Federal government warned of $2 billion funding black hole ahead of green and gold decade
The federal government has been warned that Australian sport is about to go backwards during its most critical decade, and it will cost us gold medals.
Key points:
- Australian Olympic Committee chair Matt Carroll warns Australian sport faces a $2 billion funding shortfall
- Carroll says Australia’s athletes risk being “undermined by inaction”
- He is calling for a government upgrade for sport, to coordinate its approach
Unless it receives a $2 billion injection, Australian sport is in danger of failing the nation’s expectations during the green and gold decade, according to Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief executive Matt Carroll.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Carroll’s message was aimed at the federal government, but came with assurances that sport must also be accountable if it was the beneficiary of a $200 million-a-year investment building towards Brisbane 2032.
“Unless this situation is rectified, Australia will be staring failure in the face at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games because our home team will have been undermined by inaction,” Carroll said.
Live updates
By Jon Healy
Health vs sport investment
Isn’t our Health more important than a couple of weeks of glory sports?
– Pamela
Matt Carroll does not see those two things as mutually exclusive.
And regardless of how you feel about his comments about a 700 per cent financial return on investment in sport funding, it’s fair to say that investment in sport across all levels can have positive impacts on two areas most obviously.
One is health and the other is tourism.
By Jon Healy
Matt Carroll has finished answering questions
He has his little pin and has been inducted into the NPC, so he’s done.
Any questions for me?
By Jon Healy
How can we justify spending money on Olympic sports with so many other financial pressures?
Carroll says for every $1 spent on sport in Australia, we get $7 back and says investment in sport will deliver long-term benefits for everyday Australians.
“It will reduce the health budget, improve productivity in the country, and allow the country actually to grow at a better rate than it did if it becomes obese, lacklustre, lacking imagination, all those things that sport brings to the community.
“There is actually a huge return on investment to, not just the government, but to the Australian community.”
By Jon Healy
Sporting bodies going ‘quietly mad’
On the issue of the standalone federal sport department, Carroll says it’s difficult for sports to enact plans because the portfolio is handballed from tourism, to health, infrastructure, to foreign affairs.
“There is no coordination. Federally, there is no coordination.
“I go to a lot of forums and workshops and I sit there and listen to all the people — and they’re all sincere — from various governments, state governments, federal governments, city councils, and so forth, but everyone is doing their own thing.
“We’re not going to get the outcomes that we want because it’s not coordinated. It drives our member sports quietly mad because they’re trying to answer to many, many different masters.”
By Jon Healy
‘We will be able to find a sport for any transgender person to become an Olympian’
Carroll is asked about the recent changes restricting the ability of transgender athletes to get into elite female competition announced by World Athletics.
“Each sport is developing their own program around being able to bring transgender into their sports. I know that some of the sports have individual programs for individual athletes to be able to participate in their chosen sport.
“There’s 44 member sports. I personally feel that we will be able to find a sport for any transgender person, for them to be able to participate and potentially become an Olympian. We can do that.
“At the same time, at the same time, respecting our female athletes.”
By Jon Healy
AOC has no official stance on gambling advertising (but Matt’s not a fan)
Carroll is asked about whether there should be stricter restrictions on gambling advertising on television.
He says the AOC never has and never will take gambling money, so it doesn’t have an official stance, but personally, he’s not a fan of how many gambling ads there are around the place.
“Public opinion will perhaps start to force a bit of change in that space.”
By Jon Healy
AOC in line with IOC on Russian athletes
Matt Carroll says the AOC supports a pathway back to elite competition for Russian and Belarusian athletes.
“Sport is about bringing the world together. It is not about pulling the world apart.
“It’s not the athletes causing the grief and the tragedy. So there’s an opportunity to bring the world together, not drive people further apart.”
By Jon Healy
How do you keep sports in the public eye when they’re only truly showcase every four years?
Carroll says “our sports are in the market 24/7”, but they’re only showcased at the Games.
That’s a constant battle for sports that don’t have big broadcast deals, which put elite competitions in front of people’s faces year-round. That leads to larger funding and things like new stadiums, often used as trading chips come election time.
Carroll says it comes down to lobbying.
“Congratulations, I take my hat off to them. But not everybody wants to be a rugby league player.”
By Jon Healy
Does sport need its own reality check?
ABC Sport’s Tracey Holmes says, while Carroll has given the federal government a reality check, does sport need its own in asking for more money.
Carroll says it needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship.
“We must be measurable … same as the government puts money into lots of industries.”
By Jon Healy
What about the cost of investment for a couple of weeks nine years from now?
“I’d be standing here today whether the Games were in Brisbane or New York,” Matt Carroll says.
But this is an opportunity to “turbo-charge” those improvements.
“This investment in infrastructure isn’t just for the Olympics, they’re there for the community.
“More kids playing sport, they’ve got to be able to play it somewhere.”
By Jon Healy
Does more funding equal more medals?
Chair Julie Hare, the education reporter for the Australian Financial Review, asks Carroll if there is “a direct correlation” between the amount of funding for sports and the number of medals they haul in at the Games.
“Certainly there’s a correlation,” he says.
By Jon Healy
To recap
AOC boss Matt Carroll has called for…
- A “national statement of purpose” to make clear exactly where sport stands in the federal set-up.
- A new sport investment model with built in accountability mechanisms.
- More funding for sporting organisations around the country to avoid falling $2 billion short of where it needs to be come the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics in Brisbane.
- Create a standalone sport department in federal government, rather than have it “hidden away” under the banner of health.
- Greater funding for the Australian Institute of Sport so it can regain its status as a world leader in training and research, making it “the CSIRO of sport”.
By Jon Healy
Matt Carroll is wrapping up his prepared address
He’s about to start taking questions from the well-fed journalists in attendance.
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“Based on the federal government’s forward estimates, there is a $2 billion shortfall in direct investment in Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports in the 10 years leading to Brisbane 2032.
In a detailed strategy outlining a new vision for sport in Australia, Carroll also called for a government upgrade for sport — as a stand-alone portfolio with a seat in cabinet — ensuring a coordinated, targeted approach across other government strategies and policy areas.
“To ensure that the once-in-a-generation opportunity of the runway to Brisbane 2032 and the 10 years after are not missed nor squandered, we need a clear articulation of a national Statement of Purpose of, and for, the sports industry, which clearly establishes where sport sits in the federal government’s national priorities, and recognised through a national sport strategy.”
It was suggested other portfolios that could benefit from a holistic approach included health, education, regional development, foreign affairs, tourism, trade, infrastructure as well as Indigenous Australians, early childhood education and youth.
Half of Australia’s population is involved in sport in some way — through junior, senior, disability, Indigenous, community and schools’ programs.
To guarantee the benefits of sport are maximised for all Australians, a coordinated, united approach involving all levels of government were detailed, including:
- A national Statement of Purpose for sport
- A new sport investment model with built in accountability mechanisms
- A stand-alone Department of Sport
- A boost in direct investment in sports to arrest the decline
- A significant funding increase for the AIS to make it the CSIRO of sport.
“The election of Brisbane as host of the 35th Olympiad has gifted Australia a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Carroll said.
“But simply successfully hosting the Brisbane Games is not going to deliver the positive outcomes that can be achieved, the generational legacy benefits for the nation.
“To do this, we must have a unity of purpose that transcends politics, lobby groups and fixed thinking.”
Creating champions is not cheap.
Carroll pointed out not a single dollar he is asking for will go to his organisation, since it is self-funded through sponsorship, licensing and fundraising activities, as well as donations from the Australian Olympic Foundation and the International Olympic Committee.
The AOC contributed $35 million in getting Australia’s last two Olympic teams to the COVID-impacted Tokyo 2020 Summer and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. But to get to that point, each athlete had already received a years-long sport-specific investment.
While critics argue a cash-strapped government — staring at a $1 trillion deficit — has other priorities needing urgent attention, the sports sector refers to a KPMG analysis that found for every $1 spent on sport, the economy receives a $7 return.
Australia’s international reputation for staging world-class events has seen the country win the rights to multiple world cups and championships in the years before Brisbane 2032, including this July’s co-hosting with New Zealand of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Each event comes with promises of economic benefits for local businesses and the tourism sector while, internationally, sport has proven to be a useful tool in Australia’s soft-power kit.
Meanwhile, at a grassroots and community level, sport also helps address national concerns, including obesity, mental health and social inclusion.
Pointing to this wider value of sport, Carroll said sport did not want to be the “portfolio of marginal seats and political photo opportunities”.
“We do not enjoy being the portfolio of coloured spreadsheets or whiteboards mapping electorates,” he said.
“As an industry sector, we are fiscal contributors to the nation’s wellbeing through the critical role sport plays in our collective health.
“In addition, sport delivers economy-building major events, tourism, hospitality, infrastructure, research and something that is most important, sporting excellence, building national pride and international status.”
The AOC’s proposed Statement of Purpose include elements such as:
- The independence and autonomy of sports organisations
- Commitment to a diversity of sports, reflecting the multicultural nation we are and the new world we are engaging in — particularly Asia
- Commitment to sport as a great enabler for people with a disability
- Commitment to sport in the School Curriculum, providing children with positive and diverse sporting experiences
- Recognition of the positive impact of whole-of-life sport for active lifestyles, reducing disease and other negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle, as well as the positive impact that sport has on social cohesion and mental wellbeing across the community
- Recognition that sport can harness a sense of national pride that can unify the country
- Recognition that sporting organisations understand their sport business best and are well placed to develop, implement and deliver the outcomes being sought, especially in education and health.
“What the AOC is proposing is new thinking and new action. It is thinking that deliberately targets investment in a more active, healthier and productive population through the delivery mechanism of sport,” Carroll said.
“It is thinking that understands the legacy of an active and healthier society will not be achieved without the deliberate and planned coordination of the three key drivers: organised sport, health and education.
“It is thinking that knows that the Brisbane Games will not be a success if the Australian Teams are not successful.
“This an opportunity to make a generational difference, by forging an entirely new partnership between government and the sport industry, a partnership that will deliver for Australia well into the second half of this century and beyond.”
The federal government has been approached for comment.