He who drinks Australian thinks AustralianSo the beer advert goes anyway. The Australians don't mind sending themselves up and capitalising on our perception of an archetypal Australian being interested in little other than cold beer. Australian beers are household names, but what is not so widely known is the extent of Australian influence on sport in the UK. In recent years, over 150 UK coaching positions have been taken up by Australian coaches across a wide range of sports, from rowing to swimming, rugby to gymnastics. Far from being a nation of beer-bellied couch potatoes, Australia is a nation of people who understand the importance of sport in a modern society and this stems from the seat of government down to the man in the street. At the Montreal Olympics in 1976, Australia failed to win one gold medal. So great was the sense of outrage and humiliation back home that the government took steps to ensure the nation would never again suffer Olympic embarrassment. This has been so successful that Australia now exports coaches, athletes and sport science all around the world. In many sports, it is so difficult to get into the Australian national team that athletes search back through their family trees for any connection to foreign countries where they can, on ability, walk straight into the national team.This is the result of a comprehensive plan, put forward by the government and supported by the people. I'm sorry to say that I don't see any evidence of that happening over here. The government realise that our children are overweight and are not doing enough exercise. They have introduced a number of good schemes, which vary from classroom aerobic sessions to free fruit. Meanwhile, in Leicester, the local authority is closing down a children's playground because it does not meet EU specifications and to upgrade it will cost too much money. The playground is well used and there are no plans to replace it so, quite rightly, local parents are up in arms.Elsewhere, Barbara Cassani, head of the London Olympic bid committee, has started to appoint her staff. The faces she is recruiting are high-powered executives who will not be working for peanuts, but why should they with a budget of 30 million quid just for the bid? Meanwhile, at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham, they are talking about filling in the 2,000m lake and turning it into a park and ride because it costs 1.5 million pounds a year to keep open. This is an elite training facility for rowers and canoeists and, as such, does not pay. You would think that the word Elite would give a clue from day one that there will not be thousands of people pouring through turnstiles. It is not Disneyland.Getting children to do more exercise while closing down playgrounds and planning new sports facilities while bulldozing others are just a couple of examples of a complete lack of joined up management of sport. I've mentioned before that I think bidding for the 2012 Olympics is a waste of money. This is not because I wouldn't like to see a repeat of the Sidney games in London, but I think there are more important things we need to do first, like find out why we failed to win one single event at this year's World Athletic Championships in Paris and, more importantly, put that right.I don't doubt Ms Cassani's ability to put forward a successful bid. Anyone who can buy and sell an airline and make a couple of million quid in the process is obviously no mug. But to me, winning the bid and putting on the Games is a lot less important than getting sport on a sound footing through the schools, clubs and international systems. We need a change of attitude right throughout the nation and it must start at the top, to establish a system that produces long-term success. Sport is an important part of society and when it is not working the problems manifest themselves in other areas such as health and law and order. Throwing the odd knighthood and MBE at outstanding individuals might be popular but does not even begin to address the underlying problems in British Sport.Think Australian.