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Daniel Andrews’ boss in the failed bid to host the Commonwealth Games clumsily avoided a reporter’s question when asked about his salary.
Jeroen Weimar was questioned by a Channel Seven reporter on Friday about a $160,000 taxpayer-funded payout for his part in the Commonwealth Games failure.
But under the pressure of the interrogation, Weimar strangely refused to answer and instead quietly walked away before turning back on himself.
Weimar, who was the face of the Victorian response to Covid-19 as Covid commander, was appointed chief executive of the Games organizing committee in June 2022.
After canceling the Games, then-Prime Minister Andrews appointed Weimar to a new position as Undersecretary for Housing Implementation, leading the state’s housing policy, which comes with a salary of $533,000.
The journalist pressed Mr. Weimar about his enormous salaries but, despite his persistence, he refused to comment.
Housing Undersecretary Jeroen Weimar was confronted by a journalist on Friday.
Weimar refused to answer questions about the money he received after Victoria’s Commonwealth Games were canceled or his new $533,000 salary.
Weimar faces substantial criticism over the money he has been making as a senior bureaucrat amid Australia’s cost of living crisis.
The journalist asked him if he deserved such a substantial payout after the Games were cancelled, if he understood why Victorians were upset and if he resented being the subject of controversy.
To each question, Mr. Weimr responded “no comment” before attempting to walk away while the journalist continued her pursuit.
“How much work have you done in your current position?” he asked.
“No comment,” Mr. Weimar repeated.
Weimar now works in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and industry experts say his performance in the new housing role is poor.
Labour’s target for new housing approvals is 80,000 a year, but only 54,000 have been approved by 2024, six months into Weimer’s term.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan defended the department, saying the state is ‘still in the early stages of the “rollout” of the new housing policy.
Weimar was Victoria’s Covid-19 response commander before being appointed executive director of the Games organizing committee in June 2022.
Michael O’Brien, Victoria’s shadow attorney-general, said Weimar should be removed from office.
“I think Jeroen Weimar’s time is up,” O’Brien said. he told 9News.
“This is a man who made a mess of Victoria’s public transport, the COVID response, who made a mess of the Commonwealth Games and now he has literally been seen running away from accountability to Victorians.”
READ MORE: Canceled games are ‘state’s biggest setback in decades’
From left, Victorian Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan, Regional Development Minister Harriet Shing, Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee chief executive Jeroen Weimar and Premier Daniel Andrews in the photo from Tuesday, July 18, 2023.