This has been a view of mine in relation to a number of activities for quite sometime. It's a huge capital investment by the Australian community and it is in fact idle for the bulk of the year because of the limited school hours and school holidays and the like and weekends. But debates about funding for the myriad of sports played in Australia inevitably involve discussion about what are Australia's elite sports and whether some warrant more funding than others. The president of the Australian Olympic Committee, John Coates, says the policy framework of today's announcement will minimise that debate. My clear understanding is that Olympic funding is quarantined.
Paralympic funding is quarantined.
The participation funding is quarantined. Now within the funding for the Olympic sports, obviously the sports have to make submissions to the Australian Sports Commission which at the end of the day will determine and arbitrate. But that's as between the Olympic sports not as to the other elements of the program. John Coates of the Australian Olympic Committee there at the Institute of Sport with our reporter, Rachel Mealey. Transcripts on this website are created by an independent transcription service.