Speech on tabling the Senate Committee Report:

"About time! Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia"

6:28pm - 06 September 2006 

The full text of the Report can be found HERE. The associated media release can be found HERE

I am very pleased to be able to speak to a unanimous report. It is a rare thing these days and has come about through a great deal of good will and compromise by the members of the committee.

The title “About time! Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia” encapsulates the ongoing frustration of many activists, including many distinguished sports women and feminists, who have long fought for improvements to the status of women in sport and recreation. Hence, it is about time something substantive was done. That challenge now lies with the current government to adopt these recommendations.

For the federal Labor opposition, this Report and it’s recommendations will inform our women’s sport policy for the next federal election.

I want to acknowledge that this inquiry could not progress without the support of Government Senators. This is a direct result of the Government holding a majority in the Senate. This support indicates a constructive approach and implies a willingness to address this issue. It is also the last Report the Senate References Committee for the Environment, Communications Sport and Arts Committee will table. As from next Monday the References Committees are to be amalgamated with the Legislative Committees, and I would like acknowledge Senator Bartlett’s chairmanship and thank him for it.

This inquiry had a wide ranging terms of reference. This proved to be a real challenge for the committee in the time frame the Government permitted for the inquiry. Having put forward the original suggestion, I did envisage at least 6 months and many more hearings than we had time for. It is a credit to the hard working Committee Secretariat that such a comprehensive and excellent report has been produced on time and I know I speak on behalf of all Senators involved in thanking them for their efforts.

Notwithstanding this short time frame, over 80 submissions, a number of supplementary submissions were received. Private briefings from the Australian Sports Commission and Department and three very full days of public hearings in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra were held. Many submissions made it clear that the same problems identified over the last two decades have persisted. For example, women are still poorly represented on boards and in leadership positions in sport and recreation and there is still precious little regular women’s sport coverage on TV!

The Report addresses the terms of reference through Chapters on health outcomes of physical exercise, participation, elite sport, governance and media coverage.
In an environment where current trends shows that about one quarter of our children are either overweight or obese, there was a strong emphasis in submissions on need for improving levels of physical activity for all children. For that reason there was a great deal of discussion around the important role schools can play in providing those opportunities. Whilst there was some confusion about voluntary or mandatory targets for physical activity schools, the Report attempts to
clarify this.

The Committee found that girls have consistently lower participation rates than boys by about 5 percent. Girls also experience a significant dropout rate in their teens which lowers their participation in sport even further. The Committee found that elite female athletes are far less able to earn a living from playing their sport. Liz Ellis, the Australian Netball Team captain made the point that about 3000 male elite athletes earn over $40,000 per annum through their sport, but no women in team sports can earn a living from their sport. Therefore these women must also work and if they have a family as well, it ensures a phenomenal juggling act just to stay in the sport!

With respect to Governance, the Committee found that women continue to be under represented on boards. Labor Senators express the view that the lack of improvement warrants some intervention and we encourage the Board of the ASC and National Sporting Organisations to move to 35 percent representation for each gender on their boards, in the way that Hockey Australia did upon amalgamation of their men’s and women’s associations. While quotas are certainly not universally supported by women, I believe the situation demands action. It will be interesting to see anything changes occur without the need for quotas given the range of efforts that are currently undertaken. The Committee
found that setting targets for greater gender equality was in the interests of boards. I know we all will be watching closely to changes. We all agree that greater numbers of women on boards is in the best interests of sports organisation because it ensures that a full range of skills, experience and expertise is available to these boards.

Finally the Committee observed the continuing lack of regular women’s sport coverage on Australian TVs and in other media. This is disappointing and unfair because many children and adults of both genders miss out on seeing their female sporting heroes on a regular basis. This perennial problem has women’s sport caught in a vicious cycle that sees a lack of media coverage mean less sponsorship which means less income which means less resources to invest in the product to promote better media coverage! It is very
frustrating. Women’s sports find it almost impossible to get regular coverage for a couple of reasons.

First, the commercial risk by TV broadcasters, free and pay alike is considered too high. This is because it is perceived that women’s sport does not rate high enough to attract advertising and therefore revenue to offset production costs and the cost of the rights. When existing sports programming is jammed full of very high quality footy, cricket and other proven rating content, there is very little commercial incentive to try something new like a range of women’s national leagues. Because the coverage is not there, the sponsorships are less lucrative. Because sponsorship revenue is limited, the sport is less able to purchase coverage to demonstrate rating credibility and therefore little chance to attract the interest of media buyers and hence break the vicious circle it is very frustrating as I said.

Second is the appalling ongoing sexism perpetuated by many media jugheads who seem to derive some pleasure from denigrating female athletes and their sports. This immature and unintelligent approach is reinforced by commercial decisions in networks that see less than 2 percent of women’s sport on our TV. I say immature and unintelligent because there is ample evidence that not only does women’s sport rate, it rates strongly when a quality product is produced and promoted well. Netball Zealand has a product which attracts 20-30 percent audience share for weekly national league games and up to two thirds of audience share for finals and international matches. At the Olympic and Commonwealth Games to use an event example we also see female athletes rate equally as well as the men, if not better.

I should mention that the ABC has and does make an effort as a result of their charter, although moving weekly Netball games in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy competition to their digital channel has pros and cons. Good because they are aired live, not so good because not everyone has access to digital TV.

The Committee heard arguments for government intervention in the form of content regulation. However, the Committee believes that this would not have the desired effect of creating sustainable quality product and instead create a ‘content on the cheap’ mentality when it came to women’s sport. It would relegate women’s sport content to being second rate in perpetuity. The committee has instead recommended intervention that recognises the commercial realities and economics of television content production. That is why the Committee is recommending to the government that up to $9 million over three years or $3 million per annum, be made available to sports and media organisations in order to subsidise production costs. The aim is to break the vicious cycle by lessening the initial commercial risk to media organisations to explore the potential of new, regular women’s sport content.

The Report expresses many findings and contains 18 recommendations and if fully implemented, the committee is confident they would make a discernable, positive difference to the experience of girls and women in sport and recreation in Australia. The recommendations fall roughly into two categories. Some recommendations are directed to organisations other than the Commonwealth Government and its agencies. We hope these are considered in the spirit of which they are intended: the widespread understanding that many stakeholders have the ability to make a difference and a role to play improving the experience of women and girls in sport and recreation.

I am also very conscious that some of these recommendations may appear familiar! If they do it is because in some areas the Committee found there has been little change over the last decade or two, but is of the view that it is worth having another go!

The other category is those recommendations more directly aimed at the Australian Sports Commission and the Federal Government. The ASC is in the best position to be an effective change agent, to lead by example and to coordinate strategies. Their capacity to do so will depend on the quality of the administration, the will of Commission members and the political leadership and resources provided by the Minister.

The Report contains in an appendix, a list of some previous reports and I want express my gratitude to the authors and contributors to this important area of public policy over many years, including the work of my colleague, former Labor Senator Rosemary Crowley. I commend the Report to the Senate.