Different bottle, same wine.That’s the way Shadow Minister for Community and Cultural Development and Sports Michael Weeks summed up the sports initiatives outlined in Government’s Throne Speech.The new OBA Government has pledged to “strengthen” the operations of sports clubs and community organisations by “fostering private sector partnerships to make accounting, administration and business planning skills freely available to them”.They have also vowed to lend additional support via the implementation of the ‘Cash Back for Communities’ programme that will see confiscated assets and cash directly allocated in support to sports clubs and community organisations.But according to Weeks, both initiatives were hatched and implemented under the previous PLP Government and not the OBA.He said prior to being ousted from power the PLP had forged partnerships with both the private and public sectors who he says were “willing” to invest in sporting/workman clubs to help them overcome their various challenges.“The former Government under Minister Dale Butler had commissioned a club report and it outlined a lot of issues that the sporting/workman clubs had,” the PLP MP said. “So what I started to implement as the former Minister of Community Development was to look at that report that has a lot of recommendations.“I was very much into trying to develop our sporting and workman’s clubs so what I done was look for a public/private partnership. And actually the former Government up until late last year had made contact with private partners who were willing to invest in our sporting clubs.“So the little we saw in the Throne Speech was just straight from the work the former Government done. This is not new at all because we had done that and all they (Government) are doing is towing the line there. All they’ve done is tweaked things a bit.”The Shadow Minister said Government’s ‘Cash Back for Communities’ programme is another brainchild of the PLP.“The term is new but not the development because we called it the Confiscated Development Assets Fund and that was going to go towards the needs of the people,” he said. “Under the former Premier (Paula Cox) every Minister had to make a case to her for what we wanted it (funding) for. There was no particular entity that the funds were specifically for, but it did go back to the community.”The PLP MP said Government’s Throne Speech pertaining to sports failed to live up to his expectations.“I was expecting a greater focus on sports in general and on sporting/workman’s clubs,” he said. “I just felt there should’ve been more meat because sports to me plays a vital role in the development of our youngsters.“I thought they would’ve said more and I am a strong proponent that sport can go a long way in addressing some of our social ills facing our youth.”Following yesterday’s Throne Speech Minister for Community and Cultural Development and Sports Wayne Scott declined to elaborate on Government’s ‘Cash Back for Communities’ programme.He did, however, reveal Government’s intentions to work with national sports governing bodies to form what he termed as a “national sports policy”.“I think it’s time to have some overriding sports policies so that we are all heading in the same direction,” he said. “The Sports Conference that would be normally going on next month has been postponed because I would like to get that sports policy worked on with all the national sporting governing bodies.“I think that a national sports policy is critical so we have to come together to thrash this out so we can all be working towards the same goal.”