E & OE proof only
Subjects: Olympics, sport in schools, Australia?s performance, medal tally, funding for elite sport, our athletes, horse racing, match-fixing, Olympic wager
ROWLAND:?One of whom is the Sport Minister Kate Lundy. She joins us know from London. Minister, good morning. If I can start by asking for your response to John Coate?s call for sports in schools to be made compulsory. What do you reckon?
LUNDY:?Oh look, so many schools already have sport as a huge part of their program. These issues are of course being contemplated right now through ACARA and the national school curriculum. I know a great case has been made for sport and for active sport in that national curriculum, so we?ll see how that plays out.? I do agree though, there?s so much evidence that sport in schools brings not just health benefits, but improved academic outcomes as well. That evidence has been growing overtime now and I think sport ? I?ve described it for a long time as much more than the sum of it?s parts, and just improving, I think, the general outcomes in education is just one of them.
ROWLAND:?Well let?s look now at other possibilities for this low medal tally. The elite sporting community gets $170 million dollars each year from the government, should John Coates be ? instead of looking at sports curriculum in schools, looking instead on how to better spend that very large pot of money on elite sports people??
LUNDY:?Well, let?s just get this in perspective ? Australia isn?t doing badly at the Olympics ? we just don?t have very many gold medals. If you look at the number of silver medals we?ve got that?s athletes who?ve come a millisecond, a millimetre close to gold. Nothing will take that away from them. So, this discussion is an important one to have post-Olympics, post any major international event, we need to reassess, we need to take stock of our high performance program. But our athletes are not failing us. We?re bringing home bagfuls of silver medals, which means they?re that close to taking gold and we ought to be proud of them. Not talking down their achievements in the way that we are.
ROWLAND: Yeah, well that?s the point Minister. You could be forgiven for thinking otherwise based on all of the coverage. Let?s not forget back at the time of the Crawford Review in 2009, John Coates criticised those who said the focus shouldn?t be on the medal tally as being ?un-Australian?. So, do you think we?ve got our thinking wrong here?
LUNDY:?Look, I think medals are very easy to count and that?s what we all do at Olympics. But we?ve got a lot of other things going on here including substantial improvement with many of our younger athletes moving up in their field. So many of our smaller sports are on a very positive trajectory. We?re improving all of the time. I think these things are important to recognise. Our swimmers for example had eight personal bests and good finals representation so the system isn?t broken. That said, we need to keep innovating. One of the great strengths of Australian sport is that we innovate, that we punch above our weight with proportionally far less resources than some of the really large countries like the USA, like China, like Russia. We?ve always done that. It?s a great time I think to look at how we?re innovating in our sports science, our sports technology. As always, post-Olympics and any big event it?s time to take stock and of course we?ll be doing that. Since coming to the portfolio, we?ve already established the Australian Sports Technology Network as an example of bringing together the sports ?smarts? across our universities, across our AIS, across our research institutions, to make sure we?re leveraging the best of the best that we?ve got in Australia towards our sporting effort.
ROWLAND:?Kate Lundy, was John Coates unrealistic to raise public expectations of these Games of Australia getting top five of the medal?s race, based on what you?ve just said about ? we?re we?ve perhaps fallen down on innovation in the last four years or so?
LUNDY:?Again, don?t misinterpret me we?re still really strong on innovation. What?s happened over the last 10 years or so is that other countries have looked at the Australian model and emulated it and put huge resources behind that. There?s a message in that. The competition is fiercer across a larger number of countries, and of course with the British so focused on their home Games we?ve seen them have an exemplary experience so far here in London. So again I don?t think it?s broken, but this is a wake up if you like, we need to keep innovating and do what we?re great at. That?s the opportunity that sits before us.
ROWLAND:?Would it be a brave AOC, Minister, to ask for more money after these Games?
LUNDY: Look, no one is saying that money is the issue. And we have put record investment into both our high performance program and into our participation program. We responded to Crawford review effectively and thoroughly and of course I think it?s how that money is spent that will be part of each sport as they go through the performance assessment following the Olympics.
ROWLAND:?Just before you go Minister, a couple of quick questions. The ABC and the Age are reporting this morning of claims of widespread allegations of race-fixing in Australia?s racing industry. Do those questions concern you?
LUNDY: Obviously, as we all know it?s a matter for State to regulate the racing industry. That said, the Commonwealth is not complacent in this area of match-fixing and stamping out corruption. For other sports, we are well progressed in developing a regulatory framework and a legislative framework to stamp out match fixing in sport more generally where there is some jurisdiction and we?re working with State Attorneys-General and State Sport Ministers to get this legislation through before the end of the year.?? ??????
ROWLAND: So the regulatory framework hasn?t been strong enough up until now?
LUNDY: No, I?m talking about match-fixing for sport more generally. The regulatory framework for racing is the jurisdiction of the State and Territory governments.?
?ROWLAND: So they should be doing much more than they have been based on these very serious allegations raised this morning?
?LUNDY:?Well I?ve heard of these allegations, like I think we?ve all heard of them. I think we need to see what comes to pass obviously we can?t afford, and I would be gravely concerned if there was corruption in the Australian racing industry.
?ROWLAND: And finally Minister, of course you made a very public bet with your British Sport Minister counterpart that if Australia fell below Britain on the gold medal table you would don the British colours and complete the Olympic rowing course. So how?s the training going?
LUNDY: Yeah, well it?s underway I can assure you. I?ve cheerfully conceded this time round I?ll be rowing out of Eton. The British Team has just? been quite incredible ? their winning of not just gold medals, but medal generally. The feeling in the stadiums when the British spectators get behind their girl, their guy is just quite extraordinary. It reminds me a lot of what we experienced in Sydney. The home team is a great lift for their athletes. And all due credit to their athletes too, they?ve obviously been focused on their efforts here in London in 2012.
ROWLAND:? [inaudible] ? I think you?ll look great in a Union Jack personally speaking. Thanks for joining us.
LUNDY: [laughs] Thanks very much.
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