According to NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns, a November 2022 report from Sport NSW, found community sport organisations were still receiving the same level of funding today as they were when Sydney staged the Olympics in 2000 – over two decades ago.
“As a result, it has left community sport in a state of crisis and chronic underfunding,” he said.
If elected, NSW Labor has agreed to step up the Organisation Support Program funding to $5 million in 2023-24 and $10 million a year in the years after. The program assists peak sporting bodies and identified organisations to build capacity, invest in governance processes and create and deliver sport and recreation activities as well as competitions at all levels in NSW.
It will also include supporting programs and activities to increase girls and women’s participation in sport.
Labor candidate for East Hills and Vice President of Bankstown Touch Football, Kylie Wilkinson says she knows first hand how hard it is to keep sports and clubs operating.
She says the funding will also help amplify women’s sport in NSW.
“Grassroots clubs like mine struggle to get support from the state bodies because they have got limited resources and are really stretched,” she said.
Mr Minns says it’s time there were modern funding arrangements to match the modern challenges faced by these groups.
