Maybe Jane Flemming’s plans for children to spend half their time at school standing up and for their parents to drop them off a little further away than right outside the school gates is not the best option, but at least it’s an idea.
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For there are precious few others of any merit - as obesity rates among school-aged children balloon towards 25 per cent and beyond.
Forget the obsession about banning fast food and fizzy drinks as a lazy solution - for neither are a serious problem for physically active and fit kids.
Most of them are not even at home watching those ads on television – they are way too busy doing other things.
Fortunately the Australian Sports Commission has had an epiphany on participation during the last week or so, so the door is firmly ajar for solutions other than Flemming’s, which today she will present to the Australian Medical Association.
The ASC’s website says that the consultation process for a National Sports Plan will open soon.
We are encouraged to keep referring back to the website page and to register an interest in the process.
It’s a process that’s long overdue and one that shouldn’t be missed by the masses of folk around the country who mostly voluntarily deliver sport and physical activity at the coalface.
For too often it’s just the bean counters in Canberra and those who they sit on interview panels appointing to the staff of national sporting organisations who pow wow and make all the calls.
The ASC says that the federal government is investing over $350 million in sport this year.
It wants to ensure that it accurately reflects the value our society places upon sport.
The National Sports Plan consultation process seeks to understand what we want not just in high performance sport but in outcomes in participation, culture and public health.
We’ve been obsessed about the green and gold for generations but perhaps so much so have we taken our eye off the ball on our physical health.
From now, and for a good period yet, we need to make sure it is just as important when sports budgets are formulated.
And if the education system across the board does not want to manage it or cannot squeeze it into the curriculum then maybe some real dollars need to be hived off the education budget. These could then be reallocated to sport to get the job done.
The best result of course would be a collaboration to achieve the very best outcome.
In Memorium
If this column had been submitted late, and on this occasion it was not, I may have had a kindly reminder from my friend and colleague, Phil Edwards.
That I shall no longer receive those prompts makes me very sad.
My relationship with Phil was a little different to others for it was both as a media colleague and a sports administrator looking to place a story or two.
In both capacities I received so much respect from Phil. I hope that I reciprocated because he truly deserved it.
For Phil was a special kind of sports journalist.
He wanted to make sure that every story he wrote was meaningful and relevant - wherever it was on the objective importance scale.
When I would start reeling off a list of achievements from kids at a sports carnival, I knew I had Phil’s interest when he’d interject with “what was that again?”
Many a grandparent would have scrapbooked an Examiner clipping because of what Phil Edwards then made of that.
And then there were the times we spent in tiny press boxes across the sporting grounds of Northern Tasmania and the occasional carpool trip.
You couldn’t help but tell Phil more than he needed to or should know because you knew he would respect your confidence.
He’s taken some pretty good stuff with him.
Vale to a fine man who had an incredible love for grassroots sport.