Inquiry into women in sport and recreation in Australia

Terms of Reference

The Senate has referred the following matter to the Committee for inquiry and report by the first sitting day in September 2006. On 15 August the Senate granted an extension to report until Wednesday, 6 September, 2006.

Women in sport and recreation in Australia, with particular regard to:

1. the health benefits of women participating in sport and recreation activities;
2. the accessibility for women of all ages to participate in organised sport, fitness and recreation activities, with additional reference to state and federal programs, including;
   1. the number of women actively participating in organised sport, fitness and recreation activities;
   2. characteristics of women not participating in organised sport, fitness and recreation activities        (including , for example, socio-economic strata, age, women with a disability, Indigenous or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women);
   3. constraints, including strategies to overcome the constraints that may prevent these women from participating;
   4. the effectiveness of current state and federal grant programs that encourage women to participate;
   5. the retention and attrition trends of grass roots participation, including comparisons with male athletes at a similar level;
   6. the remuneration, recruitment, retention and attrition of elite female athletes, including comparisons with elite male athletes;
   7. retention of athletes competing in senior and open age state and national sporting competitions, with possible strategies to retain female competitors in elite and sub-elite competition;
   8. opportunities and barriers for national team members and competitors in international competition;and
   9. the financial status, success and viability of women's national league competitions, including strategies to improve these factors;
3. the portrayal of women's sport in the media, including:
   1. the role of the government to regulate and review the coverage of women's sport in the media (print, radio and electronic);
   2. the influence of pay television on the coverage of women in sport;
   3. the promotion and publicity of women's National League competitions,
   4. the financial status and success of women's national leagues.
   5. strategies to improve the amount and quality of media coverage for women's sport;
4.  (d)  women in leadership roles in sport, including;
   1. the number and proportion of women in coaching, administrative and officiating roles;
   2. the issues associated with women in leadership roles in both elite and  grass-roots activities;
   3. trends and issues for women in organisational leadership roles; and
   4. strategies to improve the numbers of women in coaching, administration and technical roles.

The Committee invites written submissions from interested individuals and organisations, preferably in electronic form sent by email, to ecita.sen@aph.gov.au. The email must include full postal address and contact details.

Alternatively, submissions may be sent to The Secretary, Senate Environment, Communications Information Technology and the Arts References Committee Parliament House, CANBERRA ACT 2600, or faxed to 02 6277 5818.

Submissions must be received by no later than Friday, 16 June 2006.

Submissions become committee documents and are made public only after a decision by the Committee. Persons making submissions must not release them without the approval of the Committee. Submissions are covered by parliamentary privilege but the unauthorised release of them is not.

Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament House TTY number (02) 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at: http://access.adobe.com/. If you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate in a committee inquiry, please contact the committee secretary.

For further information, contact:

Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Environment, Communications and the Arts
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Phone:	+61 2 6277 3526
Fax:	+61 2 6277 5818
Email:	ecita.sen@aph.gov.au