Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) 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 an important contributor to the Australian economy. As highlighted by the Boston Consulting Group's 2017 Intergenerational review of Australian sport, $35 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 agriculture sector. 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 for the corruption and manipulation of sport. In August 2017, the government commissioned the Review of Australia's Sports Integrity Arrangements (the Wood review), chaired by the Hon. James Wood AO QC, as part of the work being done to develop the National Sport Plan—Sport 2030.

The Wood review was published on 1 August 2018. It confirms Australia's position as a leader in addressing sports integrity threats, but cautions that Australia's sports integrity response will require ongoing vigilance to ensure Australian sport can be protected.

Indeed, the Wood review found that sports are challenged by a range of mounting 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.

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

The nature of sports corruption and manipulation is evolving at the fastest rate ever observed due to the immense commercialisation of sport and sporting organisations and accelerating technological advancement.

These threats are complex, globalised and connected, forming a complicated threat matrix. To respond effectively, Australia must have a robust, comprehensive and nationally coordinated response 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 anti-doping 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 United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada and Japan, and found that Australia's sports dispute resolution mechanisms lagged behind. The Wood review underlined the need for such an entity in Australia.

This is why we introduced legislation into the previous parliament to fund a two-year pilot of the National Sports Tribunal which would allow refinement of its jurisdiction and operation, according to demand. Although that bill lapsed due to the recent federal election, we have taken that opportunity to undertake further consultation on and refinement of the bill being introduced today.

By establishing the National Sports 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 cannot maintain internal tribunals. Their only available forum for anti-doping 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.

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

It is proposed the National Sports Tribunal will deal with two types of disputes: anti-doping rule violations and general disputes.

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

The anti-doping division will hear anti-doping 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 general division and appeals from internal sport-run tribunals in relation to anti-doping rule violation disputes and general disputes. (Quorum formed)

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 National Sports Tribunal will be one of the few, if not the only, sports dispute resolution body worldwide that will have these powers, reaffirming the government's commitment to, and Australia's position as a leader in, protecting the integrity of sport.

Further, with the agreement of both parties to a dispute, the National Sports 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 of 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 resources on doing what they do best—supporting our high-performance athletes to excel and providing more opportunities for Australians to get active.

Debate adjourned.