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Olympic sports want a change to the funding process by proposing a “one stop shop” for access to Federal Government grants.
Hot on the heels of Tuesday’s appeal for $100 million a year of extra funding, the Olympic sports are now calling for a more direct way to access government money with an establishment of a National Integrated Sport Policy.
It is part of the new streamlined thinking among Olympic sports that will include a greater sharing of knowledge and resources as they move towards the 2012 London Olympics.
The new model would incorporate the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) which currently distributes government funding amongst the Olympic sports.
The call came on Wednesday at the conclusion of the two-day high performance sports forum in Sydney that was attended by representatives of all Olympic and Paralympic sports, the Australian Olympic Committee, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the state institutes and academies of sport.
The aim is to remove some of the red-tape involved in sports accessing funds by setting up one organisation to distribute the money rather than individual state institutes.
“We’ve got the message from the sports when it comes to funding and policy we need to establish a one stop shop” said AOC president John Coates.
Football high performance manager John Boultbee, former head of the AIS, said a centralised program with a national focus was the best way for Australian sport to move forward and maintain its position among the world sporting powers.
“There is an absolute commitment from the groups going forward. A co-ordinated approach is needed. We need to set up a national leadership group to run it” said Boultbee.
“We need a one stop shop for high performance funding and support which has a clear focus to take us to success. It needs support from the Federal and State Governments at the highest level.
“The ones who are out there getting their hands dirty must have input.”
The one stop shop is one of the key recommendations from the forum as well as the need for greater collaboration between the sports to improve efficiency and sharing of knowledge.
Noting Australia had fallen behind in sports science since the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the additional funding proposal to be put to government will help retain coaches and rebuild the sports science.
“If we cannot outspend the competition, we have to be smarter,” said Coates.
The AOC will formulate the proposal for a funding increase and all the forum’s other recommendations over the next month and present them to the Prime Minister before the next budget.