Opinion: Academy decision a backwards step and a threat to 2032 gold

Eight years out from a home Olympic and Paralympic Games, we should be priming the Queensland Academy of Sport so it is fully enabled to be a world-class high performance sports agency. Unfortunately, the government has done the opposite.

Premier Steven Miles.

Eight years out from a home Olympic and Paralympic Games, we must be now priming the Queensland Academy of Sport so it is fully enabled to be a world-class high performance sports agency.

Unfortunately, the government has done the opposite and taken a major backward step with its recent decision to demote the Academy’s leadership role from a senior chief executive to a general manager who reports several levels down in the department.

Former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers Mick de Brenni and Stirling Hinchliffe showed great insight to appoint to the Academy an excellent chief executive in Chelsea Warr – and to have her report directly to the department’s director-general, and an appropriate advisory board.

The Miles government is under fire over its decision to demote the Queensland Academy of Sport.

There remained performance constraints, but the parties made the best of those to good effect.

Under Chelsea’s leadership, the Queensland Academy of Sport quickly became the clear leader among the state institutes.

But the new Miles Government has now made an absolutely appalling decision that will undo all of that good work – and it will unravel very quickly as key staff contemplate their future beyond the Paris Games.

Success in 2032 will require an organisation that has flexibility, agility, purposeful urgency and attracting the very best team to be the support behind our athletes.

The Australian Institute of Sport complex in Canberra with Bruce Stadium and the Athletics track in foreground. (AAP Photo/Alan Porritt)

What will have the opposite effect are slow and cumbersome processes which deter talent and high performance, as well as inspirational high performance leadership that can only be attracted and retained with appropriate arrangements.

While it is always possible for leaders of high performance organisations to push through bureaucratic processes, and sort their way through inappropriate red tape, surely now is the time to do things differently. Otherwise we are honestly letting down those Queensland children who are our future Olympians and Paralympians.

This requires an organisation that is strongly and purposefully governed and led by those who actually understand its business.

The Government should make Queensland Academy of Sport a statutory authority, with a high-level chief executive who understands high performance sport; overseen by a skills-based board that governs appropriately.

Peter Conde is a former chief executive of the Australian Institute of Sport