A Ballarat councillor says the state government should think differently when it comes to what Ballarat will receive from the $2 billion Commonwealth Games regional fund.
Premier Daniel Andrews this week announcing that Ballarat will still get 5000 extra seats at Mars Stadium, sporting facilities at Miners Rest and a new athletics track at the showgrounds site, even after sensationally cancelling the games.
But Cr. Ben Taylor says there’s better things the money could be spent on.
“Is it actually the infrastructure we need for Ballarat?”
“It was a priority due to the Commonwealth Games, and yes, it would bring things forward by probably ten to twenty years, but maybe right now we should be looking at infrastructure we actually need.”
“For example, right now we’ve got to deliver 3-year-old kinder which means every kinder needs an extra room, which will be tens of millions of dollars to do that,” Cr. Taylor said.
A decision on where and even if the 2026 games actually proceed is yet to be made public.
