The panel was set up by the Rudd Government to look into the future of sport at community and elite levels.

It found that GLBTIQ concerns included dealing with homophobia, and the concealing of sexuality and the resultant impact on sporting performance and opportunity.

Rob Mitchell is the community member on the Victorian Department of Sport's Governance and Inclusion Project. He believes that thanks to the Crawford Report the Australian Sports Commission is now equipped to generate inclusive sports policies.

“I say that, firstly because a very comprehensive analysis is in the Crawford Report,” Mitchell told MCV. “The second reason is they’ve given the Human Rights Commission $150,000 to develop strategies to combat discrimination in sport.”

Mitchell said consultation between Victoria University, through Caroline Symons, La Trobe with the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, and the Human Rights Commission, had been comprehensive.

“The challenge now is to comprehensibly rectify the inaction of the past. We need a comprehensive, systemic response, because whether you look at elite sport, AFL or the Olympics, we have a drought of ‘out’ athletes. The research tells us they don’t feel safe enough in a commercial sense and in a physical sense.”

The report also criticised governments for pursuing medals at the highest levels of sports participation to the neglect of “grass roots” sport.

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