The fumbling Andrews Labor Government continues to lose key events to other states.
The Queensland Government has boasted it will again host Australia's highest profile television identities for the TV Week Logie Awards in November.
This comes on top of last week's announcement that the Australia Sports Tech Conference has also made the move to Gold Coast for the next three years, after signing on with Tourism and Events Queensland.
Australia's leading sports tech event brings together thousands of sporting industry professionals and the newest sports technology.
The loss of these two key events is another rough blow for Melbourne, once considered the sporting and events capital of Australia, but realistically, it is no surprise.
The Andrews Labor Government's botched handling of hotel quarantine and flawed COVID-19 contact tracing system allowed the sunshine state to nab Melbourne's most loved sporting event, the AFL Grand Final, in 2020.
The surfer's mecca and iconic Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach was also scooped up earlier this year by NSW. The Torquay Easter sporting event would traditionally attract 35,000-45,000 people each year and inject $7 million into the local economy. It will surely be a devastating loss to the surf coast community felt over the Easter period.
As stated by Shadow Minister for Tourism, Major Events and Sport, Cindy McLeish:
"Victoria cannot afford to lose any more key events. It is taking a toll on the local economy, plummeting tourism numbers and has damaged Melbourne's reputation as the sporting and events capital of Australia.
"Hosting the Logies and Australia Sports Tech Conference was another opportunity for Melbourne to bounce back and show we are still in the game.
"The Andrews Labor Government's botched handling of hotel quarantine and snap lockdowns has forced event organisers to look elsewhere."
