Wasting money on sport? Australian government policy and the sport of powerlifting

At the very least, drawing on the Danish example, the ASC could display information on its website about which Australian sporting federations are subject to a drug testing program or policy, given that there are four Australian powerlifting federations as of 2015, including the Australian Drug Free Powerlifting Federation which pays for its own WADA testing.

With ASADA indicating that it 'can only investigate possible violations of the anti-doping rules in relation to athletes and support persons who come under a Code compliant anti-doping policy' (Email Sept 18, 2013), you would think that the Australian government would consider other strategies to promote drug free sport, particularly for powerlifting. For example, many promote the virtue of education to inform sportspeople about the health risks of banned performance enhancing drugs.

Perhaps the ASC could actually communicate with other federations to discuss just which federations are interested in promoting drug free sport rather than simply ignoring them.

The ASC's lack of interest in the various factors that divide Australian powerlifting is surprising. After all, the Australian Public Service Commission indicates that issues which are 'highly resistant to resolution' where there is 'no quick fixes and simple solutions', require a need to grasp 'the big picture, including the interrelationships among the full range of causal factors underlying them'. Such so-called 'wicked problems' 'require innovative, comprehensive solutions that can be modified in the light of experience and on-the-ground feedback'. And, because 'disagreement among stakeholders often reflects the different emphasis they place on the various causal factors', 'successfully addressing wicked policy problems usually involves a range of coordinated and interrelated responses, given their multi-causal nature'; and 'often involves trade-offs between conflicting goals'.

Perhaps I am asking too much, as powerful players too often fail to match their rhetoric. It appears that the Australian government, via substantial resources for drug testing alone, is happy to assist the federation seeking IOC accreditation, rather than improving its strategy about how best to deal with a sport with many federations.

In the case of powerlifting, the government should stop funding a sport with few participants, or lift its game and actually try to promote a more effective strategy if the policy goal is to encourage drug free powerlifting given near 25 years of policy failure.