Australia’s federal government has released its National Sports Plan, a program aimed at providing direction and the overall big-picture plan for Australian sport over the next decade. Led by National Sports Minister Greg Hunt, the program will focus on 4 pillars, including participation, performance, prevention through physical activity and integrity.
Of the plan’s release, the Australian Olympic Committee CEO, Matt Carroll, stated, “The AOC welcomes the Minister’s initiative. Every athlete, every team, every sport needs a plan to succeed so this initiative is critical for Australia’s sporting future.
“The National Plan will bring clarity on the roles and responsibilities of all the parties involved and establish the support, infrastructure and funding required to achieve the collective sporting outcomes for the country. The AOC accepts that Australians set high expectations of sport administrators, not just in providing opportunities for athletes to achieve medal success, but in growing participation, ensuring community outcomes in health and education are achieved and importantly setting standards that meet our cultural values. We welcome that the Ministers National Plan will be addressing all of these aspects.” (AOC)
One of the central ideas focused on sport funding is the idea of implementing a lottery, akin to what British sports has in place today. After a disappointing Olympic outing in Rio, Australian Sports Commission Chairman John Wylie, became an advocate for a potential national lottery system, pointing to how Britain’s set-up in place since 1994 has given an estimated $76 million to Olympic sports.
Last summer, Wylie said, “It is absolutely clear to me going forward that with no (government) funding increases in seven years, if Australia wants to remain competitive in world sport the financial challenge is increasing and the funding of sport has to increase. And we will look at new sources of revenue rather than that just asking for more government appropriation.”
As such, Hunt says that the national sports plan will consider, ‘with a strong bias towards support’, a national sports lottery. Hunt says the lottery would have the potential to deliver up to $50m annually. (The Guardian)
