Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics 180 athletes represented Australia but not one of them returned with a gold medal. From national humiliation, the Australian Institute of Sport was born. The Australian Institute of Sport claims partial credit for the success of so many of our athletes: Petria Thomas, Anna Meares, Michael Milton. When we ranked fourth in the medal tally in the Sydney 2000 Olympics many felt the Australian Institute of Sport deserved its share of the credit. But the Australian Institute of Sport now faces a crisis of neglect. Over the past decade, the number of Canberra based staff has fallen from 173 to 140. The number of athletes in residence has fallen from 237 to 140. Australian Institute of Sport Director Matt Favier and his team are not to blame for this trend. Over recent years and under governments of all stripes there has been a tendency for sporting bodies to move their operations out of Canberra to other parts of Australia. Next out the door is men's soccer. Football Federation Australia's Centre of Excellence is due to leave Canberra later this year.

It is true that there are some sports, notably triathlon and rowing, that are recommitting to Canberra. It is also true that there is a close partnership between the ACT Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport. And it is certainly true that Canberrans like myself love the AIS. My sons do swimming at the AIS pool. I recently ran a race on the AIS track, where over the course of 10 kilometres I was lapped by the winner four times!

But it needs to succeed as a national institution and I am concerned about how we can take the AIS away from its crisis of neglect towards restoring its former glory. I am calling on Canberrans and those who are concerned with sports across Australia to send me the ideas about how to rebuild the Australian Institute of Sport into a premier national institution. It might not necessarily involve more resources; it may involve the Institute of Sport playing a role bringing together sports such as squash, volleyball, basketball or cricket for focused, skills camps.

As the parliamentary member whose electorate holds the Australian Institute of Sport, I am keen to engage with my community and also with people across Australia about restoring the Australian Institute of Sport to the vision that it had when it was founded in 1981, when the Fraser government opened it in part because of the personal criticism directed towards Malcolm Fraser from athletes in Montreal in 1976. Like any elite athlete, maintaining form in Australian sport can never be taken for granted. That is why I want to hear your ideas for reinvigorating the AIS.