Funding ‘eroded’ over nine years

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 3

Funding ‘eroded’ over nine years

Wellington reporter The Government has said it will not be rushed into making any premature commitments involving a lot of money for sports and recreation.

However, the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr Moore, told the Sports Foundation yesterday that the Government was strongly committed to promoting sport and recreation. There should be proper co-ordination within the Government of sport and recreation administration so that the differing needs of each sector would be catered for more' effectively. The financial contribution of the Government to sport and recreation had been

eroded during the last nine years, Mr Moore said. In 1975-76, about $4.6 million had been allocated, and to match that in real terms the 1983-84 allocation would have needed to be $13.7M, but the actual allocation had stayed rigidly at S4.BM.

“So, in effect, the funding today is nearly S9M down in real terms compared with 1975-76," he said. It would be unrealistic in the present economic climate to give an assurance that that position would be redressed. Mr Moore said he was receiving various suggestions, most of them laudable, as to how the Government’s sport and recreation funds should be spent.