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Transcript with the Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis - Beijing Olympics 3AW

MEDIA: 3AW Radio

DATE: 13 August 2008

TIME: 10:09am

TRANSCRIPT: Interview, Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis in Beijing, China, for the Olympics. Interview about Olympics refers to shooter Russell Mark's allegation about Chinese officials cheating.

NEIL MITCHELL: The Sports Minister Kate Ellis is in Beijing for the Olympics, you will have seen her sitting behind George Bush with the Prime Minister and various other people, and she's on the line now from Beijing. The Minister, Kate Ellis, good morning.

KATE ELLIS: Good morning, Neil, great to be with you.

NEIL MITCHELL: Well, look, thanks for your time. I want to just ask you about something unpleasant first: are you aware of the allegations of the Chinese officials cheating that Russell Mark has made, in the shooting?

KATE ELLIS: I haven't seen those comments, to be honest with you, Neil.

NEIL MITCHELL: Yeah, he said the Chinese officials were awarding the Chinese shooters with having hit the target - the clay targets when they hadn't.

KATE ELLIS: Well obviously that is a very serious allegation and certainly something that we'll be looking into further. But I'm afraid I can't give you any further comment on that at this stage, I don't know any more...

NEIL MITCHELL: Oh, no, no, no, fair enough. But you say you would look into it further or the Australian officials would look into it further?

KATE ELLIS: Absolutely, absolutely. And, I mean, the thing about the Olympics and the reason that we're so vigilant in anti-doping messages is because we need to protect the integrity of the sport. And any of these allegations therefore need to be investigated to make sure that fair play is in play at all times.

NEIL MITCHELL: There's some great sport there, but from this distance, I mean, there seem to be a few issues like, you know, certain things faked at the opening ceremony and tanks in the streets, and that sort of thing. What's your feeling of the atmosphere?

KATE ELLIS: Well my feeling - the opening ceremony was absolutely spectacular, it was a remarkable event. In fact, so much so that I've spoken to quite a few of the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics who were saying what on earth do we do to top an opening ceremony like that?
So my view is the crowd enjoyed it, everybody thought it was a great event and I don't think it's that important, to be honest, whether the little girl was singing or whether somebody else was singing. But that's just my opinion, Neil.

NEIL MITCHELL: ]Yep, yep, fair enough. What events have you seen, what stands out to you?

KATE ELLIS: To be honest I haven't seen that many events. I'm trying to get around to as many sports as I can but there is a whole host of meetings and conferences over here at the moment.

Obviously the swimming has been a great success delivering three golds already for us. I particularly enjoyed going to see our women's basketball team. Those Opals are just absolute superstars, they are remarkable to watch and something that I particularly enjoyed.

I went and saw Lleyton Hewitt last night, and have moved around a little bit [indistinct] archery, canoing. I'm trying to get past the teams and check in and see how they're all travelling and see whether they've got all of the support in place that they need.

NEIL MITCHELL: It must have been a real pest sitting behind George Bush, though, the way he was carrying on and cheering and waving flags. Did you get the American flag in your eye, did you?

KATE ELLIS: Well I must admit, Neil, we were severely out-flagged [laughs]. I was very grateful that I'd remembered to put two little mini flags in my handbag that morning. Because they got there and George pulled down a flag and then reinforcements got brought in, and there just seemed to be more and more flags coming in all the time.

So, but...

NEIL MITCHELL: George, is it? Is it George and Kate now, is it [laughs]?


KATE ELLIS: [Laughs] Well that might have been a little overly familiar [laughs] I apologise to him for that. But I've got to say it was fantastic watching Stephanie Rice smash that world record when we were surrounded by a lot of visitors from the United States who, of course, had qualified first and second in that event and were expecting big things. It made it all the sweeter.

NEIL MITCHELL: Has anybody been in your ear for some money? It often happens at these events.

KATE ELLIS: Well, I'm yet to run into a sport that hasn't asked for more money, actually...

NEIL MITCHELL: [Laughs]

KATE ELLIS: Yes. I understand that of course John Coates has made some very public comments about the need to look at funding going forward. And we've also had comments from a number of the different sports as well. So, I mean the Australian taxpayers are enormously generous supporters of sport in this country, and I think that we get a lot back in terms of that investment as well.
The Prime Minister has made clear that we want to continue to be long-term strong financial partners, but these are all issues that I have no doubt we will have much more debate about following the end of these games.

NEIL MITCHELL: Well, yeah, John Coates - I think it was John Coates - suggested a salary for athletes. What do you think about that? I think he was talking about $100,000 a year.

KATE ELLIS: Well, I think we'll probably have further debate on those levels. But we do in fact have in place a Direct Athlete Support System where some athletes which are identified as being potential medal winners will be financially supported to enable them to train. And that's a system that has been in place for a few years now, and something that we'll be looking towards whether that can potentially be expanded going forward.

NEIL MITCHELL: Mmm. Just a final point, do you think the Chinese have got it right? I mean we see these photographs of tanks in the streets and armed soldiers everywhere, even surface-to-air missiles at some venues, have they got it right? Some people are saying well, look, they've taken the fun out of the games.

KATE ELLIS: Well my view, Neil, is our - my number one concern is the safety and security of our athletes and our officials, and of course the spectators. And my own view is if that means lining up for an extra couple of minutes so that you can go through a pretty intense security check and the cars can be checked properly, then so be it.

That's the world we live in, sadly, and let's just hope that we have a drama free Olympics where we can focus on the sport.

NEIL MITCHELL: And how long will you be there?

KATE ELLIS: I'm coming home on Sunday. I'm heading down to Ching Dao on the weekend where, of course, our sailing team are, and we're hoping that they'll do very well. But we've also got a number of really important Australian business interests down there that we'll be checking in with while we're there.

So, I'll be home on - heading home on Sunday.

NEIL MITCHELL: Thank you very much for your time.

KATE ELLIS: Lovely to speak to you.

NEIL MITCHELL: Sports Minister Kate Ellis in Beijing.

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