The Gillard Government will continue its strong commitment to Australian sport in the 2011-12 Budget by providing more than $300 million to support the full spectrum of sport from the grass roots to elite competition.

“Sport is an integral part of Australian culture. We want Australians to be outdoors, taking advantage of our fantastic sports programs, not inside their lounge rooms channel surfing,” Senator Mark Arbib said.

“Participation at a grass-roots level is extremely important – it keeps us healthy, brings communities together and teaches children life-long values such as teamwork, fair play and equality.

The Budget provides more than $128 million to support initiatives including the Active After-school Communities Program, national sporting organisations, Indigenous sport, water safety and grass-roots sport.

Senator Arbib said funding for our high-performance athletes was also important to ensure Australia maintained its sporting excellence and continued to provide role models for future generations of athletes, especially in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics.

“We need to continue to deliver high quality, innovative programs that support our athletes and coaches,” Senator Arbib said.

“The 2011-12 Budget will provide $171.1 million to ensure our athletes remain competitive on an international level.”

“This funding will help Australian Institute of Sport as it takes responsibility for the strategic direction of high performance sport in Australia while working closely with State and Territory Institutes.

The funding in the 2011-12 Budget will also assist Australia to maintain our world-leading anti-doping regime.

Senator Arbib said it was important that Australia continued to be a world leader in anti-doping at both an elite and amateur level.

“To ensure our athletes compete on an even playing-field the Budget will provide $13.3 million to continue the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s deterrence, detection and enforcement activities,” Senator Arbib said.

“In addition, $3.2 million will be provided to the Illicit Drugs in Sport program which educates young athletes on the risks of doping.”

“Australian athletes that succeed on the national and international stage are seen as role models to children across the country,” Senator Arbib said.

“The Gillard Government is proud to support Australian sport from the local netball competition to those athletes training for the London Olympics.”