Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is leave granted for the third reading to be moved immediately?

Leave not granted.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the motion for the third reading being moved without delay.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government has no integrity, unlike this bill. They should have given the leader 10 minutes.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the member be no longer heard.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the member for Shortland be no further heard.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the question be put.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Assistant Minister has moved that the question be put.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question now is that the motion moved by the minister be agreed to.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor will be supporting the third reading of this bill because it goes to the integrity of sport. But there are some very important features that we need to discuss. Australia has a long and proud history as a sporting nation. From backyard games to the Boxing Day test to grassroots participation to competition on the national and international stages, sport has played and continues to play an important role in our way of life and our national identity. Whenever we hear good-news stories about sport at any level, they enhance the reputation of Australian sport and our love for it. But when we hear reports of doping in sport, when we hear reports of match fixing, those reports damage and devalue Australia's sports reputation and our relationship with sport.

Labor, in government, was proactive in deploying measures to protect against these and other threats to the integrity of sport in Australia. We recognise the need to evaluate the effectiveness of Australia's sports integrity measures and upgrade and update those measures, when needed, to address changing environments and new threats. In 2012 the Labor federal government established a National Integrity of Sport Unit. In 2013 we passed legislation to strengthen the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's power. But threats to the integrity of Australian sport continue to evolve, and so must our protective measures. You only have to look at the rise of online gaming—such as the ability, in sports like cricket, to bet on the outcome of individual balls—to know that we need enhanced protection measures for the integrity of sport. The Australian public must have trust in our sporting competitions and our institutions. Otherwise, we'll lose a key feature of Australian life.

In response to these ever-evolving risks, the government announced a review of Australia's sports integrity arrangements in August 2017. The panel that conducted the review was chaired by Justice James Wood, and the review was to become known as the Wood review. The government received the Wood review's report in March 2018 and released its response to the report in February of this year. It is a detailed and extensive review—nearly 300 pages, containing 52 recommendations. One of those recommendations was the establishment of a national sports integrity commission to cohesively draw together and develop existing sports integrity capabilities, knowledge and expertise and to nationally coordinate all elements of the sports integrity threat response, including prevention, monitoring and detection investigation and enforcement.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019 seeks to implement the government's response to that recommendation. This bill would establish a new Australian government agency, to be known as Sport Integrity Australia, designed to protect the integrity of Australian sport. It is proposed that this new agency would bring together a range of sports integrity functions that are currently the responsibility of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, ASADA; the National Integrity of Sports Unit; and Sports Australia. To paraphrase from the review, a centrally coordinated response to sports integrity issues will help overcome the silo effect that currently exists with multiple bodies, including NSOs and law enforcement and regulatory agencies engaged in protecting sports from threats. The review also noted that difficulties in securing a coordinated response are compounded by our federated system, in which there are often differences in state, territory and federal regulatory and criminal laws.

Protecting Australia's sports integrity is a goal that has bipartisan support. Labor intends to continue the bipartisan approach by supporting the establishment of Sport Integrity Australia through these bills. Labor has engaged with stakeholders across the sports sector and has taken into account their views on the reforms that will be implemented by this bill and the associated Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Enhancing Australia's Anti-Doping Capability) Bill 2019. While the majority of the feedback has been supportive, some stakeholders have raised specific concerns regarding certain specific aspects of this bill and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Enhancing Australia's Anti-Doping Capability) Bill 2019.

In relation to this bill, the scrutiny committee is seeking advice from the Minister for Sport as to why it's considered appropriate to provide members of the Sport Integrity Australia Advisory Council with civil immunity so that affected persons have the right to bring an action to enforce their legal rights, limited to situations where lack of good faith is shown. The scrutiny committee has also asked for more-detailed advice as to why it's considered necessary and appropriate for Sport Integrity Australia to be an enforcement body for the purposes of the Privacy Act 1988. Specifically, the committee has noted that considerations of this aspect of the bill would be helped by further explanation of how Sport Integrity Australia enforcement related activities will be undertaken in practice, including the nature of the enforcement powers and who will be exercising the enforcement powers.

These scrutiny committee concerns largely mirror the issues that some stakeholders have raised with Labor. Broadly speaking, those concerns related to appropriate checks and balances and ensuring that, in bolstering Australia's defences against sports integrity threats, the rights of individuals are not inappropriately eroded. In recognition of these concerns, the Senate has referred the bill to the Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs for a short inquiry to report on 3 February next year. Labor hopes that this process will enable stakeholders that still have concerns to outline those issues and allow them to be appropriately considered before this bill is passed in its final form. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Enhancing Australia's Anti-Doping Capability) Bill 2019, which has just passed this House, has been referred to an inquiry with the same time frame, given its deep connection with this bill.

Given the great value of sport to Australians, our society and economy, protecting the integrity of Australian sport is something that Labor supports. Integrity in all things, I think, is essential. What we've witnessed today is a complete lack of integrity from the government—a government that is intent on silencing opposition to any attempt to question its behaviour and to question its performance. We've seen a lack of integrity from the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction in his use of fraudulent documents to try to smear the Lord Mayor of Sydney. We've seen the Prime Minister and a retinue of ministers misleading parliament—again, going to the lack of integrity from this government.

This is a government that's only six months into its third term but lacks completely an agenda and is pursuing that lack of agenda without any integrity, so, while it's very important to have integrity in sports, we should also have it in politics. That's why a commitment to a truly genuine national integrity commission, one with true powers, is essential. That's Labor's policy as well—something, again, that the government professed to support but backtracked on when they won government again. Integrity matters. The Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction is a classic case of someone who lacks integrity. This is a man who misled parliament in his first speech. While I'll criticise him for many things, I can't criticise him for a lack of consistency. He has been consistent in his contempt for parliament, his lack of integrity—

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Start as you mean to continue.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Start as he means to continue—his contempt for parliament, his ability to mislead parliament.

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

I appreciate what the member for Shortland is trying to do, but the point of order is to bring him back to the substance of the bill and to cease reflecting on—

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Relevance? I'm sorry; I was speaking with the Clerk at the time. I will just remind the member for Shortland to be relevant to the question before the House.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for your wise ruling. Integrity in sport is vital. That is why this bill is vital and that's why Labor supports it. As I said before, the integrity of sport is being challenged in many, many arenas. The ability to bet on individual balls delivered in cricket matches is a classic example. The ability to bet in the middle of a sporting game, full stop, is of great concern. The doping allegations that were levelled against the Essendon Football Club and the Manly Sea Eagles were another example of the integrity of sport being under attack.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Sharks.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Sharks are a classic case, where they rorted the salary cap and were caught, finally, but there are severe questions about their 2015 grand final. Their only grand final has been completely tainted because of their lack of integrity and their intent on rorting the salary cap.

This bill is very essential. That's why Labor supports it. That's why Labor is working constructively to advance this bill. That's why the Senate committees will report so quickly on this issue. I wish only that that integrity was shown in all aspects of government. Sadly, we haven't seen that today, but I applaud the government for moving on sport. This is a culmination of the Wood review, which was a seminal act in sports administration, and that's why Labor supports the implementation of this legislation. I commend the bill to the House.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to make a contribution in support of the third reading of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019. Again, I make it clear that Labor is supportive of the passage of the bill through the House. As my colleague and friend the shadow minister representing the shadow minister in this place noted, there are a number of issues, which I will briefly touch on, which will be examined through an important though brief Senate inquiry process, which hopefully will go further than the present arrangements, or at least go further in ensuring that we do maintain public confidence and integrity in sport. That is something that is just so important to so many Australians.

When we think about sport, it is so embedded in the Australian ethos. It's a matter of great interest to many Australians, of course, myself included, although I don't share my colleague's interest in rugby league—let me put that on the record in this place for the first time. I hope I don't have to clarify that issue again while I'm here. I hope no-one would suggest that I share his interest in Easts, which I understand is a matter of some concern to many people who would otherwise be good friends with the member for Shortland!

Sport is so important to who we are, but it's also important to how we see ourselves. In the issues that went to the conduct of senior members of the Australian cricket team, I think we saw a deep reflection across our society about how those sportspeople who represent us on the international stage conduct themselves. It was my privilege to be in the House for the contribution from the member for Warringah, who of course has done just that. I think her reflections are particularly apposite in this regard, and they're particularly apposite on this day, in this House, because what we have seen from the government, from members opposite, is an absence of integrity when it comes to the conduct of parliamentary business. We have seen members opposite treat this parliament as if it's their plaything, not a deliberative legislative body.

There is a contrast with this bill, where we have a proper legislative process where stakeholders and concerned members of the community will have an opportunity to test propositions, to test concerns about the regime that is to be established. And what did we see in the other place today? Lawmaking, possibly policymaking, on behalf of the government in the shadows. As Senator Wong said, it's the deal that no-one dares to name. We don't know what happened there on matters that are just so fundamentally important, matters that are more important, I dare say, than sport—how we look after vulnerable human beings; our commitment to ensure that people in our care can access medical support on the basis of medical advice. A government with integrity would have at the very least put all the issues before the Australian people through this parliament. They would have allowed the debate. And it's incredibly disappointing, when we talk about upholding integrity in sport, that we do not see integrity in the legislature or indeed, and more particularly, in the executive government of this country.

The bill before the House is a response to the recommendations of the Wood review, again, as the shadow minister touched upon in his remarks. In essence, it would bring together a new agency of the Australian government, which would be known as Sport Integrity Australia. This was recommended in the following terms by the Wood review:

… establish a National Sports Integrity Commission to cohesively draw together and develop existing sports integrity capabilities, knowledge and expertise, and to nationally coordinate all elements of the sports integrity threat response including prevention, monitoring and detection, investigation and enforcement.

These are important aspirations, and the Wood review has given us a template to make these aspirations a reality—to build more confidence in the administration of sport and its integrity, and particularly to deal with issues of doping, which I may have time to touch on specifically in the course of my contribution.

But let me be very clear in saying this: Labor supports further strengthening of Australia's sports integrity arrangements so that we can protect against ever-evolving threats, threats in some cases driven by technology, whether it's medical technology or IT technology that facilitates new and often concerning markets when it comes to sports betting, which has proliferated in quite extraordinary ways in recent times across a wide range of sports. Of course, when I talk about how Australians see themselves in their sporting heroes, in our national sporting teams, there's another, definitely darker, aspect to this, because these threats don't appear out of nowhere; they don't appear in a vacuum. They are connected to the operation of the most undesirable elements in our society. There is obviously the spectre of infiltration of sporting codes by organised crime, which is a concern that goes above and beyond the mere fact of corruption of a competition, or the cheating on the part of an individual athlete. These are very, very significant issues.

I think we're all conscious that when we look at these issues, we as lawmakers have responsibilities to have regard to some of the background issues which led to the establishment of the Wood review—shocking issues, particularly those that went to the alleged conduct of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in relation to the supplements case connected to the Essendon Football Club. This is something, again, that raises issues that go above and beyond the sporting code. Here we have a group of workers, a group of young men, in a very vulnerable circumstance in connection with their employment, particularly some of the newer players. Who knows the damage that's been done to them, to their life prospects as well as to their careers as footballers, through the injustice done to them? This is such an important aspect of the anti-doping aspect of sports integrity, because it does go above and beyond these issues of basic integrity when it comes to sport. It goes to the wellbeing of individual sportsmen and sportswomen, which must be something that is in the forefront of our minds.

I'm aware that in conducting this debate we're reflecting on the journey that's brought us to the proposed establishment of this body. It would be remiss not to touch on some of the concerns that have been expressed consistently by those on this side of the House going to the administration of these very important portfolio responsibilities over the life of this third-term government, which is now well into its seventh year. Of course, the patchy approach the government has demonstrated towards sport generally has been demonstrated specifically with regard to sports integrity, with three different ministers having carriage of these particular reforms in the past two years. While the reforms appear sensible and well considered, and are based on a very important review, it is of the utmost concern that we haven't had that consistency in executive government. We hear a lot about stability from the government, but that has not been evidenced in executive appointments generally, nor specifically when it comes to issues like this, which are important but also raise a number of technical issues.

The shadow minister also referred to the issues that the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills raised. These are significant issues, because any question that goes to enforcement obviously enlivens rights as well as obligations of officers with statutory powers. When we consider these questions we have to make sure we get the balance right between affording appropriate powers and providing for effective checks and balances. These are significant concerns raised by the Senate scrutiny of bills committee and they do need to be properly ventilated through the work of the Senate community affairs committee through its inquiry into this bill. These are matters that I'm sure that government members will have regard to, perhaps, in their remarks as we proceed through the third reading stage of this very, very important bill. I know that they recognise, as we do, these integrity issues and these arising issues, whether they were based on technology—be it medical technology or information technology—or were simply the way in which some of these darker elements connected to our sport, or were simply due to people who were desperate to succeed at any cost. As the member for Warringah touched upon in her contribution, we have to make sure that our arrangements line up so that we can meet the threats of today, and, of course, anticipate and be capable of responding to the threats of tomorrow.

Integrity in sport is of the utmost importance. But let's be really, really clear about this today: it pales in comparison to integrity in our politics. What sort of government would be putting forward a Sport Integrity Commission proposal when it's failed to deliver on its commitment to a national integrity commission? That is a contribution that we will continue to prosecute on this side, because we need to restore trust in politics, and that starts with treating this parliament with respect and treating Australians with the courtesy they deserve—being able to participate in proper debate.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution to this debate from the member for Scullin, a man known in Victorian politics for his integrity. The contrast between the member for Scullin and the member for Shortland's contributions on this bill and some of the acts of integrity—or the opposite of that—which we've seen from the government this week are striking. I do note earlier this afternoon a tweet from Naomi Wolf asking the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction to correct the record on his misleading of the parliament in his first speech in this chamber. That's not something I expected to happen this week, to be fair, but that's what we have to deal with when we're dealing with the travails of those opposite when it comes to integrity in this place.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance: members are required to be relevant to the bill before the House.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would remind the member for Gellibrand to be directly relevant to the legislation.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A very good ruling. I endorse it and I thank those opposite for their assistance. Their interest in integrity is noted, and I hope it continues, but this bill deals with sporting integrity. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019 responds to a key recommendation of the Review of Australia's Sports Integrity Arrangements, the Wood review, a very significant moment in Australian sporting history, responding to some truly scandalous behaviour that the member for Shortland outlined earlier. This bill would establish a new Australian government agency known as Sports Integrity Australia. This is in response to a key recommendation of the Wood review. This review recommended the need to establish:

… a National Sports Integrity Commission to cohesively draw together and develop existing sports integrity capabilities, knowledge and expertise, and to nationally coordinate all elements of the sports integrity threat response including prevention, monitoring and detection, investigation and enforcement.

This is worthwhile. Labor supports this initiative. It's important because we need to respond to what is an evolving integrity threat environment when it comes to sports. It's not just the doping that we've, sadly, become familiar with on the sporting field. It's not just the match-fixing or the corruption of competitions. Indeed, one of the most interesting aspects of the Wood review and the challenge when it comes to dealing with sports integrity is dealing with ensuring integrity in new and emerging sports. I want to talk a little bit, on my portfolio responsibilities in communications and cyber security, about the fastest growing sport in the world—that is, eSports. Those in this House may look quite askance at that comment.

Ms Murphy interjecting—

I note the comments behind me from some keen squash players who might want to consider the glass house that they are standing in when they are throwing rocks at the despatch box here. However, eSports are the fastest growing sports in Australia. These are enormous competitions—games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends. Indeed, the League of Legends finals attracted a bigger audience in the US than the NBA Finals, the NFL finals and the baseball finals combined. It is an enormously followed game. They play in The Forum in Los Angeles, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers. In Korea they play in front of literally tens of thousands of fans. This is a multimillion dollar business. Many, many hundreds of thousands of people watch eSports from their homes via services like Twitch. There is a burgeoning industry of people who don't just play the games themselves but also watch the games from home.

Unsurprisingly, when there is a lot of money involved and when there are a lot of people engaged, we see the classic sports integrity issues emerge in this sector. Indeed, earlier this year Victoria Police announced that they had arrested six Australians in connection with an investigation into match-fixing in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches. These are the first arrests in Australia in relation to corruption and match-fixing in eSports. An investigation began in March this year after tips from a betting agency around suspicious behaviour, suspicious betting practices, around that tournament. What was going on here, the Victoria Police allege, is that players were arranging to throw matches and were subsequently placing bets on those matches. At least five matches were affected by the activity, and warrants were served on a number of people in relation to this across multiple states. Neil Paterson, the Assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police, noted:

Esports is really an emerging sporting industry and with that will come the demand for betting availability on the outcomes of tournaments and matches.

I don't know much about whether there is an exotic industry that's evolved and whether you can do the equivalent of betting on ball-by-ball behaviour, as the member for Scullin indicated earlier, but there is a lot of money now tied up not just with the prize money but with betting on eSports in Australia.

The Wood review tackled this. One of the complexities with regulating eSports and dealing with integrity arrangements related to them is that governing bodies for eSports look a bit different to the governing bodies set up for traditional sports, shall we say. It's an emerging sector and an emerging governance framework. Sometimes these bodies are run by the developers and publishers of the games. Riot runs the League of Legends eSports competitions. That creates layers of complexity as well and potential conflicts, too, I would imagine. The Wood review, to be fair, didn't try to solve all of these problems. It didn't try to dictate an answer to these emerging fields where we are seeing the governance arrangements still unfolding. But it's something that we ought to pay attention to.

I think it's fair to say that video games more broadly, not just eSports, are something that deserve more attention in this place. Sales of video games in Australia each year are bigger by revenue than for the film and television industries combined. It's the kind of thing that really deserves recognition in this chamber—the scale of the role that it plays in our culture and in the modern economy today. Video games are no longer things that are played furtively in the rooms of teenage boys staying up past their bed times. Gamers come from all walks of life, and there are games designed for people from all walks of life. Indeed, one of the best games to come out of Australian producers last year was a game that won the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference award. That was Florence, a game about two people falling in love in Melbourne. It's a game about the relationship and emerging love. It's not the cliche of spotty teenagers playing on their consoles.

As gaming becomes a mainstream issue and a cultural product consumed by people from all walks of life, issues like integrity and ensuring the probity of eSports tournaments will become mainstream as well. It's an issue that it really is incumbent on all of us in this place to get across. I know it's something that I have discussed with my parliamentary colleagues and Senator Farrell, who has portfolio carriage of this, but also with Michelle Rowland, the Labor shadow minister for communications, who in the past has been a champion for recognition of gaming in Australia. Her predecessor in that championing role, Terri Butler, has had a lot to do in this space as well.

It's an emerging threat, it's an emerging sport and it needs an evolving response from government. It needs all of us to be engaged. As I say, eSports is the fastest growing sport in the world. It deserves the attention of all members of parliament in this House. It's not a triviality. It's big, big money and big, big crowds. The integrity issues are not limited to eSports becoming mainstream sports. This year the other thing that happened was that the Essendon Bombers launched an eSports team. That didn't last long. They've wrapped up now. They folded without an integrity scandal, which is a good effort for the Bombers! But eSports are becoming mainstream. It deserves the attention of all of us. It was recognised in the Wood review. Labor supports ongoing engagement on this issue.

(Quorum formed)

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on this bill about integrity in sport, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019, as someone who has spent her entire life involved in sport—as an athlete, as a coach and as someone who served on state and national sporting boards. In fact my parents were both PE teachers in public high school, and I grew up in Wagga Wagga, which, in addition to being 'the land of many crows', is the sporting capital of New South Wales.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of Australia!

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of Australia, yes. I take that interjection and I accept it—until you have a look at Frankston, the home that I have moved to and embraced and that has embraced me. My electorate of Dunkley has sport in its veins. Saturday morning is for basketball, cricket, netball and footy. One of the great things about my electorate of Dunkley is the number of parents that give up their time. They're coaches, they're managers and they run the local clubs. To them, sport is more than a competition; sport is their community. It's their family. For many children, particularly in the more disadvantaged suburbs in my electorate, sport is where they find their mentors, learn the lessons of discipline and find people who will support them, teach them and help them through the difficult times. That's why integrity in sport is so important—because it means so much to so many of us.

Sport gave me opportunities that I would never otherwise have had. At the risk of those less educated members of this chamber laughing at me yet again, I'll talk about squash. When I was 12 years old, I was being picked on by some girls and I was really unhappy. I didn't know what to do, so I went to my father. I was sad and I needed something in my life to help me get the confidence to deal with being bullied. My father, being a PE teacher—a very handy sportsman—said: 'My tennis friends said that they need someone to fill in for a squash game. I'm going to go and have a game of squash. I've never played before. Why don't you come with me, Peta, and maybe it's something we can do together?' From the age of 12, I played squash and I found, in that squash club, a community. I played squash against girls and boys, men and women, and I found something that I was good at. I found something that gave me the confidence, at various times in my life when things were not necessarily going the way I wanted and I was feeling insecure, that I knew I could go back to. I also found friends that I've got to this very day who mean a lot to me and who I have a shared history with.

If we let sport in this country, let alone anywhere around the world, descend into something that's not much more than an activity for people to make money from, that's not much more than whoever can bend the rules the most can win, and where the gambling companies can make money off people who are vulnerable, then we are losing something very integral to the Australian way of life. We're losing something very important to young people who sometimes just need that thing outside of themselves to give them that confidence to go on in life.

My father went on, after being a PE teacher and a lecturer at university, to be the director of elite sports at the Australian Institute of Sport for many years. He used to come home and talk to me about how that was the most amazing job in the world, because he got to work with all of these young athletes from different sports and from around the country who were training and working hard and sacrificing to try to be elite, to try to represent their country and to try to achieve. That was why, at the AIS, there was such an emphasis on integrity in sport. There was such an emphasis on teaching the swimmers, the athletes, the soccer players and the basketballers why it was important your success is based on how hard you train and what attitude you take, not on performance-enhancing drugs and not on whether or not you can bend the rules the most in order to succeed. It is why we developed such fabulous athletes in Australia.

Integrity in sport is so important, because more and more we are seeing sport as a vehicle for young women and girls to get a sense of pride and achievement. Women have always been good at sport. There's the suggestion from some people, 'Women are getting so good at sport now and they're getting so much attention,' but women have always been good at sport. The best female athlete that we've ever seen in this country, Heather Mackay, the champion squash player, was also one of the best athletes we've ever seen in this country. We've had world No. 1 squash players. We had Sarah Fitz-Gerald, Michelle Martin and Vicky Cardwell—they've always been great at sport.

A government member interjecting—

I hear 'Dawn Fraser' being yelled out from the other side. Absolutely. We've had Dawn Fraser. Last week I got to meet Melissa Barbieri, former captain of the Matildas. The Diamonds have been role models and leaders in sport for many, many years. Netball is a sport of integrity that some other sports could look up to. Australian women cricketers are the best cricketers in the world, and they are achieving time after time after time, and I am absolutely confident that, when we have the T20 in Australia next year, we will see the Australian women's cricket team achieving yet again. Ash Barty: I dare anyone in this chamber to find a current athlete who we could admire more than Ash Barty for the way she conducts herself, for her achievements—

Honourable members interjecting—

I see that there is bipartisan support. That's why integrity in sport is so important. We need to have a tribunal like the one that's being set up, so that we can look at the successes of our athletes and know that they are successful because of blood, sweat and tears, and hard work—like someone as amazing as Ash Barty.

The Australian women's softball team this year qualified for the 2020 Olympics next year. I think that's the first time they've qualified for the Olympics since the year 2000. There are female athletes around this country working day in, day out to be professionals, to get equal pay with men, to represent their country and to be role models. That's what we want our young girls and our young women to be able to see.

In my electorate of Dunkley just last week the Frankston and District Netball Association received the runner-up for the Good Sports Awards in Victoria.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good on them!

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you—good on them, I agree. It's an association that takes its commitments to the community seriously. It not only runs competitions; it talks about reconciliation with our First Nations peoples in our community. It has beautiful murals painted by local high school students at Elisabeth Murdoch College up at the courts as a symbol of respect. It's an association that is part of the local drug strike force that goes out and educates young people about why they should be involved in sport and on healthier ways of living. It's an association that supports girls to go through higher-performance programs so that they can play for the Peninsula Waves and aspire to be part of the Australian team. It's an association that's opened its doors to having men on the committee and on the board, and to boys playing netball with our local girls, because it's about inclusion and equality.

I'm really proud to have been associated with the Frankston and District Netball Association over many years and to be able to stand here and tell the chamber of their success and to hold them up as the sort of club and the sort of sport that is about integrity in sport. It's an example of why it's so important that we protect sport as an integral part of Australian life.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the greatest things that we as local MPs see is the joy on the faces of young people as we give out certificates for those young people and their teams who've got Local Sporting Champions funding. It's a great bipartisan program supported by Labor—and when we were in government we initiated it—and supported by the coalition now. To see the joy in those young girls from Ipswich Force basketball team or in young athletes who have been swimmers as well as taekwondo experts—the young lads from Toogoolawah. It's always been fantastic.

One of the things that really frustrates young people who expect clean, fair sport is when they are disillusioned by their sporting champions. So integrity in sport is absolutely crucial. Think of examples in world sport, for example, when a goalkeeper in a football match in a premier league deliberately lets the ball go into the goal. Think of a cricketer playing, maybe on the subcontinent, in Australia or in South Africa—an elite athlete—who lets the ball hit the stumps or the pads deliberately to make sure that certain people will win a bet. Think of, for example, a champion cyclist like Lance Armstrong and the way he was revered around the world by so many people only for them to find out that he had cheated his way to success.

This sort of legislation is really important—that's why Labor supports it—to make sure there's integrity in sport; to make sure that those young people that we see who are local sporting champions can grow up and participate in sport at all levels, to represent our cities and to represent our states in national competitions; to make sure they play in fair competitions where there is no doping or cheating; and to make sure that they get a fair go and achieve all they want to achieve in their lives. That's why this sort of legislation is really important.