Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Sport plays a significant role in the Australian way of life—each year 14 million Australians participate in some form of sporting activity.

Sport is also a fundamental contributor to the Australian economy. As highlighted by the BCG's Intergenerational review of Australian sport 2017, $35 billion to $47 billion of economic activity is generated by sport each year, equating to approximately two to three per cent of GDP, which is equivalent to the agricultural sector, I'm advised. Recognising the importance of sport to the Australian community, the Australian government invests more than $300 million to support high-performance sport and encourage greater participation.

Australians have no tolerance, however, for corruption and manipulation within sport. In August 2017, on behalf of the government, I announced and commissioned the review of Australia's sports integrity arrangements, chaired by the Hon. James Wood AO QC—what is now and has ever since been known as the Wood review—as part of the work being done within the context of developing the National Sport Plan, or Sport 2030, which we announced in 2017.

The Wood review was published on 1 August 2018. It confirms Australia's position as a leader in addressing sports integrity threats but cautioned that Australia's sports integrity response will require ongoing vigilance to ensure Australian sport can be protected. In short, we have some of the cleanest sport in the world but we want to keep it that way. I want to thank and acknowledge personally and on behalf of the Minister for Sport, Senator Bridget McKenzie, the work of all of the organisations and agencies both within government and within the sporting world for making that the case. But this is an eternal task of vigilance for which we must continue to lift the bar.

Indeed, the Wood review found that sports are challenged by a range of mounting external integrity threats, including the increasing sophistication and incidence of doping, the globalisation of sports wagering—particularly through rapidly growing illegal online gambling markets—the infiltration and exploitation of the sports sector by organised crime, corruption in sports administration and growing participant protection issues. Whilst we have some of the cleanest sport and sporting bodies in the world, there are external threats which are real, and we have to acknowledge and address and confront them.

Sports integrity matters are now therefore beyond the control of any single stakeholder.

The nature of sports corruption and manipulation is evolving at the fastest rate ever observed, on the advice of the Wood review, due to the immense commercialisation of sport and sporting organisations and, in particular, accelerating technological advancement.

These threats are complex, globalised, connected and form a complicated environment, so to respond effectively Australia must have a robust, comprehensive and nationally coordinated approach across sports, governments, regulators, the wagering industry, law enforcement and other stakeholders.

A key recommendation of the Wood review is that a National Sports Tribunal be established to address antidoping and general sports disputes fairly, quickly and cost-effectively to ensure accessible natural justice for all parties.

The Wood review examined similar models overseas, including in the UK, New Zealand, Canada and Japan, and found that Australia's sports dispute resolution mechanisms lag behind, which is exactly why we called the Wood review and established the process of outlining a 2030 plan. The review underlined the need for such an entity in Australia.

Accordingly, the government will fund a two-year pilot of the National Sports Tribunal, which will allow refinement of its jurisdiction and operation according to demand.

By establishing the tribunal, we will ensure that the Australian sporting community has access to a dispute resolution mechanism providing:

Currently in Australia, some sports disputes are arbitrated in the first instance by tribunals run internally by individual sports.

However, most sports have acknowledged they find it difficult to maintain internal tribunals. Their only available forum for antidoping rule violation disputes is the Swiss Court of Arbitration for Sport, which can be an expensive and time-consuming process.

We have heard from a number of sports about the challenges they face in dealing with disputes. Managing such disputes detracts from the core business of our sports—building a more active Australia and achieving sporting excellence. Integrity compromises detract from these goals and cause major reputational and other damage, especially when they occur during major sporting events. The nation clearly knows this.

Establishing the National Sports Tribunal will provide an effective mechanism to manage such issues.

It is proposed that the tribunal will deal with two types of disputes—antidoping rule violations and general disputes.

Accordingly, the National Sports Tribunal will be comprised of three divisions:

The Anti-Doping Division will hear antidoping rule violation disputes.

The General Division will hear other types of disputes which arise under the rules or policies of a sport, including in relation to code-of-conduct breaches and disciplinary matters, selection disputes, member protection issues and the like.

The Appeals Division will deal with appeals from the Anti-Doping Division and the General Division, and appeals from internal sports-run tribunals in relation to antidoping rule violation disputes and general disputes.

The National Sports Tribunal will be established by statute, rather than privately, to enable the tribunal to be given powers to inform itself, including by requiring the attendance of witnesses and the provision of documents.

The tribunal will be one of the few, if not the only, sports dispute resolution bodies worldwide that will have these powers, reaffirming the government's commitment to—and Australia's position as a leader globally in—protecting the integrity of sport.

Further, with the agreement of both parties to a dispute, the tribunal will be empowered to provide dispute resolution services in addition to arbitration, including conciliation, mediation and case assessment.

This government is intent on providing participants in sport with a fair, efficient and cost-effective forum for the resolution of sports disputes. We are also focused on relieving the burden of managing complex and serious dispute resolution from sporting organisations, so they can focus their time and their resources on doing what they do best, which is supporting our high-performance athletes as they seek to excel, and providing more opportunities for Australians to be active.

I particularly want to commend the minister, Senator McKenzie, for her work in bringing the sports organisations together. It's a process that I'm proud to say we started in 2017. It is now reaching fruition, and it will mean that over the coming years and decades Australian sport will be even stronger in its protections against any form of malfeasance.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.