18 August 2020

The Governance and Strategy team at Sport Australia—in collaboration with our State and Territory partners—are in the process of evolving the Sports Governance Principles to reflect the changes in the sector since the original publication in 2012.

In order to ensure the evolved principles reflect the needs of the sector, the Governance and Strategy team are using ‘Online Jams’ which combine a live online presentation with real-time polling and results to solicit feedback in an interactive format. At this stage, we have received over 300 registrations across 14 scheduled jams. Participants have included our partners in the State and Territory bodies, local government, fans of sport, directors, paid staff, and academics, just to name a few. Feedback on the experience has been extremely positive with participants valuing the opportunity to engage directly with Sport Australia while also sharing their insights into the sector.

At the time of writing, all the jams had not yet been completed, but there is general consensus that the role of the evolved principles is, primarily, to facilitate organisational development while there is a broad range of opinions on the format of the principles (e.g. should they be recommended or mandatory? Process-focused or outcome-focused?). The insights from the jams will help the team prioritise key considerations, which will be taken into a series of design labs to help create the tools and resources identified as priorities. Accordingly, these jams are providing valuable information for the Governance and Strategy team and will help enable Sport Australia to release a “you said, we did” summary upon the publication of the evolved principles.

For more information, contact the Governance and Strategy team at SportsGovernance@sportaus.gov.au