Premier Jacinta Allan denies she misled Victorian parliament despite admitting she was aware of Commonwealth Games budget pressures months before the event was canned.
Victoria signed up to host the 2026 Games across regional centres in April 2022 and confirmed $2.6 billion would be spent on delivering the event the next month.
But former premier Daniel Andrews pulled the pin on July 18 this year, citing estimated costs rising to as much as $7 billion.
A parliamentary inquiry into the doomed event was told Ms Allan, Mr Andrews' successor and then Games delivery minister, was briefed in March on revised budget estimates by the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions.
An updated budget submission of $4.5 billion - almost $2 billion more than initially projected - was formally shot down in April as the department was told to explore cutting costs.
On June 13, Ms Allan told a budget estimates hearing Victoria was making "tremendous progress" on delivering the Games and gave no indication of budgetary concerns.
Later that same day, Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule first flagged cost blowouts with Mr Andrews.
Law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler was hired on June 14 as the Victorian government sought legal advice.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Ms Allan said it was proper government decision-making process to ask officials to go back to the drawing board.
"Clearly these numbers were becoming unacceptable to government, which is why we sent officials back to do more work to further explore the options," she said.
"And at that point, through that March/April period, it was considering the options about how to best deliver the Games in line with the agreement that was signed."
Ms Allan said she stood by the evidence she gave to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee when asked if she had been less than forthcoming.
She said she didn't reveal the Games were in jeopardy because advice was still being updated.
"The progress at that point in time was about working out how to best deliver the Games," she said.
"We were asking officials to provide us with advice but no final decisions had been made about the budget at that point in time."
Opposition Leader John Pesutto suggested evidence was mounting Ms Allan knew more than she was letting on at the time.
"She needs to appear before that select committee because if she doesn't, the only inference Victorians can draw is that she deliberately misled the parliament and deliberately misled all of us as Victorians," he said.
Ms Allan has doubled down on her refusal to front the inquiry after it agreed to send her a formal invitation.
Lower house MPs cannot be compelled to face an upper house committee.
The inquiry will hold further public hearings on Friday, with more government department and agency officials scheduled to give evidence.
