The Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis MP, has released the Australian Government’s new direction for Australian sport. The Minister’s announcement statement and document can be found at www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/pathway-to-success.

Australian Sport: The Pathway to Success delivers on the Australian Government’s commitment to boost funding to both community and elite sport, and also, for the first time,  delivers significant investment to the all important development pathway, the vital link that connects grassroots participation and high performance sport.

Australian Sport: The Pathway to Success is a whole of sport focussed vision delivering in three key areas:

1. Increasing the number of Australians participating in sport
2. Strengthening sporting pathways
3. Striving for success.

The new approach tackles the core issues confronting Australian sport. In particular, through an exciting commitment by Commonwealth and State and Territory governments, the direction will see a more cohesive and aligned sports system characterised by collaboration on core planning and program delivery and cooperation on national priorities.

A secure and increased funding base

The most significant win for Australian sport in this new direction is that the Australian Government has confirmed its support for Australian sport through the biggest increase in sports funding in Australia’s history. A total of $325 million over four years will be provided as ongoing baseline funding for sport through the Australian Sports Commission (ASC). This funding will include new funding of $195 million and the commitment to ongoing funding of previously terminating and lapsing programs.

This is a major win for sport in the current economic climate. It will enable sports to plan with greater certainty of future funding envelopes, thereby bringing greater sustainability to program performance and outcomes.

Other key elements

Some of the more significant elements are:

• A national sport and active recreation policy framework setting out clearly defined objectives and measures.
• A commitment to establishing collaborative arrangements between the Commonwealth and the State and Territory governments on alignment in high performance program delivery through the Institutes and Academies of Sport.
• The ASC taking on the national sport system leadership role in progressing the new direction.
• A focus on national sporting organisations’ (NSOs) participation planning.
• New sport and education, national sport volunteers and social inclusion and sport strategies.
• A commitment to inclusive sports strategies and programs, focused on breaking down barriers for women, people with disability and Indigenous Australians.
• Investments to boost talent identification and development, coaching at both elite and community levels, athlete support, and the development pathway as well as building the capacity and effectiveness of sporting organisations.

The road ahead

Now that we have the new direction for sport there is much work to be done. Supported by the ASC, collaboration across sport now needs to happen to deliver on the new direction.

One of the highest and most pressing priorities for the ASC over next three months includes working with states and territories and with NSOs and other stakeholders around both high performance and participation planning and programs. This collaboration is essential to inform the ASC Board in setting NSO funding allocations for 2010/11 and the next four years.

We will also need to work closely with governments to finalise the new National Sport and Active Recreation Policy Framework and the operating arrangements to align high performance program delivery through the institutes and academies of sport. The ASC will also be commencing work on many of the key initiatives outlined above.

We recognise that there are some areas such as participation planning requiring significant work given the relative immature nature of current planning and relationships between partners. We need to move quickly but we also need to get it right. The ASC will need to build its capacity to effectively play its role.

One of the most pleasing aspects of the review process over the past year has been the public debate, comprehensive submissions to the Independent Sport Panel, and stakeholder engagement in the two forums the ASC convened in December 2009. Not only were the outputs from those forums and public debate valuable in informing governments on where sport stands, but they reminded us all of the passion and love for sport at all levels in Australia.

We now need to commit to make this new vision a reality, and we will need your support and buy in to Australian sport as a whole.

I look forward to working with you and your colleagues from all sectors of Australian sport, government and the broader community as we come together to make a great sports system even better.

Until next time,

Matt Miller
ASC CEO