Sport and Policy in Australia: Issues and Analysis - Case Study Example

Sports Policy Student’s Name: Institution: Course Title: Course Code: Date of Submission: The policy is defined as the action that is taken mostly by business, party, individual or government in the course of administration. The article case study is of Sports measures that the government of Australia has adopted to transform the sector. Sports acts as a source of entertainment not only at local level but also internationally. The following are the popular sports activities in the world: football, volleyball, tennis, rugby and athletics among others (Weed, M. & Bull, C. 2012). Nurturing sports is a way of promoting young talents among the youth of the nation. The government has devoted to enable each and every single person in Australia to participate in sports and not only to excel nationally but also at the international stage (Zibung, M. & Conzelmann, 2013). For instance, in 2016 Rio Olympics Australia was able to collect a total of 28 medals in all events. Below are the policies that are going to be focused in this article. 1. Elite sport and pathway The decline in Olympic performance is a major concern affecting the country performance some of the major worrying issues is the reason behind. Taking a study of both China and USA both countries performance have increased with time. Therefore the model should be taken into consideration on the ways to improve. Some of the recommendations are using the primary methods employed by other nations competing with. The pathway to success is one of the public policies in Australia that focus on the ways of improving elite sports performance. Research that was conducted by Crawford identified the key technical areas that need to be addressed. The stakeholders who are responsible for implementing the changes noted are ASC, government and the athlete’s commitment to perform. Some of the measure that the government should do is allocate more funds to the sports to enable the country to be competitive with other nations. Others have taken the initiative, and they are progressing already and some years back were the same level as Australia. Therefore the government needs to identify particular kind of games to excel and building sports academy with the aim of training kids so as to enhance competitiveness. Below is a story of the track record of China in comparison to Australia from 1988. Comparing of medal ranking between Australia, China and USA. In 1988 Olympics Australia managed to secure three gold medal and a total of 14 medals, China attained five gold medals and a collective total of 28 medals. Comparing the two countries there is no big gap between the medal rankings, but China is slightly above Australia. In 2000 Olympic Games that were held in Sydney Australia secured 16 gold medals and cumulative of 58 medals in all the events that took place. China, on the other hand, managed to collect 28 gold medals but a total of 58. From the comparison, it is clear that Australia improved a lot in term of games compared to a country like China. The different occurred in 2008 at Beijing where China won 51 gold medals and a total of 100 and ranked second in the event miles away from Australia. From the comparison, it is evident China has advanced in games, and there is something that Australia was missing (De Bosscher, et al. 2009). Other recommendations in the sector were improving elite sport are by giving free sponsorships in schools to best talents in sports. The approach strengthens the activities of the game, and also they have become popular. Government to regularly check on the progress of sports club, region sports and state club and how the select the players. The importance of checking is because they are ones that have already been established and relied on. Therefore a team need to be set aside to monitor and method of recruiting. 2. Sports participation and junior sport According to Australia department of health research that was conducted in the country in 2011-2012 showed that not less than 63 percent of adults are either overweight or obese (Loureiro, M. & Nayga, R. 2005). Children to be affected with both between 5-17 years old 25% percent are also suffering. The problem is not just in one nation but all over the world. A report released by WHO showed that obesity has risen by two third total that it was in 1980. In the whole world, more than one billion people are overweight, and about 300 considered to be clinically obese. From the current trend if it continues by 2020 the number of obese population is going to be about 80% in the world. A policy called keeping junior sports safe which is targeting young people to engage in games adopted in Australia. Australia copied the policy from Victoria and individuals who are below 18 years of age were recruited. Community and the government are the primary stakeholders for a successful overhaul of the program. Health sector also plays a significant part by campaigning the dangers of being overweight. Later the government of Australia adopted a policy called keeping junior safe is everybody duty which encouraged everybody to take part in helping children at a young age with the aim of building future in games. People who engage in sports activities must be physically fit. Since the issue is a problem the government needs to act immediately and finds solutions to deal with the matter.one of them is encouraging health eating habits. The methods are going to reduce the fat level in the body and keep someone healthy for an extended period. Introducing of physical exercise lesson in schools and being made compulsory to all students. The person to lead them in practice should be trained and expert. Some children who are overweight is going to reduce. Another is the building of more gyms across the country who are charging nothing; this is going to motivate a lot of citizens and hence making them fit physically. Most sports calls for vigorous body activities, and therefore the BMI must be proportional to the body. The recommended BMI should be below 20 kg/m2 for a healthy person. Encourage sports and a way of keeping someone fit so as to avoid common diseases like hypertension among others. 3. Sport betting Gambling is one of the fastest developing business in Australia and other countries in the world. Despite the fact that sports organisations gain monetary benefits from gambling, the government of Australia also obtain federal finance through taxing the corporation. Gambling in Australia is categorised into gaming activities which are the game of chance, and they include lotteries, electronic gaming, raffles and keno. Also, there is sports betting that allows people to bet on horse racing and sporting contests. There is need to examine the sporting policy, the reason for the policy and the way the system lay effect on gambling and sporting industries (Gainsbury et al. 2014). Sporting policy: It was implemented to regulate gaming activities in three ways: It is intended to influence the desire of people to engage in sporting activities by making the event to be official, regulating individuals’ activities, and the activities of the organisations that get involved in making gambling a success. It also administers or makes sporting competitions to be attended by people and increase people participation in sports while making a basis for people to participate in betting. Secondly, the policy develops regulations that make waging to be involved in betting business to regulate any illegal betting activity from getting into play while aiming at protecting the citizens from the hands of cons to maximise taxation to gather enough revenue to the Australian government. The third way in which the policy is exercised is through making ways of funding specific events and organisations that are sport oriented while developing state lotteries. Also, the system tends to protect sports groups’ interest in taking product fees in org=der to provide sporting products for betting operators. In the late 20th century, betting was illegal until the recent times when the government realised that through betting, revenue can be gathered and had to set up policies that govern live betting and the current internet betting that is very popular. In Australia, sports betting showed an extraordinary growth in the early stages of the 21st century with over 30% growth per year (Gainsbury et al., 2014). Sports betting integrity policy was implemented in 2007 to regulate how people engage in sporting activities while showing high integrity (Delfabbro & King, 2012). Match fixing policy: According to Walker et al. (2012), match fixing was a problem in the gambling sector whereby selfish individuals would engage in practice fixing games to gather selfish benefits. The form of corruption that was reported in Australia since the year 2009. Match fixing is a problem that hit the betting corporations and the individuals who bet in good faith and end up getting pissed off. The policy stipulated the consequences of match fixing according to the legislation to enhance confidence in the sports activities and made into law through various engagements and legislature meetings before coming to a conclusion (Walker et al., 2012) 4. Sports broadcasting According to Nicholson et al. (2010), broadcasting in Australia was found out that it was changing to a monopolistic broadcasting that did not give a chance for other broadcasters to take part in the reporting activities. Sports reporting policy was developed to regulate broadcasting corporations so as to allow other companies to take part in broadcasting. Reducing monopoly in broadcasting enables sports broadcasting to be lively by providing entertainment, offering television services, beautiful view of matches, education information, providing an efficient conducive and safe environment for the audience in the broadcasting grounds and providing the audience with additive information that aims at developing the lives of the public in attendance. Anti-siphoning policy: According to Nicholson et al. (2010), the anti-siphoning was purposed to reduce the payments that sport incurred in airing the events on radios and television stations. There was a need to review the anti-siphoning scheme since it limits viewers on the kind of event to enjoy the communications stations that were selectively chosen used to make decisions about the kind of match to air. Anti-siphoning limits people their ability to make a choice of what they want to view. The anti-siphoning scheme was not accepted by the people who wanted to watch matches of their preference hence developed the need for the pay television service. Despite the odds that the anti-siphoning scheme is going through in Australia, the government can limit the monopolistic behaviour of the broadcasters who are compelled to pay heavily to air their broadcastings on the television through a pay television plan (Nicholson et al., 2010). 5. Drugs in sport According to Smith & Stewart (2008), many cases of famous athletes have hit the news for over two decades now. The issue of consuming drugs before participating in sport started in world Olympics. The stimulants termed as performance enhancing drugs help the athletes to have stimulated muscles to enable them to record extraordinary results in games. A case study of Anthony Alozie an Olympic sprinter who missed a drug test since he had consumed a performance boosting drug was banned for 20 months for his breach of Sports the ASADA policy rules and regulations. In a recent situation, an Australian national sprinter by the name Josh Ross was also convicted of doping charges and was charged a ban of not less than two years. All the above case studies made it necessary for the Australian government to the ASADA policy to join hands with the world to come up with a solution to the spread of doping in the State. Australia collaborated with the world Anti-Doping Agency to fight the problem of performance enhancing drugs that had covered in sport. According to Smith & Stewart (2008), the Anti-Drug Agency formation was done to minimise the strains that the sports management was experiencing in managing stimulants usage in the game so as to develop people confidence in the participants of sporting activities while protecting the health of athletes. ASADA policy: According to Engelberg et al. (2015), ASADA in Australia joined the world by the anti-drug code in WADA to controls States’ anti-doping agencies in Australia. The anti-doping approved by Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Board which made the policy into effect in 2009 as a replacement for the 2004 Anti-Doping policy. The published document included updated ASADA definitions and the ASADA Act through a new well-defined ASADA regulation. The ASC supports ASADA of Australia in the fight against doping in sports with stated rules and regulations that include the application of the ASC code of conduct and scholarship agreement of athletes. ASC condemns any activity that is like doping or any suspicious stimulants in sports that are contrary to the spirit of competition. The policy aims at harmonising an effective anti-doping programs at national and international level hence developing confidence in sports. The policies stipulate that any violations of anti-doping rules call for strict liability which might make the violators banned from sports for life (Smith & Stewart, 2008). 6. Sports Stadia and Events The policy for a while stagnated, and nothing new was being implemented to tackle the issue. The following are the primary purpose of the system mentioned: economic development, tourism, social cohesion and urban regeneration. Financial constraint is one of the biggest problems that has been holding down the government, but of late the agenda was rejuvenated, and a project of building new Perth stadium finished. City of Melbourne and state of Victoria both have been a major marketer of the idea at both national and international level. For instance, Melbourne City football team has developed the city economically (Hall, C. 2006). The policy that was adopted is called urban regeneration and economic development. The plan targeted the growth of towns in Australia. Some of the events focused are improving road networks, ensuring there are security and conducive environment to give an easy path for stadium construction or renovations. Sports develops the infrastructure, diverse responsibilities, agency coalition and community development where they are the key indicators economic development (Nicholson, et al. 2011). Starting from urban growth which is experienced. For example, events like world cup and Olympics promotes the economy of the region positively, are a lot of people attends and in early 90’s such events were used to mark cities. Countries administration role is ensuring safety so as to encourage a safer environment for both the sportsmen and spectators. A safe environment will attract investors in the sectors. Also, provision of insurance cover which will all the stakeholders feel part of the risk shared. The Australia government is encouraging investment in sports with some strong teams in the nation like Melbourne city, which is sponsored by Etihad Airways. 7. Harassment and Discrimination in sports policy Anti-discrimination policy: Many cases of harassment, abuse and discrimination were widely reported in Australian sports. Coaches are the most affected stakeholders by the anti-discrimination policy and get convicted of involvement in practices that show disrespect to the rights of the sports participants. In the early 21st century, issues of child abuse that were sexually oriented were hit the news and entertainment control agencies in Australia. Sexual exploitation became a serious problem in the corridors of the Australian sport. Sports harassment and discrimination policy especially the safety of children does protect not only the athletes but also other non-participants while safeguarding the conduct of coaches’ profession. The ASC Act extended children protection from the notion that it only dealt with sexual harassment of children but also defined the abuse as physical violence, emotional abuse, neglect of children when they fail to provide the necessary emotional and physical necessities of life (Priest et al., 2008). In the late 20th century, racial discrimination had highly spread in sports especially in football and rugby. Racial equality chapter created in 2000 which had a mandate to achieve racial equality to kerb the cases of racial discrimination that emerged in the United Kingdom and other nations including Australia. Also, gender and disability protected under the New Equality Standard enacted in 2004 which also necessitated the need for race and ethnicity. The idea that sports emphasised on the need to eliminate discrimination and harassment in sports was merely theoretical and not practical brought about a review of the policies to enable sports operations to work on discrimination actively and to show participation in eliminating the practice. Disability discrimination was conditioned to end by the introduction of Paralympics which gives the disabled to get a chance to participate in sports. The ASC supported harassment-free sports strategies to enable games industry to avoid all cases of discrimination, inappropriate behaviour and abuse that is gender, age or inability oriented (Priest et al., 2008). References Delfabbro, P., & King, D. (2012). Gambling in Australia: Experiences, problems, research and policy. Addiction, 107(9), 1556-1561 De Bosscher, V., De Knop, P., Van Bottenburg, M., Shibli, S., & Bingham, J. (2009). Explaining international sporting success: An international comparison of elite sports systems and policies in six countries. Sports Management Review, 12(3), 113-136. Dimeo, P. (2007). Beyond good and evil: A history of drug use in sport. Abingdon: Routledge. Engelberg, T., Moston, S., & Skinner, J. (2015). The final frontier of anti-doping: A study of athletes who have committed doping violations. Sports management review, 18(2), 268-279. Gainsbury, S. M., Russell, A., Hing, N., Wood, R., Lubman, D. I., & Blaszczynski, A. (2014). 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