Government policy and
Commercialism of sport in Australia
Wks 22 & 23
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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 The ASC.......
nit involvement in policy making
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 .