What was the most important major policy initiative during the period 1920-2003 and why?
What was the least successful major policy initiative during the period 1920-2003 and why?
1. The changes from the Whitlam government was the most important initiative for Australian Sport Policy between 1920-2003. The Gough Whitlam Labor Government both reformist and highly centralist, made the shift from previous governments on the view that politics had no place in sport. The initiatives to establish a specialist portfolio under the name of Tourism and Recreation, along with an enquiry into ‘the role, scope and development of recreation in Australia’ were proven in time to be pivotal in Australia’s Sport Policy. When the Whitlam government lost power in 1975 the Sport initiatives were changed which was proved to be a backwards step. Strong lobbying for sport initiatives of the Whitlam government and results of poor sport involvement resulted the government doing a sport policy back flip. When Labor regained power reintroduced similar policies of the Whitlam run government, and it was important but the Whitlam era initiative was the most important.
2. The least important policy was the downsizing of the sport funding by the Fraser government. Its beliefs were that sport should run its own affairs, a lot like a lot of governments before the Whitlam government. The ‘amateur’ approach believing sports can do it on their own with minimal funding was out of date because no longer were funds as scarce to allocate. Health problems and the beliefs it’s was important for welfare of ordinary people to be involved in sport became apparent opposing the Fraser governments beliefs. The failure to get gold in the 1976 Olympics was also some embarrassment to Austral ...