Review of the Registered Clubs Industry in NSW - Clubs NSW

4 Measuring and reporting on club contributions
4.1 IPART’s preferred approach for measuring clubs’ social
contributions
During IPART’s consultation process, stakeholders made few comments on the
methodology for identifying and recording the value of the clubs industry’s social
contributions – probably because of the complexity and difficulty of this issue.
Some submissions suggested that clubs’ social contributions should be measured in
terms of their ‘net contribution’, in recognition of the fact that clubs impose costs on
communities as well as benefits. 70 However, IPART’s terms of reference ask it to
identify the value of the clubs industry’s provision of social infrastructure and
services. This means that the methodology needs to involve a valuation exercise,
rather than a cost benefit analysis. Nevertheless, IPART has not ignored the costs
imposed by the clubs industry – as Chapter 3 discussed, it examined these costs in
assessing whether the net social contributions of the industry justify ongoing
government support.
IPART considers that the total value of clubs’ provision of social infrastructure and
services should be calculated as the sum of the following components:
The value of direct, cash contributions made to charities, community and
sporting-related activities.
The estimated value of direct, in-kind provision and maintenance of community
and sporting facilities and infrastructure (including bowling greens, gyms and
tennis courts, as well as meeting rooms and other venues), calculated using a
market value approach.
The estimated value of club volunteer labour not already included in the estimate
of direct, in-kind contributions.
IPART considers that indirect social contributions are much harder to identify and
value quantitatively. Therefore, these contributions should be identified and
recorded using a qualitative approach.
The following sections discuss each of these components in more detail, and explain
how IPART applied its preferred approach in estimating the value of the clubs
industry’s direct social contributions for 2007.
70 Wayne Sampson submission, 30 July 2007, p 5; Responsible Gaming Fund Trustees submission,
27 July 2007, p 3.
Review of the Registered Clubs Industry in NSW IPART 69