Independent Sport Panel

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Submission by Wayne Goldsmith on 10 October 2008.

1. Ensure Australia's continued elite sporting success

  1. Australian Sports Commission's NON elite activities, e.g. coach education, minorities, after school sport etc should be absorbed back into the Dept of Sport or Education departments.
  2. A new body HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORTS AUSTRALIA should be formed consisting of the AIS / AOC / SIS-SAS NETWORK and some NSOs which is focused on high performance and winning at elite level in international sport.
  3. The new body should have minimal bureaucracy so that the maximum possible funding can be available for coaches and athletes. The new body must be able to adapt and change quickly and be dynamic in response to the needs of the rapidly changing international elite sports competitive environment.
  4. Board of HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORTS AUSTRALIA should include AOC President - critical that all bodies responsible for winning at international level work together.
  5. Talent ID as it exists in the ASC is ineffective, over funded and has not produced results. Disband the NTID program and fund NSO based ELITE TALENT IDENTIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS who can drive the process within sports.
  6. AIS should be different things for different sports. For swimming for example, it should be a camps based program and focus on cutting edge research, e.g. AUSTRALIAN CENTRE OF AQUATIC RESEARCH. Funding from the current centralised program should be diverted direct to coaches, athletes and clubs.
  7. SIS/SAS/AIS should form effective partnerships and share resources as much as possible.
  8. SIS/SAS/AIS programs should be based around what most appropriate and relevant and sustainable for the culture, e.g. swimming, triathlon, diving in Qld as AIS/QAS programs, Rowing and Athletics in Melbourne as AIS / VIS programs and so on.
  9. AIS is based on inefficient ""silos"" - e.g. physiology department, nutrition department and so on. Needs to develop a cutting edge, integrated, problem solving, multi-disciplinary project team approach to working with elite athletes and coaches and move away from the current system which is out of date, inefficient and largely ineffective.
  10. System itself needs to be integrated and seamless. Elite athletes need unique solutions - they are individuals. Solutions are not necessarily in programs - sometimes it is in the case management of individuals.

2. Better place sport and physical activity as a key component of the Government's preventative health approach

  1. Compulsory physical education in all schools.
  2. Designate PE teachers and coaches in all schools.
  3. Tax deductibility of coaching fees, learn to swim classes, sports equipment, sporting lessons etc etc for parents.

3. Strengthen pathways from junior sport to grassroots community sport right through to elite and professional sport

  1. All sports need to clearly define the athlete development pathway from participation to international level THEN....
  2. ALIGN the coach education and development pathway to the athlete development pathway THEN....
  3. Create systems and structures to support the above. But is must start with Number 1.

4. Maintain Australia's cutting edge approach to sports science, research and technology

  1. The system has become old, tired, flat and many of the cutting edge people, systems and ideas have gone overseas.
  2. The SIS/SAS/AIS still operates on a decades old ""silo"" model which grew out of the Academic world - ie. departments model.
  3. We need to take the lead in a new way of doing sports science - in an integrated, multi disciplinary way working as performance science teams. AIS must be changed - there is too much wasting of resources between departments and too much time wasting as people sort out political differences. Athletes must come first.
  4. We have to do it another way. We can not beat the British for money. We can not beat the Chinese or USA for population or money. We have do find a point of difference and do it a different way. Everyone has academies and institutes of sport. Everyone doing it by department - we must be smarter and adopt an integrated approach.
  5. Must look at centres of research excellence where researchers focus on specific themes, e.g. altitude or talent id or technology - hubs of excellence in specific areas.
  6. Partnerships essential between AIS / SIS-SAS and other government technology driven bodies, e.g. Telstra, CSIRO, Military - to find performance and innovation advantages.

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

  1. Sports Lottery system of some kind is critical.
  2. Mimimal bureaucracy - direct funding to athletes and coaches but with ties to specific performance processes and based on the achievement of performance outcomes.
  3. Re. Australian Sports Foundation. No one really knows what it does, who runs it or how to benefit from it. Suggest disbanding it and creating something more effective and better at targeting elite performance.

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Page last updated: 10 October, 2008