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Submission by Leigh Hunter, Golf ACT/NSW on 17 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.

Over the past three years I have been setting up a junior golf scholarship program within the ACT Monaro District. With the Support of the Local District Golf Association and the Jack Newton Golf Foundation I have been doing surveys on every golf club in the District to see how I can support them in building their junior base. What I have discovered ie that the clubs who have been surveyed have a unique problem and that is that they have minimal time to allocate to the development of juniors on the golf course which is in turn seeing a fall in golf membership of 2% per year. These figures where derived at by and independant review a couple of years ago and my surveys have confirmed that this is a conservative number. Thereis onlygovernment program which I'm aware of which is combined with a number of other sports but wont fix the problem. The future problem that I see is that because of the minimal work being put into junior golf we will have a problem in the not to distant future of Golf Clubs going broke because there is not enough attention to the grass roots. However they are not completely ignorant of the fact but they are just surviving day to day and this also applies to the private clubs. The professional golfers at these clubs have their hands tied by the committees by having the focus being on the financial status of the club and not the future of golf. The difficulty in obtaing funding is an enormous problem due to the detail required by government bodies in the Grant process, for me personally I dont have the time to take away from what I'm currently doing to submit an extensive Grant application which may get knocked back due to a spelling mistake or two or because I dont know the process of applying or have a contact within a department who could help. I have been developing junior golf within my district over the past 3 years and find that the ideal demographics for funding are the ones who are taking up the opportunity which I give them. As a result I am seeing more children playing golf. Then their parents either start playing golf or continued where they left off when they had children. So we're seeing the whole family now playing golf and membership at the clubs

• Examine Government programs to increase participation rates in sport and physical activity, including analysis of existing programs.

No response

• 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.

No response

• 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.

No response

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.

No response

• Recommend the most effective support and recognition for the coaches, officials, umpires, administrators and volunteers who keep our community clubs alive.

No response

• 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.

No response

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

No response

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Page last updated: 17 March, 2009