Just 18% of Australian children meet activity guidelines as report cites cost, safety concerns and school risk aversion

The Blueprint for an Active Australia, a collaboration between the National Heart Foundation of Australia and 70 physical-activity and public-health experts, identifies four key barriers: the prohibitive cost of organised sport, safety concerns limiting active travel to school, risk aversion in schools, with Calleja saying she has heard of schools banning ball sports, and a misunderstanding among some teachers and principals of the role physical activity plays in education.

The report, published Thursday, comes after the World Health Organization published a report card on adolescence and physical activity last week, which found one in four children reported zero days of being active in the previous week.

Calleja pointed to a disconnect between existing frameworks and delivery. "We've got the frameworks, we've got the strategies, but it's not being implemented strategically and systematically across the country," she said.

Cost was consistently identified as a barrier. The average parent pays $4,500 a year for their children's sport. Increased cost-of-living pressures disproportionately affect people of low socioeconomic status, who tend to be less physically active. Dr Jordan Smith, who co-leads the Physical Activity for Cognitive and Mental Health stream at the University of Newcastle and contributed to the Blueprint, said interest rate rises were squeezing his own family's budget: "The interest rate rises are sucking extra money out of our discretionary budget. We do have to have conversations around 'Are we going to do that extra sport or activity?' It's really hard."

Fewer than one-quarter of primary schoolchildren walk or ride a bike to school, even though many live within two kilometres. A survey by Mosman mother Sophie Krynauw through her school's P&C found parents cited safety concerns and their children being too young. Krynauw and Julia Edgare started Walked By, a professional walking bus charging $5 per child, and now walk about 30 children to school. "Lots of parents don't walk their kids places because they don't have the time or the opportunity to do so," said Krynauw.

Many schools have become risk-averse in response to injuries and a more litigious society. Calleja said: “I’ve heard of schools who banned ball sports altogether.” Smith said principals fear litigation if a child is injured but face no backlash for long-term mental health effects. “Whereas they don’t face any backlash for a kid, 10 years later, having anxiety because they never had the ability to challenge themselves.”

Physical education in Australia becomes optional in high school, a time when depression and anxiety often emerge. “There’s a lot of evidence showing that when you actually exchange physical activity for curriculum time, there is no decline in academic performance and, if anything, it just gets better,” Smith said. Smith said increased blood flow from physical activity activates certain brain regions. He also said children who are fitter and more regularly active have a larger hippocampus, associated with better working and long-term memory.

Calleja presents the Blueprint's recommendations to government and policymakers on Thursday.