Priority already for elite: McCully

Minister of Sport, Murray McCully, says additional Government funding for high performance sport is already happening.

"That's why I took a paper to cabinet that resulted in substantial additional funding for sport [culminating in $60m in 2012] in an environment where everyone else was getting cut back.

"I think that shows the priority the Government is attaching to the subject."

McCully said the extra funding amounted to "a substantial boost" over three years, not only for support to athletes but also in terms of beefing up infrastructure such as the extension of the Millennium Institute and the Ocean Sports Centre.

Expressions of interest were being taken about the Bike Centre of Excellence. That added to projects already completed, like the Lake Karapiro rowing high performance centre.

Private sector funding was already forthcoming, he said, and benefactors such as Owen Glenn and Stephen Tindall were to be thanked and congratulated for their contributions towards such projects.

McCully said he was all in favour of private sector funding. "I think you have to give credit to the previous Government for getting some additional cash into sport but what I think didn't happen over the past decade or so was the building of partnerships [with private sector funders]."

Asked whether he thought New Zealand should focus more sharply on real medal hopes, send smaller teams and maybe look at the question of team sports, McCully said: "Judgement calls are required from high performance boards and high performance managers - about which and how many athletes gain support. But that is something for them to decide, not me."

Asked about the contentions of political interference, he said: "I am not quite sure what they are saying. If they are suggesting that I am heavily involved in getting Government support for sport and in terms of building partnerships, then yes, I am.

"But if they are trying to suggest that I have some kind of closer engagement about what happens to individuals, that is nonsense," McCully said."I do not have that sort of relationship with sports; that is conducted through Sparc and the high performance managers."