The government finally released a sport strategy. Now tell me what it missed.
After 19 months of waiting, Queensland's new community sport strategy landed in July. It's short, it's light on detail, and on the issues clubs raise with me most, it goes quiet.
I'm more than a little disappointed.
Nineteen months of waiting produced 24 pages and under 2,000 words. No targets. No new funding attached to any program. No real accounting of the problems it's supposed to fix, mostly existing initiatives re-announced under a new banner.
Where it does gesture at something new, the detail isn't there either. Nothing in this year's Budget backs it, and some of it doesn't even have a page on the strategy's own website yet.
It's the same pattern on women and girls in sport, an issue I've pushed the Minister on directly. He told me at Estimates it would be a "key theme" of the strategy. It arrived with one mention.
Five years out from hosting the Games, our sporting community deserved more substance than this. Here's where I think it falls short, and why I want to hear from you before I take it further.
I want to hear what sport in Queensland has actually been like for you.
What do you make of the strategy? What's it been like trying to get into a sport, or stay in one, in Cooper or anywhere else in Queensland? What's got in the way, and what would actually make things better? Does your club need help it isn't getting, and where do you think government money should go instead? The five questions below are where the strategy falls short on paper, but I want to hear the version that doesn't fit in a strategy document.
What assistance does your club need right now?
The strategy commits no genuinely new, costed funding to community clubs. The named "new" funds carry no dollar figure and don't appear in the 2026-27 Budget either. Field time, equipment, coaching, insurance: tell me specifically.
What would make it easier for you to get into, or remain in, sport?
Women and girls get one mention in the whole document: a "could" pilot with no target, dollar, or date. This goes for players, coaches, officials, and administrators.
What would have kept you, or officials you know, in the game?
Referees and umpires are quitting over abuse, and grades are being cancelled for lack of officials. The strategy does not mention this at all.
What's stopping you, or someone you know, from volunteering?
Club committees are ageing and burning out. The strategy's only offer is free online training modules, nothing structural to recruit or retain the people running the club.
What's the barrier that's kept you, or your family, out of local sport?
The one new disability measure, the QAS Para Unit, is elite-level only. There is no funded, grassroots pathway for Queenslanders with disability into their local club. Transport, facilities, program availability, cost: what would actually change it?
Tell me what's missing where you play.
I'm collecting stories from clubs, volunteers, officials, and families across our community before I take this to Parliament. Your name can stay off the record if you'd rather not be quoted.
Get in touch.
Pick whichever's easiest. Every response helps build the case for a strategy that actually funds the people holding community sport together.
Email my office Call (07) 3554 9100- Which gap above hits closest to home, and why
- What your club, or you personally, needs most right now
- Whether you're happy to be named and quoted, or would rather stay anonymous
Authorised by J. Bush, Brisbane.