“For too long, Australians have been encouraged to sit on their bums watching a few overpaid elite sportsmen on their wide-screen TVs. Whether it’s the once in four years Olympics extravaganza, or the weekly fix of rugby or AFL brawling, elite and big-business sport has for too long hogged the trough of public funding, while the rest of the nation gets fatter and lazier,” said David Reid, President of Bushwalking Australia.
David continued: “Bushwalking Australia welcomes the Crawford Report on the “Future of Australian Sport”. For the most part, it’s far reaching recommendations are spot on. The main concern is that the panel’s recommendations did not suggest including active recreation within the definition of sport. This is in spite of a very clear view expressed in submissions and by witnesses that the; ‘ASC definition of sport is too narrow in focus and is, in fact, designed to exclude certain activities simply because they are not physical or competitive in nature.’
A second concern is that the report fails to distinguish activities that are capable of being self-funding by virtue of spectator appeal, or who are able to recover costs of organization and infrastructure through membership or the turn-stile. In that regard, we have sympathy for sports like canoeing that only receive funding under the present system because they also happen to be Olympic sports”
We suggest that the following principles should apply to the allocation of sport funding:
- That the ASC definition of sport should be expanded to include non-competitive recreation
- Funding should be provided for the primary purpose of creating a healthier and fitter population. The development of elites should be a secondary consideration.
- Talent identification should be primarily done by providing the broadest possible opportunities for participation and experience. It should be a bottom up process to encourage people to develop their talent to the maximum level possible. It should not be a top-down process to exclude all those unable to reach the elite level.
- Sports without the capacity to generate funds internally though spectators, advertising, broadcast rights, membership or by charging for access to closed venues should be given extra consideration.
Read Bushwalking Australia’s Submission to the Federal Independent Review of Sport