Sports diplomacy
Australia is a successful global leader and innovator in sport.
Our love and dedication to sport can provide us with unique opportunities to engage our neighbours, and advance our national interests.
Sports Diplomacy Strategy
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Tim Watts MP, launched Australia’s Sports Diplomacy Strategy 2032+ at the inaugural Annual Sports Diplomacy Roundtable in Canberra on 28 February 2025.
Sports Diplomacy Consultative Group (SDCG)
The inaugural meeting of the SDCG was held in Melbourne on 15 November 2024. The SDCG provides a regular forum to discuss strategic and economic opportunities and risks in international sport, including upcoming events in Australia and offshore, and the ways in which government and the sport sector can work together to advance shared priorities. Links to the Terms of Reference for the SDCG and the current list of SDCG member organisations can be found further below.
This SDCG will be complemented by a new Annual Sports Diplomacy Roundtable, where a broad range of stakeholders from the sports sector will be invited to participate and share their perspectives to help shape the future of sports diplomacy.
SDCG documents
Previous Sports Diplomacy Strategies
Australian Sports Diplomacy Strategy 2015–2018 - launched June 2015
- Sports Diplomacy 2030 [PDF 5 MB] - launched February 2019
- Sports Diplomacy 2030 [DOCX 995 KB] - launched February 2019
Sport in the Pacific
PacificAus Sports
PacificAus Sports is an Australian Government sports diplomacy initiative developing pathways for Pacific teams and athletes to compete in elite competitions and access high performance coaching.
The program creates new opportunities for athletes, coaches and administrators to train, play and grow together - in Australia and across the region. The program also supports athletes as they seek to qualify for major games including the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games.
Through collaborative and ambitious partnerships with Australian national sporting organisations, PacificAus Sports drives success for high performance sport in the Pacific, unlocking the potential of a new generation of sporting champions.
PacificAus Sports works with Cricket Australia and Cricket Papua New Guinea to support high-performance pathways for Pacific cricketers. Credit: Cricket Papua New Guinea
Rugby League in the Pacific
The Australian Government has announced a partnership with the Australian Rugby League Commission to deepen connections in the Pacific through rugby league. The investment will support a Papua New Guinea (PNG) team to enter Australia's National Rugby League competition no later than 2028 and develop pathways for girls and boys, and women and men to play rugby league from the grassroots to the elite level across PNG, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Sport for development
Sport is a globally recognised vehicle to achieve development outcomes in areas such as health, social cohesion, gender equality and disability inclusion. The Australian Government strongly supports these outcomes through its targeted sport for development programs, Team Up, in the Pacific.
Team Up is an Australian Government sport for development program supporting partnerships across the Pacific that use sport to bring people together, champion inclusion and create opportunity. The program is particularly focused on attracting women, girls and people with disability to sports, and ensuring that sports organisations are safe, inclusive and accessible.
Learn more about the history of Australian government support for sport for development.
Sport for Sustainable Development MOOC
Sportanddev, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade have collaborated through the Team Up program to offer the Sport for Sustainable Development: Designing Effective Policies and Programmes MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). The course allows participants to explore the ways in which sport can actively contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and other objectives.
The Sport for Sustainable Development MOOC has been designed for anyone interested in how sport can be used in development and how to effectively use sport to enable change. This includes government officials, intergovernmental officers, sport bodies, public policy experts, private sector professionals, civil society actors including NGOs, practitioners, academics, students and volunteers. Due to its popularity, it has been translated into French, Arabic and Spanish.