THE BLAME GAMES

Games boss Peter Beattie:

“It’s my fault. I’m not going to pass the buck. It’s mine. We can sit around and look at the entrails of this, blame everybody. I’m the chairman of the organising committee and it’s my fault.”

Commonwealth Games Minister Kate Jones:

“Making a decision not to have a parade of athletes is like saying ‘you’re going to have a Commonwealth Games without awarding medals’. Peter Beattie has said that the buck stops with him and it does stop with him.”

Mayor Tom Tate: “All I know is, it wasn’t me. I would like to have seen the athletes highlighted, marching out in flags and all their glory and celebrate them.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk: “I am just as disappointed about it as anyone else. I wanted to stand up an cheer everyone who participated in the Commonwealth Games and unfortunately that was a decision of GOLDOC.”

Merryn Hughes, executive producer of the opening and closing ceremonies: “Having received such a positive response to the opening ceremony on the Gold Coast earlier this month, we share GOLDOC’s disappointment at the level of criticism targeted at specific aspects of last night’s ceremony.”