Subject: sport
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
LORD:
It’s our federal Prime Minister, a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well to you as well and to all of your listeners. It’s good to be back doing this annual reflection on Australian sport.
LORD:
Well Prime Minister as a versatile, knowledgeable and publicly seen sporting nut you’ve had a smorgasbord in 2000.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah it doesn’t get any better than it’s been over the last year and it’s hard to find a highlight. The Olympic Games were fantastic, the Paralympics as well. The greatest thing about it was that it reflected enormous credit on our country. I haven’t heard in the time I’ve been in public life such accolades showered on Australia and Australians as I have heard from world leaders, not only visitors during the Games but leaders I’ve met subsequently at international gatherings. They saw a side of Australia, a capacity in Australia, a sportsmanship in Australia that they hadn’t seen before and that’s just wonderful.
LORD:
Well it must have made you feel very proud as Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly did feel great. And my wife and I resolved at the very beginning that we would go to as many events as we could to express the enthusiasm and support of
19 million Australians to the men and women who were competing. And I’m sure the athletes appreciated that and I’m sure the public did because it wasn’t just an ordinary sporting contest, it was the big sporting contest. But it’s naturally not the only one. There are other great sporting highlights during the year as well.
LORD:
Well let’s just let’s just stick on the Olympic Games for a minute because 12 months ago to the day we sat in this same room and you said you were quite confident that the Olympic Games were going to be the best ever. So when Juan Antonio Samaranch underscored that that must have been a big buzz as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I never had any doubt that once the Games started all the preliminary nonsense would be forgotten and would be submerged in the performance of our athletes and the determination of the Australian public to enjoy the Games and support the Games. And that is exactly what happened and that’s why I made that prediction. They were very well run. The facilities were very good and the people who organised it, SOCOG, deserve praise for what they did. No ifs, buts or maybe, they did a very good job. The volunteers were great, the facilities were superb, our athletes were terrific, and the public lapped it up. And it did drive home the important fact that to make Olympic Games work in these modern times you need a big city and you need a substantially comfortable middle class to afford to buy the tickets and provide the crowds because in the end the thing that really makes an Olympic Games work is the size of the domestic crowd. If you don’t have a strong crowd from the city where the Games are being held and you don’t have the venues filled on most occasions some of the atmosphere is lost. And what made the Olympic Games so very good, the swimming pool, the huge crowds, the main stadium, all of the high points of wins not only for Australian athletes but for others to have 100,000 plus people there all the time was of enormous benefit.
LORD:
Sending shivers up the spine thinking about it.
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s terrific.
LORD:
So is there a danger Prime Minister of the Olympic getting too big and sort of imploding?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don’t think so. In many ways what Sydney did will become a bit of a benchmark because it was so very good and there’ll be a lot of work needed to be put into the Games in Athens. But the Greek people will be up to that. I’m sure they’re very conscious of the enormous Olympic tradition of that country and I have no doubts that they’ll do it very well. And we’re there to offer any advice they want but by the same token every city gives its own twist, its own particular style and its own particular place. I don’t think there’s a danger of it getting too big. There’s no reason why you can’t consolidate gains that are made and build on past experience with things like this.
LORD:
Now as we both agree, 2000 sporting wise was an unbelievable year. I suppose you can’t really pick on any one sport because there are dozens that have all fired.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh they have. I mean we maintained, give or take one or two matches, a terrific record in rugby union. For the 25th year in a row we won the Rugby League World Cup. A bit of a disappointment with the Davis Cup. Of course not to be forgotten we made it 12 in a row in test cricket. Certainly not to be forgotten. And that was a great achievement and a huge tribute to Steve Waugh in particular. We’re very lucky in this country. We’ve had a succession of very effective although different test cricket captains. Alan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh – all different styles but each in his own way very effective. Women cricketers have continued to do extraordinarily well. Of course going back to the Olympics the performance of the women’s hockey team was just quite extraordinary and it’s hard to find an Australian team that’s done any better. And of course although they weren’t in the Olympic Games our netballers have been absolutely fantastic. So it has been a remarkable year, a very remarkable year. And of course next year we have lot of sporting challenges. We have an Ashes tour in England which is always a big event on the cricket calender. We have the British Lions touring Australia in rugby and they only come once every 12 months, and they’ll be a formidable combination. So there’s a lot on.
LORD:
What is it about the Australian psyche Prime Minister that we’re only a country of 19 million people but we can really show this unbelievable will to win and knuckle down to even sports that we never invented but we’ve got better at it than the inventors?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s a combination of things but climate is climate is part of it. The egalitarian character of Australian society which means that most Australians have some access when they are young to most sports. Now that is not the case in the United States, it’s not the case in many countries of Europe or Asia. It’s a hugely important factor that because of the relative social and economic evenness of our society most young boys and girls have the opportunity of playing whatever sport they want to with reasonable facilities. Now it varies and I think there’s been a bit of a retreat in some of the schools. I don’t think the opportunities in some of the government schools for kids to play as much as they did a generation ago and that’s a pity and something should be done about that, and it’ll be part of our sporting policy to help in different ways to ensure that something is done about it although it’s ultimately a matter for State governments. They’re the two things that I believe are generic contributors. The other thing that has happened is that we earlier than most identified the need for focused government help to the Institute of Sport which was established by the Fraser Government in the 1970s. It really has proved with all its outreaching a remarkable source of not only financial support but discipline in training and focused coaching for Australian athletes and performers. And that’s made a big difference. And I can see that model being adopted by so many countries in the years ahead.
LORD:
Actually it’s rather interesting you mention that Prime Minister because the Australian Cricket Academy has made sure that over the last 20 years we’ve got three test teams and yet no other country has followed that pattern. You begin to wonder why. Maybe it’s a bit too impatient because they want overnight success rather than be patient like the Australians have been.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes that’s true. I think increasingly people will look to that as a successful model. Increasingly I think they will look to that as a successful model but maybe it’s got something to do with the way out society is structured that it’s easier to have something like that in Australia than elsewhere. We are people who adapt and it’s that essential evenness of Australian society and the ready access of so many people in so many sports it does help. But you can never discount the weather. That’s a huge factor in this country.
LORD:
But what about the Australian vision? I’ve travelled the world a lot too and I just, when you see Australians they seem to grasp things quicker and more laterally than other countries.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s because we are not a class driven society. People fell the equal of their fellow countrymen and women and so they should. And that means that they are in so many areas of endeavour more personally resourceful. That’s why you can get people performing extremely well in difficult sporting situations and challenging sporting situations. I think our relatively egalitarian nature and disposition and structure is one of the major reasons why we do so very well in sport.
LORD:
Now you’ve praised rightly Steve Waugh. Now Adam Gilchrist stepped in for the third test because Steve was injured. Now he was a young bloke only in his 12th test fighting a mighty tough battle for the first three days. Ends up taking the winning streak to 14. I mean even the replacement comes up trumps.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, and importantly also he was the captain of the Prime Minister’s XI this year.
LORD:
Obviously you had the vision as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
He’s a very impressive bloke and a great student of the game, a great cricketer. There’s no reason why a wicketkeeper can’t be captain of Australia, not that I’m suggesting for a moment that Steve Waugh shouldn’t go on for a number of years. I think he’s still very much at the top of his form both as a batsman and as a captain. But Adam’s excellent. I congratulated him, sent him a message yesterday and I think he’s just fantastic.
LORD:
Now the Australian Sports Medal. Now I was lucky enough to see one the other day from Kerry Thompson who runs the touch football, another world championship team. What a wonderful concept for recognition of people who normally don’t get recognised that they have the ASM, two medals there, got ASM behind their name. I think it’s a wonderful step forward.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is and what we’ve tried to do with that is to make it available not just to the sort of the Mark Taylors and Susie O’Neills and so forth, but also to the people who’ve in an unsung way run the local soccer team. I had a presentation ceremony in my own electorate. Sure I had a few well known people including Mr Taylor who lives in my electorate and his father accepted the medal on his behalf, but also very importantly, I’m just thinking of some random names, a man who’s been the sportsmaster at one of the local schools at St Josephs College 20 or 30 years, somebody who run the local baseball club. There’s a whole list of those people. Now this is the grass roots strength of Australian sport. Unless you have people like that you give up their time for no pecuniary reward of any description you’re not going to have the young players in a whole range of endeavours coming through and that’s what the Sports Medal has sought to identify and acknowledge.
LORD:
Congratulations because it’s not only a beautiful medal but it’s such a meaningful medal.
PRIME MINISTER:
It is a very attractive medal and I’m glad that it’s been seen as a recognition of the generic widespread strength of Australian sport and not just something for elite performers and high achievers.
LORD:
Well Prime Minister, thank you for your time. I hope 2001 gives you as much sporting endeavour come satisfaction as 2000 did but it’s going to be a bit hard to beat.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes but the thing, like the Australian team you sort of have a lot in reserve and I think 2001 will have in reserve a lot of sporting highlights. And I’ve no doubt there’ll be plenty to watch, plenty to enjoy, and I’ll certainly be there doing so.
LORD:
Thanks very much.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Merry Christmas.
LORD:
Same to you.
[Ends]