Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to rise and speak on the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. With these major sporting events, one of the great reasons for their success is their ability to attract sponsorship. But the value of that sponsorship is directly related to the level of comfort that the sponsors have that the legal right to use the indicia of that tournament as a sponsor is protected and maintained.

As we know, global sports sponsorship reached a record $65 billion at the beginning of 2019, but—as with many things, due to COVID—it has dropped to some $17.2 billion in 2020. But, as we see major sporting events start to ramp up again as we come out of the COVID crisis, it's critically important that we protect the rights of those sponsors, who have paid good money to sponsor those tournaments, to have their brand associated with that tournament and prevent ambush marketing. That's critically important.

In particular, this bill relates to the ICC T20 World Cup, which will be held towards the end of next year here in Australia, and also to the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023, which will be a tremendous event for this nation. It was terrific to see the Matildas back on the pitch on the weekend on home soil, with a terrific 3-1 win over Brazil. This bill is about protecting the intellectual property rights that go with these major sporting events.

In addition, it updates the act to remove the protections for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the AFC Asian Cup, the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup and the Women's T20 World Cup. On reflection, when you look back at those events, you see what a great success they were and what a great statement they have been for Australia and its ability to hold world-class sporting events.

As you well know, Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta, we're looking forward to 2032, when the Olympics will be held in our home state of Queensland, with a range of events particularly around the south-east corner but in other parts of the state as well. As the member for Shortland previously outlined, our congratulations go to the AOC; to the federal government for all the work that the sports minister, Senator Colbeck, has done; to Ted O'Brien, the special envoy; to the state government; and to the South-East Queensland Council of Mayors. It's a terrific achievement, and now we have plenty of work to do between now and 2032.

But, if we have a look at some of the other great sporting events that are going to occur in this country in the next 10 years, we see that it's not just about the Olympic Games. As I said, this bill particularly mentions the ICC T20 World Cup next year and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023. We also have some other great events coming up. The British and Irish Lions tour in 2025 and the Netball World Cup in 2027 are great lead-ups to the Olympic Games in 2032.

We know from events past—we can go back all the way to the Olympics in Sydney in 2000 or the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006—that it's not just about the sport that occurs on the field. It's about all of the other activities that occur outside of that: the tourism opportunities; the opportunity for business to be involved in providing services and supplies to those sporting events; and the opportunity to have arts events that can engage those people who are coming to attend the sporting events. I know the member for Bennelong, who's going to be speaking on this bill a little bit later, for many years has supported the idea of putting together a complete package for somebody who's coming to a major sporting event. That package would include some tourism aspects as well as maybe going to the cinema, to the opera or to a concert or something like that to support the arts industry. I'm sure he'll speak on that in his contribution.

As I look across my electorate of Forde, I look at the many local sporting events that, while they may not rank with the events that we're seeking to protect with this bill, are significant for our sporting communities—events such as the Pacific island cultural and Rugby League carnival, the Indigenous Rugby League Carnival or the Skate Australia titles in the skate centre at Mount Warren Park. All of these events, whether they're large—like the events we're trying to protect here on a national basis—or whether they're local sport events, create the opportunity for our communities to benefit, and they bring people into our communities. One of the things that, on reflection, we probably don't do particularly well when we have major sporting events in our electorates is work with the organisers on how we can encourage the people who attend those events to go to a local tourism hotspot or take advantage of some local arts and culture. So, whilst we can do this on a national basis, I think it also gives us the opportunity to do that on a local basis.

In a little way we tried to do that recently with the Brisbane to Gold Coast Cycle Challenge, which I had the joy of being a part of. Courtesy of flights down here, I only got to do the 40-kilometres leg; I didn't have to do the whole 100 kilometres, which is probably better. What a terrific event it was. There were 4,500 riders riding from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, with a pit stop at Eagleby in my electorate. Yet, sadly, there was little, if any, marketing of that event in and around Logan to make people aware they were stopping at Eagleby and to come down and support the riders and say hello. Some of our local councillors came down. Miriam Stemp, the councillor for division 10, came down. It was terrific to see her there. When you've got 4,500 cyclists coming through your community, it's a terrific opportunity to have some local marketing and get people involved. You could also, if you wanted to, do the ride from Eagleby down to the Gold Coast, which was a 60-kilometre leg. So it's about local opportunities, as well as the major sporting events which get all the limelight. These local big sporting events are also of tremendous value and benefit to our communities. So I commend this bill to the House.

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