Editing 2006 Commonwealth Games (section)

=== Cost ===
Early concerns arose about the large cost of staging the event, with projected costs likely to be over AUD 1 billion and a high likelihood the Victorian taxpayer would have to cover the expense. The cost was described in some local media as excessive. [[National Party of Australia|National Party]] leader [[Peter Ryan (politician)|Peter Ryan]] said that the Labor government should win "gold (medal) for burning money".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/news/national/commonwealth-games-spending-within-budget/2006/09/14/1157827093063.html|title=Commonwealth Games spending within budget - National - theage.com.au|website=theage.com.au|date=15 September 2006 |language=en|access-date=2018-05-02}}</ref> However, not all of this money was wasted. The actual costs for hosting the games was AUD 1.144 billion and prior to the Games, accountants at [[KPMG]] were estimating that the gross income generated by this event could be as high as AUD 1.5 billion.