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Submission by Tennis ACT Limited on 26 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.
Government frameworks need to support community participation in sport and recreational physical activity by ensuring that adequate and appropriate facilities are available to individual participants. Facilities should be designed to provide ease of access to multiple sporting and recreational opportunities and be constructed to ensure efficiency in management and maintenance while providing access to the community at least cost to the participants. There has been a tendency for governments to make large contributions towards the construction of large stadia and venues for national competitions and elite events that do little towards increasing community participation in healthy physical activity. At times there has been excessive investment in facilities for development of elite players, when allocation of the same level of funds to facilities for community use would probably have produced a far greater impact in terms of community participations and potentially identification of future elite players. These facilities often have a history of underutilization and restriction of community access. At the same time, insufficient funding has been provided to ensure that existing community facilities have been maintained and new facilities provided in areas of population growth. Tennis ACT is developing its role as a provider of competitive and recreational community sporting services through the proposed redevelopment of its facilities. This redevelopment will add additional opportunities for competitive and recreational sports and community programs through the addition of table tennis, fencing, and YMCA activities to the existing tennis, squash and indoor cricket. Financial support is anticipated from the ACT Government and Tennis Australia but funding from Commonwealth programs would help greatly to ensure that these facilities can be provided to the desired standards
- Examine Government programs to increase participation rates in sport and physical activity, including analysis of existing programs.
In the past year Tennis ACT has received some grant funding from the Department of Health and Ageing to run programs aimed at encouraging adults to take up physical activities (including tennis) that will lead to an improved level of fitness and health through ongoing participation in physical activity. It is too early to judge the success of these programs for their long term effects. However, in a period of an ageing and increasingly obese population, Tennis ACT believes that there is considerable scope for Government programs to encourage members of the community to engage in competitive and recreational sporting activities, either as individuals or family groups. Tennis is a sport well placed to provide these opportunities. Forms of Government programs that can be utilized range from grants to community sporting organizations to undertake specified activities, tax concessions, health insurance rebates, funding to ensure that facilities are accessible within the community. . It is also most important that facilities and programs for young people are a high priority and Tennis ACT is very keen to increase the delivery of such programs at the new Regional Tennis and Sports Centre. Increased Government programs to facilitate these objectives are vital.
- 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.
Tennis has a history of being a lifetime sport and recreation pastime with activities and events available for all age groups. From time to time Tennis Act has received funding targeting specific groups such as women, the disabled and indigenous. However such funding tends to be for short term programs and activities and not provided within the context of a long term framework that realises the ongoing benefits of continued participation in sport or physical activity. Much activity for juniors in many sports has been aimed at identifying potentially talented athletes and introducing them to programs aimed at realizing their potential to be a champion. This leaves many by the wayside, particularly those with lesser skills who may never aspire to more than participation as a leisure or recreational activity. Funding for programs to find effective ways to maintain the involvement of juniors of all levels in tennis and related health programs would be of major benefit to Australia. For people of working age, it may be opportune to support the exploration of mechanisms to engage more public and private workplaces in sport, recreation and physical activity as part of their corporate culture. Mechanisms could include various tax concessions and grants for targeted programs. Commonwealth funding programs being more flexible to better target specific audience groups who may ‘need additional support’ and to adjust quickly to changing and emerging circumstances. Joint investment by the Commonwealth in facility partnerships with State/Local governments and sporting and community organisations that make facilities more accessible including access by public transport, adequate car parking, disabled access and more friendly environments Development of community multisport facilities and not stand-alone style sports facilities will also improve access and facilitate greater usage and more cost effective management of community facilities.
- 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.
The current situation sees individual sports often sending out individual messages and communications campaigns which are not necessarily communicating positive health and activity messages. Work done by the ASC (eg ASC – A Case for Sport (SBS -2006) and ASC – Communications Strategy (D.Pembroke – 2008)) is not always widely disseminated or acted upon by Government and implemented by the sports industry. It is also common for sport not to be on health agenda and health not on sports agenda in Australia. This points to a need for greater coordination of activity by the Commonwealth Government in conjunction with the States and Territories and the various peak sporting and recreation bodies to:• improve the recognition of the health-related benefits of sport, recreation and physical activity to better engage involvement of sport and recreation with the health sector • have a national body that is driving the recreation agenda that is integrated with sport. • Implement the existing ASC communications strategy. • Better promotion of the evidence base linking sport, recreation and physical activity with health benefits.
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.
Tennis ACT operates under the frameworks developed by Tennis Australia for player and coach development. These were outlined in the submission made to the panel by Tennis Australia in Nov ember 2008. Tennis ACT recognises that not all players have ambitions to travel along the pathway to elite player. Accordingly there is a responsibility to ensure that facilities, programs and activities exist at the intermediate destinations that meet the needs of players of all ages and standards.
- Recommend the most effective support and recognition for the coaches, officials, umpires, administrators and volunteers who keep our community clubs alive.
Volunteers are clearly the lifeblood of the sport and recreation industry. However the operating environment is now more complex than even ten years ago, with higher levels of community expectation in areas such as risk management, public liability, inclusive practices, child protection and preventing harassment. Tennis ACT considers any national policy framework must recognise and support the work of volunteers as a priority – given they are the lifeblood of the sport and recreation industry. Declining rates of volunteerism will have (and in some cases, already have had) adverse impacts on sport and recreation organisations and their ability to deliver participation opportunities. Tennis ACT supports the comments made by the YMCA in its submission to the panel. These are reproduced below “The Federal Government needs to take measures to reduce the significant barriers facing individuals who are often volunteers and committed parents that are acting as coaches, officials, umpires and administrators of local community-based sporting clubs. .... With regard to training and accreditation of coaches and officials, the YMCA believes that a re-examination of funding models through State Sporting Organisations and local sporting groups needs to occur in order to provide enhanced support for coaches and officials, building the capacity of local sporting clubs and community-based groups to recruit and retain appropriately trained and supported personnel.“Tasks for community sporting clubs are often onerous and are predominantly the responsibility of volunteers. There is a clear role for organisations such as the YMCA in providing mentoring and capacity-building assistance for smaller community-based sporting organisations, particularly with regard to facilities management and financial administration. The Federal Government could enhance this role by providing greater resources to facilitate such collaborative and sustainable partnerships. This is particularly important in rural and regional areas where there is a critical lack of sustainable support for local sporting organisations that are often the central social and cultural thread of the community. There is often a duplication in management and administration that creates a burdensome workload for committed community volunteers.“The Federal Government could consider supporting a more efficient model of community based management in which ‘back office’ operations such as administration, payroll and insurance a
- 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 existence of the federal model both within government and the organizational structure of many sports can lead to inefficiences and confusion in the management and funding of sporting activities throughout Australia. There is no guarantee that similar funding programs are available in all States and Territories and Commonwealth funding may not be available to sporting organizations and events below the national level. Local government plays a significant role in the provision of sporting facilities, but the capabilities of local governments are not uniform. Given the multitude of organizations both government and sporting involved there is no guarantee that all are operating on the same time scale in terms of strategic planning, funding, governance and operations. There is a need for simplification and coordination of processes.
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
Tennis ACT is aware of the difficulties of obtaining sponsorship at the local level for sports that do not and cannot obtain a substantial media profile. Sponsors expect a return for their investment in sponsorship. Tennis ACT notes and supports the comments of the YMCA in its submission which are reproduced below. “Access to community-based sport and recreation is a community health issue and is the responsibility of Government. .....“With Sport portfolio now residing within the Department of Health and Ageing, there may be greater opportunities for community-based sporting organisations to access Federal funding through alternative funding programs. Successful application of this broader perspective on the role of community-based sport and recreation within a health and wellbeing and preventative health framework will rely on a whole of government approach....Australia also believes that with a national preventative health framework that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) also has a critical and strategic role to play in elevating the status of community-based sport, recreation, health and wellbeing at the state and local level.”Community participation in sport primarily occurs at club level; traditionally clubs attempt to be financially self-sufficient with some assistance available through the State/Territory Government for facilities development and some program delivery. Small sponsorships may be obtained from local businesses but only a small number of national companies (eg. Woolworths and MacDonalds) have taken the initiative to provide funding and sponsorship support for local level clubs. There has been little leadership shown by Governments to encourage the funding of community level participation by the private sector. This scenario exists against a strong background of funding for elite sport and elite sportspeople.Tennis ACT considers that there is opportunity for the Commonwealth to work with the States and Territories and national sporting organizations to develop innovative approaches to engaging with the private sector to identify mutually beneficial opportunities for private companies to sponsor community participation. These approaches should be based on the growing trend for companies now seek to be accountable to their shareholders and employees on the grounds of corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability, and presumably a desire to demonstrate to potential customers their progress in these areas.
Page last updated: 26 March, 2009