The newly appointed Chairman of the National Elite Sports Council (NESC) Steve Lawrence used his first day in his new position today to highlight the sporting group’s concerns with the on-going delay surrounding the Federal Government’s Crawford Review.
Speaking from the NESC meeting in Perth, Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) Executive Director Lawrence said that the uncertainty surrounding funding toAustralia’s national sporting organisations due to the CrawfordReviewwill prove to be a major inhibitor to future Australian success at major international competitions.
“Australians have become accustomed to their sports people punching above their weight on the international sporting stage,” Lawrence said.
“But this is going to be consigned to the annals of history if a degree of clarity for our high performance programs, particularly surrounding funding,isn’t provided by the Federal Minister sooner rather than later.”
The NESC meeting confirmed the fears raised by Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates last month, with the delays in confirming funding past June 2010 reducing the likelihood of green and gold success in London in 2012 and beyond.
“We’re already starting to see the number of Australian athletes standing on international sporting podiums falling and this will only worsen if the indecision continues,” Lawrence stated.
“Now is the time to be making decisions regarding Australia’s sporting future otherwise by the time we reach Rio in 2016 the dark days of Montreal might make an unwelcome return.”
Lawrence was elected chairman of the group which comprises the heads of Australia’s State and Territory Institutes, Academies of Sport, the Australian Institute of Sport and representatives of the Australian Olympic Committee, Australian Commonwealth Games Association and Australian Paralympic Committee at their quarterly meeting held in Perth over the past two days. He takes the reins of the Council from South Australian Sports Institute Director Wes Battams, who retired as Chairman after five years, with New South Wales Institute of Sport Director Charles Turner to fill the newly created position of Deputy Chairman.
Another positive outcome from the gathering, which co-incides with WAIS’s 25th anniversary celebrations, was the continued development of a close working relationship between NESC and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), under the leadership of recently appointed Chief Executive Officer Matt Miller. An agreed draft memorandum of understanding between the ASC and NESC was completed during the course of the meeting,helping to reinvigoratea collaborative partnership which will ensure the provision ofthe best support to Australia’s elite athletes.
