Tax hike to help athletes rejected

By ALAN PERROTT

THE HERALD'S SUMMER OF POLLS

Would you pay more tax to fund success in sport?

Yes 29%

No 66%

Not sure / refuse 5%

We could see the return of bottle drives and cake stalls to finance our sporting heroes' pursuit of glory, judging by the response to a Herald-DigiPoll survey.

Two-thirds of the 756 people questioned were unconvinced that New Zealanders would win more often if we threw more tax at sport.

In the present financial year the Government has allocated $16 million to high-performance sport.

The same level of opposition appears almost everywhere, no matter if you're a townie or a cockie, Labour or National, young or old, rich or not so rich - about 30 per cent favour more tax for sport and 66 per cent are dead against it.

The remainder are scratching their heads wondering what all the fuss is about.

The highest group of undecided are Aucklanders, possibly because of some confusion over what kind of heroes the poll was referring to.

The only groups to break the trend are Maori and women.

Maori are the group most sympathetic to the plight of our struggling athletes.

Forty per cent of Maori polled would willingly sacrifice more of their incomes for success, compared with a miserly 29 per cent of Pakeha who share similar leanings.

On the other side of the coin, 66 per cent of Pakeha say, 'Look somewhere else for your cash,' compared with 56 per cent of Maori.

Possibly unsurprisingly, women show the greatest opposition to shelling out more for sports stars.

Only 23 per cent, the lowest level of all groups polled, supported a tax hike, while a whopping 72 per cent say our tall poppies - like triathlete Hamish Carter, discus champion Beatrice Faumuina and cyclist Sarah Ulmer - are tall enough.

Former Olympic runner and English professor Don Smith agrees. He is not too happy about our athletes becoming better-paid public servants. "I would rather see my tax going into education, welfare and - as I'm coming up on 70 - health.

"There are no guarantees of success anyway. Australia spent a lot to get their medals at the Sydney Games, but Canada spent about $20 million ... for very little return."

Former tennis star and staunch Libertarian Chris Lewis goes even further, calling for an end to all Government funding of sport.

"I'm against anything that involves compulsion such as taxation. [But] the more commercial funding sports can get the better.

"Sport has played a huge role in my life, but I don't like the idea of having your career maintained by funding ... forced from others."