Arts, sport and tourism avoid cuts in Federal Budget

The 2013/14 Federal Budget has delivered a stable outcome for the Government's leisure portfolios, with arts, sport and tourism avoiding spending cuts.

With previously announced funding commitments to the Australian Sports Commission and the Australia Council for the Arts being unaffected, the Federal Budget has also largely protected Tourism Australia's (TA) core funding.

While the base appropriation for TA maintains a level of around $130-135 million over the forward estimates, there is a significant increase to the marketing capacity available to TA through the Asia Marketing Fund (AMF) - which is tied to revenues collected via the Passenger Movement Charge (PMC).

In 2012/13 the PMC delivered $8.5 million for the AMF and this has been forecast to increase to around $12.5 million in the next financial year.

In support of the tourism industry, the AMF provides additional marketing funds to TA while allowing dedicated research to better understand the Asian markets via Tourism Research Australia. The total funding via the AMF is projected to increase to around $54 million through to the 2016/17 forward estimates.

Another PMC deliverable is the Tourism Industry Regional Development Fund (TIRF) which will increase to $11.1 million this year, up by some $4 million over the current year, and will provide up to $48 million over four years in the forward estimates period.

However, Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) Managing Director Felicia Mariani cautions that the funding "must all be kept in context, however, as the PMC collection out to 2016/17 is projected to raise some $1.1 billion for the Government and the tourism industry will receive a mere 10% of that tax to benefit the source that fuels its performance."

Mariani adds "in the 2013/14 budget year, the PMC will generate some $862 million to the Government coffers while the cost of passenger facilitation in the same period will be a cost of just $220 million."

In sport, the Federal Government has committed $39.4 million to continue the popular Active After-school Communities program until December 2014.

The Active After-school Communities program assists by providing access to free, inclusive and positive sporting experiences to children after school and is currently delivered at more than 3,200 sites across Australia to about 190,000 children.

One of the enduring legacies of the program is the 53,000 community coaches that have been trained through the program from when it commenced in 2005. These coaches are helping children across the country fall in love with sport and ultimately encouraging kids to join their local sporting club.

The program is particularly paying dividends in regional and remote Australia by helping to build strong local networks of sport providers.

The Active After-school Communities program is managed by the Australian Sports Commission through a network of locally-based regional coordinators who assist schools and after-school care centres to deliver the program.

In the arts, the Federal Government has already committed $75.3 million to fund the reformed Australia Council for the Arts.