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Olympic Performance ABC 891 Adelaide 21 August 2008

21 August 2008

MEDIA: ABC891 Adelaide

DATE: 21 August 2008

TRANSCRIPT: Interview , Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis is interviewed about Australia's Olympic Performance

David Bevan: There's been a bit of a discussion in the last few days that Australia is not going to achieve the medal haul that was expected and that it's only going to get worse by the time we get to London in four years time.

Now I wonder what you're thinking about that, 1300 222 891.

Kate Ellis is the Federal Minister for Sport. She's a local Adelaide MP in the Federal Cabinet as a Minister for Sport, so she has to consider this and she joins us now. Good morning, Kate Ellis.

Kate Ellis: Good morning, Matt and good morning, Dave.

David Bevan: Kate Ellis, do you share concerns that Australia is falling behind in the medal tally and it will only get worse in London?

Kate Ellis: Well look, I think the first thing we have to consider is that we've got 36 medals to date, of those 11 of them are gold, and we're up against the best of the best from across the whole world. I actually think that's a remarkable achievement and something that we should be celebrating. And I think that we overlook that sometimes because we're so used to I guess punching above our weight.

Matthew Abraham: So you're happy with - you wouldn't want any more medals?

Kate Ellis: Well I'm the Minister for Sport, I'd always love more medals but I think that we need to celebrate the great achievements of our athletes. In regards...

Matthew Abraham: Why?

Kate Ellis: ... to the situation of London...

Matthew Abraham: I think we're all doing that, but on the hard nuts and bolts on this, tax payers who are struggling to fill their tanks with petrol, including in your electorate, who are facing rising interest rates under your government and who are paying increased grocery bills under your government, are paying also millions of dollars to send our athletes and all the hangers on to Beijing.

And quite rightly they're going to say, well is it just a good thing and they all feel good, or should we be able to measure our bang for our buck and could we be spending our money in better ways.

Kate Ellis: Well I just think that we need to be careful about the way that we measure the bang for our buck. I think there' some things that money can't buy. I think that some of the highlights of the Olympics have - obviously our gold medals have been fantastic, but performances like Anna Mears and the story and the role model that she is and the national hero that she should be seen as, I don't know that you - no matter how much funding you put into a system, that you can guarantee stories like that. So I think it's...

Matthew Abraham: So we shouldn't be measuring it on gold?

Kate Ellis: Well I think that that's one key indicator but I don't think that that is the entire story when it comes to sport funding and why governments invest in sport.

I think that it's actually a much broader picture than that, that sport's really important in terms of health, it's really important in terms of community building and bringing people together. It's important in terms of creating healthy role models for our kids to aspire to be like. It's not just about medals.

David Bevan: A fairly blunt message has come out of the commentary surrounding the Olympics in the last few days, particularly vis-a-vis Britain. And that is if we want more gold you've got to spend more money. Is that basically true?

Kate Ellis: Well I think that funding is clearly part of the issue but we also need to maintain that Australia has never been able to compete on a dollar for dollar basis with much larger countries with bigger populations and bigger economies. And that's not going to change, we're never going to be able to match those massive countries in the way that we spend.

But what we do do is - and what we've been very successful in doing is being smarter in the way that we spend our money and being - and getting greater results out of I guess a lesser amount of tax payer fund. And that's something that I'm really committed to making sure we continue doing and we stay ahead of the pack.

(end)

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