that Bendigo had been awarded the Commonwealth Games table tennis. The president of Table Tennis Australia was also at the Darwin event as well as the Geelong committee. None of us were aware of this change or had been involved in any discussions. I had to assure the Geelong committee that I had not sought to take the games table tennis away from Geelong. As president of Bendigo Table Tennis for 25 years, a national table tennis referee and an international table tennis umpire from the 2018 Commonwealth Games, I followed up with Andrew Cooney on return. He informed me that the table tennis venue would be at the Bendigo showgrounds and that the new show court pavilion would be built.
He informed me that an ITTF, International Table Tennis Federation, official from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games had visited and advised on facilities. I expressed my concerns that the pavilion would be built more for its suitability for later use rather than being fit for purpose as a table tennis competition venue. No building plans or documents had been sighted. I asked about legacy equipment following the games and I was told that no information was available or even being considered while efforts concentrating on the buildings were going ahead. As at 27 June this year not even the table tennis building site had been confirmed, let alone talk about legacy equipment.
It is evident that there was little, if any, sport consultation or communication happening in the lead-up to the event, and that interest appears to be bottom driven rather than planned and organised by the organisations charged with that responsibility.
Senator Bridget Mckenzie continued the questioning of Mr Warnest.
MR WARNEST: We were never promised a facility. We never expected a facility. We were not given any opportunity to even consider what residual equipment may have been available.
The only thing I'd tried to organise was an expression of interest to gain a cut using our facility as a country training venue—and that's a missed opportunity. But the main thing that we are missing out on is the ability to showcase our sport and try and attract volunteers and incentivise our juniors to play the sport.
SENATOR McKENZIE: So, Mr Warnest, you said you were invited to a press conference. Who else was at that press conference?
MR WARNEST: The City of Greater Bendigo. I didn't actually attend but I know that the City of Greater Bendigo and their Commonwealth Games manager were going to be there. But, as I understand it, so was the Premier.
SENATOR MCKENZIE: The Premier?
MR WARNEST: As I understand it—
SENATOR McKENZIE: Dan Andrews?
MR WARNEST: Yes.
SENATOR McKENZIE: Was the local member Jacinta Allan there?
MR WARNEST: To my knowledge, yes.
SENATOR McKENZIE: Right. So, for those who are playing along at home, the minister charged with actually rolling out the Commonwealth Games is also the local member for Bendigo East. Has Ms Allan personally contacted you as her local member?
MR WARNEST: I've had no contact with Ms Allan through this whole process.
SENATOR McKENZIE: Who made the decision around table tennis then? Mr Warnest, in your evidence in your opening statement it all sounded a bit odd. In country towns you often hear things that might not be in the newspaper. Do you have any idea who actually made the decision, given there seems to be an incredible lack of consultation?
MR WARNEST: You note my sensitivity about the fact that the decision was taken. Although the event was moved from Geelong to Bendigo, nobody in the table tennis environment in Geelong nor me were consulted beforehand. Everybody looked at it and said, 'How was this done?' And nobody had any answers whatsoever. It was not done within the table tennis environment.
SENATOR McKENZIE: You're not the only sport that's had this experience with this rollout. I mean rugby just doesn't know why they were being sent down to the Latrobe Valley. That's all very clear in their submission as well. There doesn't seem to be a very strategic approach to which sports were allocated where.
MR WARNEST: There was no background information that I'm aware of to find out the suitability of Bendigo of hosting it or anything like that.
SENATOR McKENZIE: So, … do you .. Mr Warnest, have any idea how or where these decisions were made about which sport was allocated to which community?
MR WARNEST: The only contact that table tennis has had from the local council is Andrew Cooney. That's it. That's my complaint, effectively, that we've been totally left out of the loop.
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Planning applications using the Clause 52.3 pathway must demonstrate community consultation has taken place due to there being no right to object to or appeal any decision.
Mr Warnest’s evidence to the senate inquiry shows that in the case of the table tennis pavilion, community consultation did not inform the decision to allocate funding.
It would be an insult to the intelligence of any of the showgrounds users to suggest that the pavilion being proposed now is not the same as the one that had been planned for the Commonwealth Games.
Given that there was no application process for the Regional Sports Infrastructure Program funding and projects were chosen on the basis of having previously been identified as priorities for regional Victoria, the failure to consult with stakeholders the first time around leaves the State Government in a bit of a pickle now.
The State Government’s explanation the Bendigo Agricultural Show Society was “fully engaged in the design process” should not satisfy Clause 52.3 requirements, as a project proponent consulting itself would, or should be, procedurally unacceptable.
If there was no community consultation for the table tennis pavilion, that only leaves the possibility that consultation on the pavilion and arena upgrade was conducted as part of the development of the 2019 Bendigo Showgrounds Masterplan, of which the City of Greater Bendigo has refused to release a copy.
A Freedom of Information request has been submitted for this.
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