Mission-On could soon be mission off

The $15.7 million-a-year Mission-On campaign to encourage young New Zealanders into healthy activity is in National's sights.

Its survival is the subject of "ongoing discussions" with the Government.

Mission-On includes an interactive website aimed at 5-to-12-year-olds that cost $3.7 million to set up.

It is run by Sparc, which put $6.9 million towards it last year. The rest came from the Education and Health departments.

It was started in 2006 by then-Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said it would help Kiwis and their families improve nutrition and increase physical activity". It was to cost $67 million over four years.

As Opposition leader, John Key labelled campaigns such as Mission-On as unnecessarily bureaucratic and accompanied by "expensive advertising campaigns telling parents things like 'make sure your child eats fruit and vegetables"'.

Mr Key said National would review the campaigns and any "wasted" money would be channelled into sports clubs and schools to use for sports.

A Sparc spokesman said the future of Mission-On was subject to "ongoing discussions" about how it fitted with the Government's priorities.

Sport and Recreation Minister Murray McCully could not be reached for comment.

The $3.7 million spent to set up the website recently concerned National MPs at a select committee examining Sparc's financial performance.

Sparc representatives said the website was a success. It had about 25,000 registered users and had been accessed by 90,000 individuals.