In the The Age Norman Jorgensen ponders that age-old question, Why don't we give literature a sporting chance ? as he notes that sports are rather better subsidized down under (as also elsewhere) than all things literary:
Compared to sport, in Australia literature funding is a joke. Sport funding eclipses literature's beyond all measures imaginable. The Australian Institute of Sport spent $324 million last year, while the Australian Institute of Literature ... well, it doesn't even exist.Instead:
What we have here in WA is, not million dollar institutes but Writing WA, The Literature Centre at Fremantle, a few writers' centres and Fremantle Press. They receive some government funding, but it is in the thousands, not the millions of dollars which go to sports bodies.(Indeed, the most recent ASC annual report (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) is an eye-opener -- A$ 570,000 for touch football last year, for example; A$ 5,511,600 for 'high performance' (i.e. competitive) rowing and A$ 2,816,500 for competitive ... canoeing.)