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Submission by David Bell, Tagai State College Torres Strait Queensland on 27 March 2009.
2. Better place sport and physical activity as a key component of the Government's preventative health approach
- Examine Government frameworks to ensure an on-going focus on grassroots and community sport and physical activity.
Grants to sporting organisations should be tied to development and participation to ensure that parts of their resources are directed towards developing skills in children and catering for older adults. There should also be stipulations that funds should be targeted to cater for the sport in remote and indigenous communities, especially where the sport is already well-established. Grants should also be tied to sports that have a comprehensive strategic plan. Our college has established Memoranda of Understanding with several sports that have the organisational structure to offer support to our students and community. They have strategic plans to address all aspects of their sport including those with special relevance to our and similar schools such as specialised programs for indigenous and isolated students, selection, scholarships, traineeships, mentoring programs and coach training. These sports should be used as model for other sports that need to re-structure. Some sports hold back our students by offering little in the way of coaching, unprofessional selection procedures and lack of identified personnel to link with schools and community groups.
- Examine Government programs to increase participation rates in sport and physical activity, including analysis of existing programs.
From our experience, a lot of people will get involved in sport if something is organised and the facilities are there. If a sports and recreation officer or a club organises an activity people will generally turn up, but these activities need to be age specific, from introducing children to new sports and the benefits to physical activity to older members of the community. While sports and recreation officers have been placed in the majority of communities in the Torres Strait and many are committed and hard-working, there is little overseeing, accountability or leadership to make their roles effective in many cases. These people need clear role statements, supervision and direction from accountable officers.
- Identify and recommend opportunities to break down barriers to participation at junior, adult and senior ages with a view to making it simpler and easier for Australians to participate in the sport or physical activity of their choice, including for women, the disabled and Indigenous people.
• Appropriately skilled deliverers of sporting activities in the community, especially sports and recreation officers in remote and indigenous centres • Age specific activities appropriate to the interests and resources of the community • Provision of facilities appropriate to interests and climate of the community
- Recommend strategies to increase the effectiveness of the promotion of sport by the Federal Government to better communicate positive health and activity messages to the broader community.
• Preferential funding to organizations with strategic plans that cater for development of juniors and participation of seniors • Tying funding of major sports to a commitment to servicing remote and indigenous communities. • The appointment of Regional Development Officers to assist schools and community groups to promote skill development and participation. • Standardising of the roles of sports and recreation officers in indigenous communities and putting in place systems for skilling, resourcing and monitoring. • Developing systems that encourage partnerships between crucial agencies including sports, clubs, schools, health and community groups • A national system of coach training to skill people to deliver sport in the community. Any strategy should especially address the needs of isolated and indigenous communities who have little access to present systems. • A talent identification system with clearly defined pathways.
3. Strengthen pathways from junior sport to grassroots community sport right through to elite and professional sport.
- Examine the capacity of the system to ensure optimal and efficient delivery of the athlete and coach pathway for any given sport.
While the pathway concept of the school sports system is a sound one, there are two major barriers that disadvantage our students and impede their progression through the various levels. The first is isolation which hits us twice – isolation from mainstream sporting events but also isolation within our own college. Our primary students are spread across 15 different islands so any competition or preparation of teams is only possible by spending large amounts of money. As a result, it costs us more to hold a district event than to send a representative team all the way to Cairns. Although there are programs that attempt to address the problem, such at PCAP, our unique situation means that we struggle each year to cater for our students’ sporting needs. The second major barrier is the selection process in some school sports. From experience, this happens for two reasons. One is the influence of club officials. Players seem to be pre-selected on club form and students outside the club sytem, have to be outstanding to remove those ‘pre-selected’. After travelling with a student to state level, I have witnessed the pressure that coaches who also select teams are under from parents to include club students. Secondly, coaches will often omit our players because they will not be available to train with the team.. Surely the system is there to ensure that students who deserve to be in the team, based on talent and performance, are selected, rather than winning the carnival. Our students have the very isolation that they have overcome (lack of resources, coaching and competition) used against them – selection by postcode. An example from 2008 - the Torres Strait Team was joint champion in a regional rugby league carnival (despite most players coming from islands with no competition or field). Three of players made the regional team, six from the team we tied with and 4 from the team we defeated in the semifinals. There is a constant pattern of over-representation from the coach and manager’s teams. We are spending a lot on money and resources on sport - appointing a full time sport coordinator and establishing Centres of Excellence in three sports. So it is extremely disheartening for our students and communities when opportunities are missed despite all the money and effort spent to overcome barriers. This situation does not apply to all sports. Others have fair systems and our students are not disadvantaged in any way by the selection process.
- Recommend the most effective support and recognition for the coaches, officials, umpires, administrators and volunteers who keep our community clubs alive.
A system to accredit coaches and referees from both the school and club system to give them the skills and confidence to cater for all groups within the community needs to be introduced. Surely people who learn skills from a qualified coach from a young age are more likely to continue to participate in this sport for longer if the opportunity is there. Assistance is especially needed in remote communities for this to occur. There is usually a lack of finances and opportunity for people in such places to upgrade their skills. With few other options, sport is often a major activity in such communities. Yet people are left to struggle under-skilled, under-resourced and often under-valued.
- Examine how relationships between the Commonwealth Government and National Sporting Organisations, State Sporting Organisations and Australia’s peak representative bodies at key multi-sports competitions may be strengthened to deliver better performance outcomes.
The school system for representative teams needs to be independent of the club system. All students have access to the school system in some way, but many students do not have access to the club system. Many students in isolated areas are extremely gifted – natural talent combined with the fact that sport is such a central part of the lifestyle. But people in these communities carry on cut off from the rest of the nation. The school system is the only one that offers some inclusion and therefore must be nurtured and refined.
5. Identify opportunities to increase and diversify the funding base for sport through corporate sponsorship, media and any recommended reforms, such as enhancing the effectiveness of the Australian Sports Foundation
More funding needs to be targeted to address the imbalance of opportunities between mainstream and isolated communities. Students are already disadvantaged - no training camps, no visiting coaches, no club matches. We have no choice but to organise charter planes to hold a district carnival – the one and only time each year that students will have a chance to compete against other students. And this is extremely expensive and complex. Add to this the cost of flying students in from all the islands and then on to the regional carnival in Cairns where they need to be accommodated and transported. The only way to reach two of our islands is by plane and then ferry. If the ferry is not running because of the prevailing rough weather, then students miss out. Compare this to students in most regions who have regular training, competition, access to facilities and coaching and can drive the family car or hire a bus to participate in events. This inequity first of all needs more recognition and obviously more resources.
Page last updated: 27 March, 2009