Triple M, Hot Breakfast

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PDF printable version of Triple M, Hot Breakfast (PDF 23 KB)

Presenters Eddie McGuire, Luke Darcy, Tony Moclair, Mieke Buchan

12 May 2010

Topics: Sports budget

Eddie Mcguire: I wonder if Kate Ellis, the Federal Sports Minister, ever stood there in Adelaide somewhere in a mosh pit shaking her head...

Compere: Oh, no doubt. Good Adelaide girl. She would have been all over it, Kate Ellis, don't worry about that.

Kate Ellis: Crowd surfing maybe.

Eddie Mcguire: Kate Ellis joins us, the Federal Minister for Sport, on the line. Good morning Kate.

Kate Ellis: Good morning. Great to be with you. And I deny everything about it. They were The Angels days.

Eddie Mcguire: Kate, want to talk to you about the Budget, what it means to sport. First off, last year, there was a massive hue and cry over the Crawford Report. And John Coates came out and said that's the end of the Olympic movement. We're all dead. And all the rest of it.
Let's just start at that level, and then we'll move to grass roots. But in the first instance, what does it mean for elite sport and particularly Olympic sport.

Kate Ellis: Well it means that I'm sure everyone can breathe a great sigh of relief in that we are going to live to breathe another day, and to see another day in Olympic and elite sport. Last night's Budget was the single biggest funding injection into sport in Australia's history. So it is good news for all of sport, from community, right through to the elite. At a high performance level what it means is we know that we've been losing a number of coaches overseas, and where they've been offered big dollars, well, we'll be able to hold on to more of our coaches.
But importantly, we'll be investing money into training up more coaches and putting in place a mentoring system where we can strengthen that side of the system, but also find a lot more champions of the future. We're doubling the Talent ID program, so we'll be going out finding junior athletes, and helping to develop them to the next level.

Eddie Mcguire: That's a great result. Because you look at the pole vaulting, for example. We've got the best coach in the world. Suddenly we've got Steve Hooker winning the world champs or winning Olympic gold medals, and the talent identification gives every kid a chance.
Luke Darcy. You have a question to Federal Minister for Sport Kate Ellis.

Luke Darcy: Kate, the Institute of Sport in Canberra was set up on the back of our worst ever Olympic performance. How much can you measure the importance of winning gold medals in the psyche of our culture here in Australia?

Kate Ellis: I think Australian sport is incredibly important to our culture and our psyche, and that's not just gold medals, but also having a strong sport system all the way through. So the AIS has been really important. But equally, one of the things that has been of huge concern to me is when you see how many people we have slipping into obesity statistics and preventable diseases, that we know that we want people not just sitting, watching athletes on the television, but getting out there playing as well. That’s why we need a more well-rounded sports system and that’s what we're looking to deliver after last night's announcement.

Eddie Mcguire: Kate, we know you've got to go in a minute - so a quick one here. What about for kids? And particularly the obesity, and getting kids out and about and getting them up and going in schools. What are we going to do there.

Kate Ellis: Well I think one of the most exciting things about all of this is we've put a real focus on getting sport back into schools, and we've announced that sport will be prioritised in the national curriculum. Sport and physical education. And that we're really going to look at ways that we can maximise the number of hours that kids are being physically active during the school day as well. So that's really important.
But we're also looking at - all sports will be required to increase their participation rates as a condition of their Federal Government funding, so there'll be a whole new range of programs aimed at boosting community clubs and neighbourhood teams, as well as our elite athletes.

Eddie Mcguire: You need the infrastructure for that, Kate, so I'll be ringing you ...

Compere: And there is one glaring omission out of this report, Kate, that I'm really disappointed in, I think you've let people in Victoria down - the North Sunshine Football Club lost by 401 points on the weekend. Can we help them out at all Kate?

Kate Ellis: Well I'm trying to perform some miracles in this Budget. I don't know whether I can turn a 401 point defeat around.

Eddie Mcguire: Well I tell you what...

Kate Ellis: We'll make it a long-term priority.

Compere: Good on you.

Eddie Mcguire: Richo's going down to play. Maybe we could stick big Luke Darcy in the ruck from next week.

Compere: He'd have a go.

Kate Ellis: [Laughs] Indeed.

Eddie Mcguire: Hey Kate, thanks very much. That's a massive result. You've done very very well for the sports fraternity to get this through and get the tick in the Budget. Congratulations.

Kate Ellis: Great to speak with you.

Eddie Mcguire: And good luck in Zurich. Kate Ellis taking the bid book over to get the, hopefully, the World Cup of Soccer, 2018, or 2022. Good luck Kate.

Kate Ellis: Speak to you soon. Thanks.

Eddie Mcguire: Bye bye.