The Australian Government's Response to the Crawford Report: 11 May 2010

I have been following the work of the Independent Panel and its report on Australian sport (the Crawford Report). Yesterday the Australian Government published the Policy document Australian Sport: Pathway to Success and noted on the Panel website:

This is the front cover of the Policy document:

An electronic version of the Policy document can be found at this link.
The document is twenty-three pages in length. The response to David Crawford’s Report starts on page 11 of Australian Sport: Pathway to Success and concludes on page 23. In these pages the Government sets out its support (or otherwise) for the Crawford Report recommendations.
One recommendation that did not receive the Government’s support was the recommendation that:

Consistent with the Australian Sports Commission’s leadership role, it should not be involved in service delivery. Those activities that give the Australian Sports Commission a ‘conflict’ with the other organisations it is supposed to deal with and support should be taken away from it. Specifically, the Australian Institute of Sport should be separated from the Australian Sports Commission (…) and the Active After-school Communities program should be contracted out to appropriate providers at agreed performance standards.

Australian Sport: Pathway to Success notes (page 13):

Following consultation with Australian sport the Australian Government has received strong feedback from national and peak sporting organisations that they do not support the separation of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC). In line with this feedback the Australian Government will focus on delivering stronger alignment between the AIS and the state and territory institutes and academies of sport in partnership with state and territory governments to support better co-ordination and reduce duplication, rather than supporting separation at this time. The Australian Government considers that the Australian Sports Commission is best placed at this stage to ensure an effective and consistent national delivery of the Active After-school Communities program.

I am looking forward to reading the Policy document in detail and the news about funding contained in the Federal Budget statement.