A pledge for creating change in Victorian Sport
On Thursday 20 February 2025 at Parliament House in Victoria, CMSport hosted an important event that brought together leaders from seven State Sporting Associations (SSAs) and partners to renew their commitment to tackling racism in community sport. This included AFL Victoria, Basketball Victoria, Cricket Victoria, Football Victoria, Netball Victoria, NRL Victoria, Tennis Victoria, CMSport, Vicsport, and VicHealth.
Read more about this collaboration in the initial announcement here.
We are grateful for the key speakers:
- Carmel Guerra OAM (CEO, CMY)
- Rob Hyatt (Cultural Experiences Manager, Koorie Heritage Trust)
- The Hon. Ros Spence (Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Agriculture, and Minister for Carers and Volunteers)
Carmel Guerra acknowledged the Minister’s ongoing support and commitment of the SSAs, academic partners and government agencies. She highlighted the importance of turning research into action and emphasised the need to embed anti-racism strategies at the grassroots and community level.
“It’s time to unpack what we already knew, but now it’s embedded in research.”
The first phase of this project was focused on bringing the SSAs together to form the working group and reviewing existing approaches. We then supported our academic research partners in distributing a survey to engage people across community sport, with almost 350 individuals participating from nearly 50 different sports. The findings of this research, and the voices and experiences of survey participants, will help to inform the next phase of the project.
Rob Hyatt of Koorie Heritage Trust spoke passionately about the power of sport to drive social change, recognising that while barriers may differ for multicultural and First Nations communities, racism remains a shared challenge. He also shared on the importance of increasing awareness and capacity to eliminate racism in sport.
“The feeling of racism is the same – excluded and left out.”
Minister for Community Sport, the Hon. Ros Spence, reinforced the urgency of addressing racism in sport and its impact as a barrier to participation. She thanked the group for their leadership and ongoing work in this space, announcing this commitment as just the beginning of meaningful change.
“We all know in ourselves how important this work is – this is just the beginning.”
CEOs and representatives from the seven SSAs, along with CMSport, Vicsport and VicHealth, marked the occasion by re-signing a pledge and ceremonial jersey. By signing the pledge, these organisations re-affirm their commitment to challenging racism and discrimination, and to working together to strengthen community sport as a more inclusive, safe and respectful environment for all Victorians.
CMSport is excited to continue collaborating with such a committed group of organisations on the next phase of the project, further developing an action strategy to collectively tackle racism in community sport.