Parliamentary Speeches
Transcript with Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis - Interviewed 2008 Beijing Olympics - Sky News
11 Aug 2008Media: SKY News Australia
Date: 11 August 2008
Time: 4:14pm
Transcript: Interview, Minister for Ageing, Kate Ellis on the Edgarley Home in Casterton, where four residents were taken to hospital after being given food tainted with caustic soda.
DAVID SPEERS: Well, with me now live in Beijing is the Federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis. Minister, thank you for joining us. First, on this issue of some confusion over the Opening Ceremony, is it a disappointment to you that perhaps the track and field athletes could have been here to march?
KATE ELLIS: Well, look, I think that all sports and all teams would love to take part in the Opening Ceremony, but equally they want to make sure they get their preparation and their training right.
And my understanding is that the athletics team were at a training camp in Hong Kong and that that was a decision that was made by the athletics officials. So it's really up to them and the AOC to clear this up with their own athletes and make sure that we get past any confusion that might be about at the moment.
DAVID SPEERS: Well we heard Kylie Wheeler, the heptathlete, expressing some disappointment today. Does she deserve an apology, do you think, from those team officials?
KATE ELLIS: Look, I don't have the details on why one decision was made for one athlete that wasn't made for the rest of the team, so I can't really answer that without that information.
But I think it's true that the team members themselves are probably going to ask those questions and want a pretty clear answer on it.
DAVID SPEERS: Now, I said at the onset that we'd won two Gold and two Bronze so far. You were very quick to correct me on that...
KATE ELLIS: I was. Don't forget our great effort with the girls in the relay in the pool yesterday...
DAVID SPEERS: How could we? So three Bronze, two Gold...
KATE ELLIS: That's right.
DAVID SPEERS: Now that's all come out of the pool so far and that's usually how we build our medal tally. Are we on track to meet what's expected, what's planned for Australia at these Olympics?
KATE ELLIS: Look, I think we've had a great opening few days. And certainly we all want to see much more Aussie success out there and are confident that it's coming.
DAVID SPEERS: Now, I'm sure you may not admit it but you do sit down and work out how many medals we're likely to win at each games, don't you? Can you tell us what you are expecting?
KATE ELLIS: Well, David, I'm not here just for the medals. Obviously the officials look at how we're going, where our rankings are at. But of course the Olympic Games is about fielding a big team, it's about making sure we've got talent through. It's about creating role models for the rest of the community. So I guess I'm swerving your question a little bit...
DAVID SPEERS: You are a little bit. They must tell you what they expect to win here in Beijing?
KATE ELLIS: Yeah, and you want to know why I don't tell you and all of your audience? Well, I will say that we expect to do well. Australians are growing accustomed to over-achieving on the international stage and we expect this to not be any different at this Olympics.
DAVID SPEERS: We've grown used to ranking about fourth in the medal tally, particularly in the last few Olympics, and getting even in the high 40s in terms of the medal tally. Privately some officials do concede that's going to be lower this games for various reasons, do you acknowledge that?
KATE ELLIS: Well, I think that there are many people that haven't been private about that at all. I think that John Coates and the AOC themselves have come out and they've said the competition is getting tougher and tougher, that there's a lot of other countries that are setting up better systems than they've previously had and that the competition is hard. But we're hopeful of staying in the top five.
DAVID SPEERS: There's also a lot more money coming into sport from some of the competitors on our tier, if you like. Great Britain, for example, set up a lottery system where it's pumping I think a billion dollars into sport in the lead-up to the 2012 London Games. Are we falling behind in the funding stakes?
KATE ELLIS: Look, the Australian Government and, indeed, the Australian taxpayers are very generous supporters of sport in Australia. You would have seen the Prime Minister's comments that we want to remain strong financial partners with our Olympic team going forward...
DAVID SPEERS: So that means more funding?
KATE ELLIS: Well, I must say, I don't think it's all about funding. And we have to be very careful when we compare with what's happening in other countries. What they're doing is, yes, some of them are putting more funding in. In the UK they're putting enormous amounts of money into their school sport system - actually through their education funding, so it's not all directed just at elite and Olympic efforts - but it's about how that funding is used.
And this is the other thing that's really changed. Since we hosted the Olympics in 2000 the whole world came out, saw this world class system that we've set up in Australia, saw how...
DAVID SPEERS: With the AIS, that sort of...
KATE ELLIS: ...the AIS was operating, our focus on sport science and technology, the way that the system has developed pathways right through sport. And we're now seeing that that's being replicated around the rest of the world, which is one of the reasons why we can talk about funding - and of course we're going to talk about funding - but we also have to talk about reform and making sure we stay ahead of the pack.
DAVID SPEERS: There will be more funding, though?
KATE ELLIS: Well, I think the Prime Minister made some pretty clear comments about that...
DAVID SPEERS: He not only said funding but planning is an issue as well. Now, trying to read into what he's saying there, maybe you can help us out. Is he saying better plan how we spend the money so that perhaps drop some funding for sports where we don't really do that well?
KATE ELLIS: Well that's a pretty controversial view that some people put forward, but I think it's more about making sure that we have clear systems. And we do need to - I've announced that we are looking at quite major reform of our sporting structures, bringing them up to speed...
DAVID SPEERS: Would that mean getting rid of funding, I don't know, gymnastics, things that we don't traditionally do well in?
KATE ELLIS: Well, I think that one of the great things about Australian sport is that there's a huge variety. And, particularly when you're looking at juniors coming through, they have choices.
A lot of countries will pick one or two sports and excel at it and win a few gold medals here. In Australia we excel at so many sports, and I think that that is a great part of our system and something we want to see continue.
But that doesn't mean that we might not be able to look at the way that we deliver those programs and how we can work in better partnership with the state governments, with regional funders and with the sporting organisations themselves.
DAVID SPEERS: Would it be fair to say that the various sports competing for Australia here in Beijing really - well not swimming so much but some of the more marginal ones - need to put in a really strong show to hold onto the funding they currently get?
KATE ELLIS: No - look, I'm not - I'm not sending out those messages at all...
DAVID SPEERS: Okay.
KATE ELLIS: I do note, however, that the UK minister announced a few days ago that, as you mentioned they have been putting a lot of money into elite sport, and said that they want I think it was 41 medals or else they'll be looking at whether that funding is an adequate taxpayer investment.
Now that's a lot of pressure to put on athletes' shoulders...
DAVID SPEERS: No such risk for the Aussies?
KATE ELLIS: Look, this isn't going to be determined by how many medals we win, it's going to be determined on what is the smartest system and what is the best use of the Australian taxpayer dollars.
DAVID SPEERS: Is there too much money - taxpayer money going to the bureaucracy of sport? I think the Australian Sports Commission has as many bureaucrats as the
Tax Office. Is there fat there that could be trimmed and put more money into frontline training?
KATE ELLIS: Well I have to say that obviously, as the Minister for Sport, I'm a very big supporter of the hard work and the hard workers out at the Australian Sports Commission. But one of the things that we have said that we'll do is get in independent experts to have a look at our sporting structure, and to answer that question and a number of others as well. But we know that Australian sport has done so well traditionally because we haven't stood still, we've kept moving, we've kept reforming and I intend to make sure that that continues.
DAVID SPEERS: Sports Minister, Kate Ellis, thank you very much for talking to us.
KATE ELLIS: Lovely to be with you, David.