Government policy and Commercialism of sport in Australia

Wks 22 & 23

• There are 3 levels of government in Australia• Central government• State and territory government • Local government

Government Policy

• In 1992 the federal government held an inquiry in to the standard of sport and physical education. The resulting action led to significant changes in the delivery of P.E (we will look onto this further in our case study of Victoria)

ASC (Australian Sports Commission)

The ASC takes an active role in policy making regarding sporting excellence as well as mass participation.

(we will look at this further during our mass participation topic)

Government Policy UK AUSTRAILIA

Sport operated through a decentralised system

Finance and policy are governed by the ASC

In the past funding for sport had poor financial support

In 1976 the Australian government recognised the need for sport funding and as a result had great success

The British government provides funding but nit involvement in policy making

The ASC.......

Commercialism in Australian sport

• Major sport is highly commercialised as in the UK & USA

• Prior to the 70s sport was funded by ticket sales and club membership fees

• After the 70s increased amounts of funding came from TV rights and by the 1980s TV rights became the main source of income for Australian sport

Commercialism cont..

In 1977 Kerry Packer created world series cricket exclusively for his own television network

It was a huge media success, differed greatly from cricket and became a huge entertainment business

Undoubtedly this influence sport in the UK (think of rugby league)

Commercialism cont..

• Sport the media and sponsorship are inextricably linked (as in the UK & USA)

• In 1995 Pay for View television was introduced• Sport is a corporate commodity ( i.e. bought by

a consumer) • Rupert Murdock set up his own TV company

and created super league, which he paid unprecedented amounts of money to rugby union and ruby league players to play in.

Rugby league case study

• The super league was shown exclusively on Murdock TV channel but disbanded after a year because Australia did not have a large enough population support two elite league teams.

• The league disbanded in a year as it was not financially viable

Football ( the English type)

• Currently the popularity of football is rising significantly ( currently 63rd in world

• The football association of Australia planned to host the 2018 World Cup ( but were beaten by Russia)

• The Australian government secured sponsorship deals with major Japanese companies and Eithad

Comparison of equality and social factors

• Include diagram form pg 161

Comparison of equality and social factors

• In the UK and Australia there are certain groups who suffer from discrimination.

• The ASC committed to developing sport for all and has programmes that target disadvantaged groups ( women, ethnic minorities and the disabled)

• Sport England / Wales is a comparable agency in the UK • When answering a question on discrimination remember

to focus on opportunity provision and esteem) • Australia's white policy became a catalyst for

discrimination in the country

Indigenous sport programme

• The ASC created this programme to encourage the Aborigine population to play sport at all levels and to be more active

• The programme also provided Aborigine peoples with the skills necessary to organise, deliver, manage sport within their communities and the wider community.

• At an elite level it was used to talent sport and to support women

Cathy Freeman – 400m Gold medallist

Disability sport programme

• ASC aims to improve participation rates for disabled performers

• This is done through coaching courses, adapted facilities and greater provision

Gender

• Frontier attitude was established by male dominance and led to discrimination in sport and wider society

• Historically the media painted negative views of female sports people questioning their femininity

Gender- modern day

• Women are encourage to take part in all activities

• In School • school education and physical education

programmes (SEPEP)• Classes are mixed wherever possible • Female role models are used to inspire female

athletes (usually from the AIS)

Gender cont...

• ASC has a woman and sport unit• The dept. Is in charge of policy and research

and allocates leadership grants to women • However the success of the policies are

questionable as participation rates are still relatively underrepresented since the make up most of the population

UK Australia

Agencies

UK home country organisations ASC

Aim is to increase participation Addresses issues of underrepresentation in Australia

They are government agencies responsible for community sport

Groups include women, disabled and ethnic minorities

Funded by the national lottery Funded by the Australian government

Discrimination

Discrimination of minority groups Discrimination of minority groups

Discrimination often by class No such class hierarchy exists

Social values • Original settlers and convicts experienced a lot of hardship this

promoted a bush culture (hard work and tenacity of the first settlers, similar to frontier spirit)

• This aided the sense of community and equality • The gold rush saw huge immigration which created a melting

pot (different cultures blending together to create one united culture) which all classes and background are blended.

• Has a strong egalitarian influence ( people are equal and enjoy the same rights and opportunities.

• Multiculturalism embraced more since abolition of the white policy

• Australia is now a very diverse and multicultural nation, the image of bush culture is now seen as dated and Australian culture is seen as more refined and interested in literature, art as well as sport .