Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

young people working after school or on weekends, and the discretionary time of New
Zealanders is under increasing pressure from other commitments.
We need to ensure that volunteering in sport is an attractive and worthwhile proposition.
One way of achieving that is by investing in developing the skills of sports volunteers – skills
which are also applicable in other areas of their lives.
Labour will commit to supporting volunteers in the sport and recreation sector by
providing resources to assist them in their roles and giving them opportunities to
upskill. We will build off the Rugby World Cup volunteer base.
High performance sport
New Zealand consistently punches above its weight on the international sporting stage. Our
sports achievements are intrinsically intertwined with our national pride.
Achieving in international sport is also good from a marketing perspective because our
athletes‟ international successes help to promote New Zealand and to enhance our image
overseas.
The hosting of the Rugby World Cup this year has put the importance of sport to our selfpride
and our image overseas firmly in the spotlight.
Labour has long been committed to supporting the development of world-class athletes and
coaches. That commitment paid off when we were last in government and New Zealand‟s
Olympic medal tally rose from a near all-time low in Sydney in 2000 to a 20 year high in
Beijing in 2008.
Labour will continue to support specialised training for our top athletes, and will also
increase the focus on pre-elite athlete identification so that our pool of high
performance athletes can grow.
National has set up a separate High Performance Board within Sparc, which is overly
bureaucratic and unnecessary.
Labour will undo excessively complicated board arrangements at Sparc and ensure
that High Performance sport is given an appropriate focus within Sparc‟s overall
governance responsibilities.
Labour will also ensure that sports funding decisions are made by the Sparc board,
not the Minister, to prevent them from being politicised and open to appeal.
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