The decision by the Education Department to remove funding for the Schools Sport Australia program will have a devastating effect on many sports, particularly young orienteers. In today’s Mercury there were 3 letters to the editor on this topic, including letters from Judith Davis and Bert Elson. OT President, Warwick Moore has also written to the Mercury and we are hoping his letter will be published in the next few days. The details of the 3 letters are listed below:
Left Off The Map Forever (published in the Mercury p10, August 5 2014)
Denying Tasmania's schoolchildren opportunities to represent their state in national schools championships would ensure that Tasmania would be forever left off the map. There is no point bleating about an Australian swimsuit if no Tasmanian is allowed to compete nationally, let alone internationally. Such a short-sighted decision would plunged our future sport stars into a sea of oblivion.
Judith Davis
Kingston Beach
So Much To Lose (published in the Mercury p10, August 5 2014)
If the Government does not reverse the stance on the Schools Sport Australia program, our students (who placed first in two of the last three National Schools Orienteering Championships) will be ineligible to compete from next year onwards.
During the years that the Tasmanian government was not involved in the Schools Sport Australia program, individual sports could still take part in national championships by paying the per-capita levy themselves, effectively an additional cost to parents.
Advice received from Schools Sport Australia is that following a recent change to the constitution of that organisation, the failure of a state government to participate in the program will now render sports from that state ineligible to take part in national championships, effective from next year.
Tasmania hosts the National Orienteering Championships incorporating the Australian Schools Championships every seven years. Our ineligibility to compete in the schools competition would put at risk Tasmania's ability to hold the National Championships themselves. Each National Orienteering Carnival has been estimated to bring $2 million into the state economy. It is reasonable to anticipate similar situations applying to other sports.
Bert Elson,
Director of development,
Orienteering Tasmania
Steps Needed to Rectify Short Sighted Decision (awaiting publication in the Mercury)
It is most disappointing to note that the Tasmanian Government and the Education Department has withdrawn their support for Tasmania’s affiliation with School Sport Australia, which conducts national school sporting championships.
Orienteering conducts a number of schools events across the state for both primary and secondary students, and holds regular regional schools championships, as well as a state schools championship each year. These events attract large numbers and elicit keen competition for places in the Tasmanian Schools Orienteering Team, that we support and help fund to attend the national schools championships. This year competition for places will be so keen that we are considering sending a second “unofficial” team because of the valuable experience for those chosen.
This series of competitions forms an essential component of the pathway for our school orienteers to reach the very top of orienteering in Australia. Over the past ten years, the Tasmanian Schools Team has been the most successful state team at the national schools championships, Tasmania’s Junior National Orienteering League Team has been highly competitive, and Tasmania has made up nearly 25 percent of the Australian Teams for the annual World Junior Championships.
Last week, three Tasmanian Juniors competed very successfully in the World Junior Orienteering Championships in Bulgaria, where Brodie Nankervis of Launceston was the best performed Australian team member. The Australian Team was coached by Tasmanian, Hanny Allston, a former junior and senior World Champion, and also a product of this pathway. Hanny and another former Tasmanian Schools Team member, Grace Crane, were ranked 1 and 2 in open women’s elite competition in Australia at the end of last year.
If Tasmania is not affiliated with School Sport Australia, we will be ineligible to send the schools team to the national championships next year and this successful pathway will be broken, jeopardising the future development of our juniors.
Our success at school, junior, national and international level helps to maintain Tasmania’s outstanding reputation in the orienteering world, and enhances our ability to win bids for international events, such as the forthcoming Oceania Championships and three races of the Orienteering World Cup that will all be held in Tasmania in January next year. The world’s best orienteers, along with many orienteers from Australia and New Zealand, will be in Tasmania and will provide a considerable financial boost to the Tasmanian economy, far in excess of the $17000 saved by this decision.
I urge the Premier and Minister for Sport to step in to rectify what I believe to be a most short-sighted decision.
Warwick Moore
PRESIDENT, ORIENTEERING TASMANIA