© Australian Sports Commission 2008 This submission has been prepared by the Australian Sports Commission for the purposes of the Commonwealth Government’s Independent Review of Sport. Use of any of the information contained within this document should be done so with appropriate attribution to the Australian Sports Commission. Note: The Australian Sports Commission held three stakeholder forums as part of the process of preparing this submission: a forum with representatives from community sport, a forum with National Sporting Organisations, and a forum with a small group of high performance coaches. Although the main issues arising from the forums aligned with those in this submission, due to changes in project time lines, only the preliminary considerations from the community sport forum have been incorporated. Addendums to this submission will be prepared to put forward the considerations from the three forums. ASC Submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Independent Review of Sport Contents DefinitionsH and acronyms ................................................................................................ v ExecutiveH summary ........................................................................................................... 1 FindingsH and recommendations..................................................................................... 5 1H Introduction .................................................................................................................. 16 2H Sport: An integral part of Australian life ................................................................ 19 2.1H Sport and health .................................................................................................... 21 2.1.1H Obesity and overweight 22 2.1.2H Physical inactivity 22 2.1.3H Mental health and well-being 23 2.1.4H Benefits of physical activity 24 2.2H Sport and national identity ................................................................................. 25 2.3H Sport and social cohesion and inclusion ....................................................... 27 2.4H Other sport related outcomes ............................................................................ 29 2.4.1H Education 29 2.4.2H The economy 29 2.4.3H Innovation, science and technology 30 2.4.4H The environment 30 3H High performance sport ............................................................................................. 32 3.1H Background ........................................................................................................... 32 3.2H Australia’s international competitiveness ...................................................... 33 3.3H Key challenges facing Australian high performance sport ........................ 38 3.4H Delivering the Australian high performance system .................................... 40 3.4.1H Duplications and lack of alignment 40 3.4.2H The role of the Commonwealth Government and the Australian Sports Commission 41 3.4.3H The Australian Institute of Sport and State and Territory Institutes and Academies of Sport. 42 3.4.4H Institute network funding and scholarship support 45 3.4.5H Regional academies and other partners 47 3.4.6H Summary 48 FindingH 1 48 RecommendationH 1: National Institutes model 49 3.5H Targeting of sports: ............................................................................................. 50 FindingH 2 53 RecommendationH 2: Targeting of sports 53 3.6H Athlete and coach support ................................................................................. 53 ASC Submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Independent Review of Sport Page i FindingH 3 55 RecommendationH 3: Direct support for elite athletes and coaches 55 3.7H Supplementation funding for indexation and international competition travel ............................................................................................................................... 56 FindingH 4 57 RecommendationH 4: Critical supplementation 57 3.8H National talent identification and development ............................................. 57 3.8.1H Challenges 58 3.8.2H Opportunities 59 FindingH 5 61 RecommendationH 5: National talent identification and development 62 4H Community sport ......................................................................................................... 63 4.1H A new model for community sport ................................................................... 63 4.1.1H Background ........................................................................................................ 63 4.1.2H Challenges facing community sport ............................................................. 64 4.1.3H What has worked well to date? ...................................................................... 65 4.1.4H The way forward ................................................................................................ 67 FindingH 6 ....................................................................................................................... 68 RecommendationH 6: A national plan for community sport 68 RecommendationH 7: Establishment of a new community sport model 68 4.2H Active After-school Communities program .................................................... 68 FindingH 8 ....................................................................................................................... 69 RecommendationH 8: Expansion of the AASC program 70 4.3H Targeted sports programs .................................................................................. 70 4.3.1H The Senate Inquiry into Women in Sport 70 FindingH 9 71 RecommendationH 9: Women in sport 71 4.3.2H Disability Action Plan 71 FindingH 10 72 RecommendationH 10: Disability sport 72 4.3.3H Indigenous sport 72 FindingH 11 72 RecommendationH 11: Rationalisation of Indigenous programs 72 4.4H Sport infrastructure and facilities ..................................................................... 72 FindingH 12 74 RecommendationH 12: Supply and demand of sporting facilities 74 5H National sporting pathways ...................................................................................... 75 5.1H The capacity of the sport system to delivery pathways .............................. 77 FindingH 13 79 RecommendationH 13: Building capacity of sporting organisations 79 ASC Submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Independent Review of Sport Page ii 5.2H Strengthening sport and education system links ......................................... 79 FindingH 14 81 RecommendationH 14: Strengthening sport and education system links 81 5.3H Coaching and officiating ..................................................................................... 81 5.3.1H The coaching pathway and related issues 81 5.3.2H Addressing the issues 83 5.3.3H Officials 84 FindingH 15 85 RecommendationH 15: Support for coaching and officiating 85 5.4H Recruiting, retaining and supporting volunteers .......................................... 85 FindingH 16 86 RecommendationH 16: Optimising volunteerism in sport 86 5.5H Relationships between the Commonwealth Government and other sporting bodies ............................................................................................................ 86 FindingH 17 88 RecommendationH 17: A unified approach between peak multi-sport bodies, the ASC and NSOs 88 6H Sport science, research and technology ............................................................... 89 6.1H National coordination of sport science and sports medicine .................... 89 FindingH 18 92 RecommendationH 18: – National coordination of sport science and medicine delivery 92 6.2H Enhancing the capacity sport science, research and technology ............ 92 6.2.1H Current research & technology partnerships 93 6.2.2H The way forward – a new model for a new era 94 6.2.3H Sport research and innovation centre 95 6.2.4H Summary 96 FindingH 19 97 RecommendationH 19: National centre for science, innovation and technology in sport 97 6.3H Sport information, technology and knowledge ............................................. 97 6.3.1 Information and communications technology capability of Australian sport 98 6.3.2 Enabling access to sport information 99 6.3.3 Exploiting new knowledge environments in sport 100 6.3.4 Building e-capability in Australian sport 101 Finding 20 102 Recommendation 20: Development of ICT infrastructure and e-capability for sport 102 7 Diversification of funding base .............................................................................. 103 7.1 Commercial opportunities in sport ................................................................ 103 Finding 21 104 Recommendation 21: Identifying commercial opportunities for NSOs 104 7.2 Events legacy ...................................................................................................... 104 Finding 22 104 Recommendation 22: Events legacy 104 ASC Submission to the Commonwealth Government’s Independent Review of Sport Page iii 7.3 Public-private partnerships .............................................................................. 105 Finding 23 105 Recommendation 23: Public-private partnerships 105 7.4 Sports lottery ....................................................................................................... 105 Finding 24 106 Recommendation 24: National sports lottery 106 7.5 Taxation arrangements affecting sport ......................................................... 106 Finding 25 107 Recommendation