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

I present the explanatory memorandum to the bill, and I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The purpose of the bill is to protect sponsorship and licensing revenue from the International Cricket Council, ICC, Men's T20 World Cup 2022 from being undermined by ambush marketing. Ambush marketing is the unauthorised commercial use of event indicia (or expressions) and images. This will be achieved by including the T20 World Cup as a recognised major sporting event under the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 (the act).

The bill also removes a schedule relating to two historical sporting events that will no longer provide protections under the act, being the Asian Football Confederation, AFC, Cup 2015 and the ICC World Cup 2015.

The bill is consistent with the approach the Australian government took when it legislated to protect the indicia and images for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, the 2015 Cricket World Cup, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

It also meets a commitment by the Australian government to provide such intellectual property rights protection for the T20 world cup.

The hosting of the T20 world cup in Australia provides a unique opportunity to showcase our country to the world from a tourism, trade and event delivery perspective. It will further strengthen Australia's reputation as a world-class host of major international sporting events, with the Australian government playing a critical role in facilitating the appropriate environment that makes such success possible.

The T20 world cup will see the world's 10 best women's teams and 16 best men's teams come to Australia to play 20/20 cricket, with potential broadcast and digital audiences reaching in excess of 1.5 billion people from more than 200 countries worldwide. These T20 world cup teams will represent the pinnacle of international sporting competition and include some of the world's most talented male and female cricketers. The women's T20 world cup tournament will take place in February to March of 2022, with the men's T20 world cup tournament scheduled for October-November in the same year.

For the owners and organisers of the T20 world cup, this international profile provides the opportunity to showcase the sport of cricket, to build a legacy and to attract commercial partners that will invest in the event and cricket into the future. Event owners and organisers rely heavily on revenue generated by television rights, ticket sales, sponsorship and licensing to ensure their event can be delivered and continues to be an attractive and viable financial proposition to future host countries. It is this profile and these commercial realities that necessitate the sorts of protections proposed for the T20 world cup in this bill.

Major events have long been targets of those that would seek to create an impression of association with the event in order to achieve commercial gain without having purchased the rights and therefore invested in the sport, to claim that association. This act, known as 'ambush marketing by association', has the capacity to diminish the value of sponsorship, reduce incentives for organisations to enter into commercial arrangements with events and reduce the overall event revenue. In turn, this has the ability to increase the financial impact on government to support such events.

The bill will protect the use of a range of expressions associated with the T20 world cup from ambush marketing and unlicensed commercial use in the lead-up to, during and in the immediate aftermath of each tournament.

In addition to protecting specific event related terminology, the bill also provides protection to certain images that in the circumstances of their presentation suggest, or are likely to suggest, a connection with the T20 world cup. These images may be either visual or aural representations.

While it is important to protect T20 world cup sponsors from ambush marketing, the rights of the community to freedom of expression must also be respected, particularly in relation to words that have passed into common usage. A pragmatic approach has been taken with generic words and references excluded from the list of protected expressions. It must also be emphasised that restrictions on the usage of T20 world cup indicia and images will apply only to their unlicensed commercial use.

A number of exceptions will exist in relation to the T20 world cup allowing for:

The T20 World Cup schedule proposed in the bill will cease to have effect as of 30 November 2021, approximately one year after the completion of the T20 World Cup. This is consistent with other major sporting events protected by the act.

(Quorum formed)

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

I very proudly rise to speak on the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, which does two things: it amends the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 and it amends the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020. Labor supports this bill, which was introduced in the Senate on 16 June this year. I'll deal with those two aspects, the two aims of the bill, separately.

The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill provides protection for major sporting events against ambush marketing. In simple terms, 'ambush marketing' describes unauthorised businesses associating their names, brands, products or services with a major sporting event. 'Unauthorised' means businesses that do not have commercial rights and are not licensed sponsors or corporate partners, for example. The act needs to be updated because it currently includes schedules for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games—a great event which is now in the past—and the postponed ICC T20 World Cup 2020. The bill amends the act to remove references to these two events. It also adds the FIFA 2023 women's World Cup and the rescheduled ICC T20 World Cup, which is now due to be held in 2022.

Labor was proudly first to publicly express our support for Australia's bid to host the FIFA 2023 women's world cup, which was of course successful. Hosting the 2023 FIFA women's World Cup is a huge opportunity for Australia. I commend Football Australia on its goal of reaching gender parity in grassroots participation by 2027, which will no doubt be aided by a World Cup on home soil, although I would make the point that we desperately need more facilities for the increased female participation in football, particularly in my electorate, where we are seeing female players having to get changed in cars or out the back in the bush. It's a most unwelcoming state of affairs.

While we are talking about major sporting events, it would be remiss of me not to mention the wonderful news in July that Australia will host its third Olympic Games, in 2032. Congratulations to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government, the council of south-east Queensland mayors, the Australian Olympic Committee, the federal government and everyone else who was involved in Brisbane's successful bid. In July and August, the efforts and achievements of the Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams in Tokyo lifted the spirits of millions of Australians in lockdown. They amazed and entertained us and did us all proud. I know I'm not alone in already being excited about the opportunity for our athletes to represent Australia in front of huge crowds in 2032.

COVID-19 forced the postponement of the ICC men's T20 cricket World Cup, which was meant to be held last year but is now scheduled for 2022. I hope Australia's vaccination rollout is advanced enough by then that the competition can be run smoothly, because postponements and cancellations hit hard. It's not just the financial toll on the bottom line, there is the effort that goes into planning and preparing for major events both for athletes and organisers. It's a challenge for them to have to do it all again, as well as to find space in an already crowded sporting calendar.

I'm sure all members of this House sincerely hope that the current obstacles to international major sporting events will soon be a thing of the past. That's certainly my hope, because the T20 World Cup, FIFA women's World Cup and Brisbane Olympics are not the only major sporting events on the horizon for Australia. Next year Australia will host the women's basketball World Cup, the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, the UCI road cycling world championships and the Virtus Oceania Asia Games for intellectual impairment. In 2023, in addition to the FIFA women's World Cup, Australia will host the World Transplant Games. In 2025 we've got the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, where Australia's own Tokyo Olympic gold and bronze medallist Jess Fox is lauded as the greatest ever individual paddler. In 2026, Australia will host the UCI BMX World Championships. And I've got my fingers crossed that Australia will also win the right to host the Rugby World Cup in 2027. I know the member opposite, the member for Wright, is a proud rugby union player, and as a proud member of the Southern Beaches Old Salts and an old boy of Briars and Gosford Red Devils, I am certainly hopeful that we win the rights to that World Cup. And there are a few more still up for grabs.

These major sporting events entertain and inspire Australians. They boost tourism, trade and our economy, and they strengthen our international ties, to name just a few of their benefits, so it's important that we protect these events through updates like this amendment to the major sporting events protection act 2014. The protections provided by the amendments in this bill are standard and necessary for major sporting events hosted in Australia. They mirror protections for past sporting events. The addition of the FIFA 2023 women's World Cup to the schedule under the act was one of the government guarantees required by FIFA in order for Australia to secure the event. As such, it is supported by Football Australia. The addition of the T20 World Cup is a protection expected by the International Cricket Council and is therefore supported by the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 local organising committee.

Labor supports the amendments that this bill seeks to make to the major sporting events protection act 2014. I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes the importance of rights protection for hosting major sporting events, and supports the changes in this bill to protect the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia New Zealand 2023 and the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 from ambush marketing; and

(2) calls on the Government to further support Australia's ability to host international sporting events by implementing an effective national quarantine system to ensure COVID-safe travel for sports teams and officials".

I now have a few very brief comments on the other aim of this bill, which is to amend the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020. That act deals with Australia's sport integrity arrangements and requires an update in order to correct references to articles of the World Anti-Doping Code, the WADA code. As a signatory to the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, Australia is required to implement anti-doping arrangements in accordance with the principles of the WADA code. Provisions to the code earlier this year also resulted in changes to the number of articles within the code. The amendments proposed in this bill simply update the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020 to reflect the current article numbering. Labor supports this bill.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment.

(Quorum formed)

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Shortland has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. If it suits the House, I will state the question in the form that the amendment be disagreed to.

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

Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Everyone knows that Australians love sport. We don't just love playing it, we love watching it. And we will love watching it in Brisbane in 2032 as Brisbane and the good people of Queensland host a very exciting Olympic Games. I congratulate everyone involved in that win and everyone involved in making it a reality. Australians love watching sport. We love watching it in the pub, we love watching it in person at our great stadiums and we love watching it on our flat-screen TVs. Australia's history of loving games and watching sport is also consistent with the history of the First Nations people of Australia, who integrated sport into their culture and their ways of organising their communities and, indeed, in passing down their stories for thousands and thousands of years.

As Australia has grown as a nation, some of our most important moments have come from sporting achievements. We hosted the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. It was in 1962 that Perth hosted what was then known as the Empire Games. Western Australia built on that tradition, hosting the America's Cup in 1987 in Fremantle. I was a very little child in Fremantle at the time, but my parents have very fond memories of the excitement that the America's Cup brought not just to Australia but specifically to the great port town of Fremantle in Western Australia. And then, in 2000, Australia stopped and watched Cathy Freeman win gold at the Sydney Olympics.

This tradition continues through to this day. In March 2020, just before the pandemic changed the world, the Australian Women's cricket team won the T20 final as almost 90,000 fans watched on. That's why Labor supports this bill. It will make important changes to ensure Australia can continue to host major sporting events. It has also taught us the concept of ambush marketing in sport. There is, unfortunately, too much counterfeit and ambush marketing when it comes to people trying to steal the enthusiasm that people have for these games in order to make a quick buck. None of that money goes back into the sports or the sports people or the community sport, which is where it should go.

I do admire the government's connection of this to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, where they have appropriately noted that there is a right to culture and that that right to culture includes a right to sports and games. It also includes a right to sports and cultural infrastructure.

In Perth, we have some very important and much-loved sports and cultural infrastructure, including the WACA, the WA Cricket Association ground in my electorate in east Perth, which has had a very proud past, from those Empire Games to some of those great cricket matches of years gone past. I remember going to the WACA as a member of the Fremantle Dockers cheer squad when they used to play the night games at the WACA, well before Optus Stadium was even a concept in people's mind.

I also have in my electorate Beatty Park, which was host to much of the swimming for the Commonwealth, or then Empire, Games, but, today, struggles a little because it doesn't quite have the investment that it needs to make sure that it can continue to train up people. It's great for kids, and I want to congratulate Mayor Emma Cole for the upgrades they've made to the community part of that pool, but it is a huge struggle for the local councils and community organisations who get these brand new assets that then, 40 or 50-plus years later, they are struggling to maintain.

Also, when we talk about protecting the culture and intellectual property, some of this is a struggle when it comes sporting merchandise—you don't want to let small businesses become the unintended ones punished for just sharing their enthusiasm for sport. We need to find a way so that small business can be enthusiastic about upcoming cricket tournaments and upcoming Olympics in Australia and make sure that we provide ways for them to show their support rather than just using the punishment that can be dished out under this legislation.

While we know that so much community sport, and indeed professional sport, has been hit hard by the pandemic, we've also had some unique opportunities to show the potential that Australia has as a host of major sporting events. Last month, we saw Western Australia's potential when we hosted the AFL grand final. This year's grand final was an historic event for Western Australia, an historic event for Perth and an historic event for Australia. The AFL may have a contract that says the grand final will remain in Melbourne until 2059, but everyone will remember that in 2021 Perth did an outstanding job as host.

It was a large event that took much preparation, and I congratulate everyone involved in that successful day. Over 61,266 people attended that match, and I'm sure there were a few who snuck in without the appropriate tickets. But it demonstrated the strength and importance of sport to our local economy—2,600 staff worked on that day; New West Foods, a family run business in Malaga, supplied some 9,000 kilograms of potato chips, 6,000 pieces of flathead fish, 12,000 party pies and 14,000 chicken wings; Smorgasbord supplied tonnes of WA-grown fresh vegetables, including some 600 kilograms of cubed pumpkin; The Spice Merchants—not to be confused with the Spice Girls—supplied 1,000 kilograms of spices and produced 10,000 naan breads; and Cheeky Brothers produced 4,000 pizzas. It was estimated that the entire event added some $50 million to the WA economy. And, while the long-term economic benefits are not yet known, Western Australia well and truly showed our capacity to hold national and international world-class sporting events.

It was also great to see Dr Richard Walley welcoming to country every one of those 61,266 people who were there and the millions watching online and on their TV screens. Dr Walley described his welcome to country as a 'modern day passport', which I thought was a really beautiful analogy when we talk about welcoming people here to Australia for sporting events. And, we did have some spectacular local musicians and performing artists, including Baker Boy, John Butler and Eskimo Joe—although I was personally disappointed that Eskimo Joe did not do their classic from the 1990s of 'Sweater'. Maybe they'll be able to play that at next year's grand final. It was all made possible because of the outstanding job that Premier McGowan and the Western Australian government have done in managing the pandemic. If Clive Palmer and the Prime Minister had had their way, WA's border would have been opened and we would never have had the opportunity to host that grand final. Indeed, those 61,266 people who watched it in person would not have had that chance. The 2,600 people who had jobs created as a result of that would not have had the chance. That's why we need a federal government that's willing to work with Western Australia rather than against us.

An example of this was the Empire Games in 1962. That was a project that was worked on between state and federal governments. It was a huge success. Over the course of the games, some 210,000 people attended. That's remarkable when you think about the struggles of air travel at that period in time—the cost of air travel, even to get across from one side of Australia to the other—and the fact that Western Australia's population at the time was only some 800,000 people. We had 873 athletes representing some 35 nations performing in front of 30,000 fans day after day at Perry Lakes Stadium. It showcased the iconic parts of Western Australian life, with the road cycle race taking place in Kings Park. As Cynthia Robertson said in the Australian Women's Weekly in November 1962: 'It is no wonder the city is bursting—both at the seams and with pride. The pride has increased daily as more and more people have arrived by road, rail sea and air, and Perth has properly gotten into its international swing.' That's the power of having these major events here in Australia.

It is a power that this legislation protects for the future, to make sure that Australia continues to be seen as a strong and stable location for these international sporting events. One of the reasons Perth was so eager to host those games in 1962 was the hope it would help draw attention to the city and help grow the population. I think it's fair to say the games were a success: recently, Perry Lakes Stadium was demolished so more homes could be built to house Perth's ever-growing population.

Fortunately, Western Australia has a chance to build on our tradition with a number of upcoming sporting events. Recently, Perth was selected as a host city for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, an event this bill specifically caters for. This event will deliver millions of dollars worth of economic benefits and jobs for Western Australians, and it's one of the reasons I support the amendment moved by the member for Shortland identifying that there is so much more opportunity that the government could be out there grabbing for future events. There are so many things just like the Empire Games that are out there looking for a home in a post-pandemic world, where Australia could be the solution.

I want to draw the House's attention in particular to the search for a host for the 2027 Special Olympics. There is an opportunity for that to be hosted in Perth and there is, indeed, a committee that's been formed to explore the economic benefits and costs of Perth being the host for that. I recently met with them, and I was thoroughly impressed by not just how much they had thought through the needs of the participants but also how they had worked through the economic opportunities for Australia—not just for Perth and not just for Western Australia but for the entire country. It should be noted that while they weren't noticed as much as the Commonwealth Games in 1962, the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games that were hosted in that same year were also a proud achievement for Western Australia.

The 2027 Special Olympics will be an opportunity for Perth to again showcase its history as a place for inclusive sporting events. It's the largest humanitarian event in the world. It's not just a sporting activity; it is a global movement for inclusion. Some 8,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities compete, and 170 nations participate across 26 sports over 10 days. If that were to be held in Perth in Western Australia, it would be an opportunity to recognise and celebrate some 700,000 Australians who live with an intellectual disability. It would be a significant boost for Perth. It's got to be looked at carefully, and I know that the government here in Canberra are looking at it carefully, with their bureaucrats, and I wish them all the best in doing so.

Ultimately, this bill is about ensuring that the commercial opportunities of sport remain available to Australians. Without the protections of this bill, Australia would be unable to host the transformational events we've held in the past. While it's important that we have these protections, we must do more than simply punish those that use counterfeit or illegal products. Unfortunately, this government's legislation is too focused on punishment rather than promotion. We must be doing all we can to ensure the chances to celebrate our nation are taken advantage of. This might include creating specific logos for small businesses to use, to jump in on the excitement and channel the excitement of Australians into other engagements as well.

I've long said that, when it comes to Australia's art and culture, and promoting culture—and I mentioned earlier the importance of promoting culture and cultural institutions—there are also more opportunities for our diplomatic missions to do that abroad. When these major sporting events happen in Australia, you do find a renewed interest in other parts of the world, and we should make sure that we integrate that enthusiasm into not only the Olympic Games in 2032, as the previous speaker mentioned, but also other opportunities, and make sure that our diplomats are out there promoting Australia and Australian culture. It's got to be more than simply wearing an Australia face mask. We can't just continue to pay consultants millions of dollars to come up with logos, who then then tell us to slap a kangaroo on something. We should look at some of the exciting cultural aspects we have right now. For example, the unofficial ambassadors for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are Bluey and Bingo. We should make sure that our ambassadors are handing out a Bluey or a Bingo as they meet with world leaders. Maybe the Prime Minister could take a few in his suitcase when he travels to Glasgow at the end of this week.

Quorum formed.

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. Major events have historically been inextricably linked with tourism on the Gold Coast, which, according to Destination Gold Coast, was around a $6 billion industry before the pandemic. Events like Magic Millions, Polo by the Sea, the Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars, the Gold Coast Airport Marathon, the Surf Life Saving Championships triathlon, the bowls—the list goes on.

The City Heart Taskforce that I convened last May as my local response to COVID-19 has three executive members who represent the events sector on the Gold Coast. The first is Adrienne Readings, the general manager of the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, who has a long history of delivering stellar business events for our city, including the Gold Coast Reimagine Jobs, Skills and Industry Forum in September 2020—the Gold Coast's first COVID-safe event after the pandemic hit. During the pandemic, the federal government delivered $50 million to support business events to subsidise organisations for their trade show costs by up to 50 per cent. Of course, this assistance has been incredibly difficult to realise with the ongoing Queensland border openings and closures, and the border is now not due to open until 17 December. I encourage CEOs across Australia to book their business event at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre for next year. Get in early and secure your spot to come up to the Gold Coast for a fabulous event at that event centre.

The second City Heart Taskforce member is Jan McCormick, the CEO of Major Events Gold Coast. As Australians know, the Gold Coast—and particularly Moncrieff, my electorate—has a proud history of events. Southport, specifically the Broadwater Parklands, is where the Gold Coast Show is held, and they received $44,440 from the federal government to assist with the event earlier this year. Most recently, just a few weeks ago, the Diwali festival was held at the parklands, where 2,000 people of Indian origin, through GOPIO, met to celebrate the hope of a new year. It was my absolute delight to address and support those who attended, along with the member for Fadden. Broadbeach hosts the annual Blues on Broadbeach, and it received $200,000 of assistance from the federal government last time it was held to ensure it was a COVID-safe event. I attended that event, which was fantastic for local business. The Broadbeach precinct came alive for locals to enjoy music and the entertainment. Surfers Paradise had a new event, Springtime, scheduled for earlier this year, and the federal government delivered $1.5 million to support that event through the Recovery for Regional Tourism fund, but it was most disappointingly cancelled due to COVID restrictions being put in place again by the Queensland state government.

The third member of the City Heart Taskforce from the events sector is John Howe, the chairman of iEDM, who has been in events delivery for 40 years. Since 2008 his business has delivered iconic events such as the V8 Supercar events across Australia, the international boat show, the Pan Pac swimming championships, the Rugby League World Cup, the Adelaide International in WTA tennis and the Formula One Grand Prix, just to name a few. You can imagine the difficulty that this business and many others have endured during COVID, trying to find ways to work with restrictions, suppliers and many other challenges they've faced over the last 19 or so months.

I thank these three City Heart Taskforce executive members for their input and their capacity to work with me, as chair, to fully inform the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment and other ministers about the difficulties in the sector during this period associated with Queensland state border closures and, to a lesser extent, the international border closures as well.

The Gold Coast has a long and proud history of major events, including, of course, the very successful 2018 Commonwealth Games that our city hosted. We have had the announcement of the South-East Queensland 2032 Olympics, which, indeed, is a long way off but represents a historic opportunity for the Gold Coast development across sport infrastructure and many other areas a decade before the Games and a decade after the Games. The Gold Coast is earmarked to host nine events across seven venues, five of which are in my electorate. We're thrilled that that event, or part of it, is going to be on the Gold Coast.

The question is: how will this bill affect major events being held on the Gold Coast, at Metricon Stadium or at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre or, indeed, at Royal Pines Resort?

It specifically protects sponsorship and licence revenue from the events being undermine by unauthorised commercial use of event indicia and images under the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014, including the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022, both recognised as major events.

As the minister outlined in the other place, the FIFA Women's World Cup will see 32 teams compete across Australia and New Zealand. It will be the first FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in the Asia-Pacific region and the first ever to be held in the Southern Hemisphere. The FIFA Women's World Cup teams will include many of the world's most talented female footballers and showcase international football to diverse audiences in Australia and around the world. The FIFA Women's World Cup tournament is scheduled for July to August 2023, with five Australian cities to host the match content. He also stated the T20 world cup will see 16 of the world's best men's teams come to Australia to play T20 cricket, with potential broadcast and digital audiences reaching in excess of 1.5 billion people from more than 200 countries worldwide, showcasing our country. These T20 world cup teams will represent the pinnacle of international sporting competition and include some of the world's most talented male cricketers. The T20 world cup tournament is scheduled for October to November 2022. The coalition government has committed to providing intellectual property right protections for the FIFA Women's World Cup and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup consistent with that provided for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, the AFC Asian Cup 2015 and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

As recognised under the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014, the FIFA Women's World Cup and T20 world cup present a great opportunity to showcase Australia from a tourism, trade and event delivery perspective. The protections proposed for the two events in this bill are essential to building a lasting legacy and attracting commercial partners that will invest in major sporting events held in Australia and into the future. Major events have long been targets of those who would seek to create an impression of association with the event in order to achieve commercial gain without having purchased the rights. This is not acceptable, and so our government is acting to protect this sector. This type of activity is known as ambush marketing by association. It has the capacity to diminish the value of sponsorship, to reduce the incentive for organisations to enter into commercial arrangements with events and to reduce the overall event revenue, possibly increasing financial impact on the government to support such events.

While it's important to protect major sporting event sponsors from ambush marketing, the rights of the community to freedom of expression must also be respected, particularly in relation to words and expressions that have passed into common usage. A pragmatic approach has been taken, with generic words and references excluded from the list of protected expressions. A number of exceptions will also exist in relation to the events, allowing for the continued operation of rights and liabilities under the Trade Marks Act 1995, the Designs Act 2003 and the Copyright Act 1968—a good vintage, '68; the provision of information, criticisms and review of the events such as in newspapers, magazines and broadcasts; and the use of protected indicia and images for the reasonable needs of sporting bodies in relation to fundraising and promotion, and communities and businesses to engage in city dressing and festival promotions supporting the events in non-commercial ways.

The new event protections will cease to have effect approximately one year after the completion of the events, which is 31 December 2024 for the FIFA Women's World Cup and 13 November 2023 for the T20 world cup. The bill also removes the schedule protecting the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, which is no longer required and makes a minor and technical amendment to the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020 to correct the erroneous reference to an article of the World Anti-Doping Code.

In closing, we on this side have taken the steps necessary to protect the major event owners and organisers who rely heavily on revenue generated by television rights, ticket sales, sponsorship and licensing, to ensure that their event can be delivered and that it continues to be an attractive and viable financial proposition to future host countries and, indeed, businesses, like IEDM on the Gold Coast and others around our country. It is our government who is acting to take steps necessary through this bill to legislate against those who would seek to be associated with major events by spuriously claiming association without purchasing the rights to do so. It is our government who is putting a stop to unfair ambush marketing for our very, very important events industry, particularly on the Gold Coast.

(Quorum formed)

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the Major Sporting Events (Indica and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. Specifically, I would like to refer to No. (2) in the amendment moved by the opposition, which says:

(2) calls on the Government to further support Australia's ability to host international sporting events by implementing an effective national quarantine system to ensure COVID-safe travel for sports teams and officials".

That's a very important amendment, because what we have currently in this country is the Australian Open tennis down in Victoria over the summer—one of our great traditional events. But the world's top-rating player, Novak Djokovic, has been banned from coming to Australia. We excluded the best player in the world on the grounds that, as a professional athlete, who survives on his fitness and his health, he has decided that he doesn't want to make it public knowledge whether or not he has submitted himself to a global medical experiment and agree to be injected with a novel, experimental, genetic agent.

Surely that should be his right? But some may argue that this puts the other athletes at risk, that this creates a risk at the workplace. Over the weekend, no less a figure than the surgeon general of Florida, Dr Joseph A Ladapo, MD, PhD, said:

The idea that … vaccine mandates are needed to create safe workplaces is a complete lie.

We've also had Boris Johnson talking about the need for mandatory vaccines. He said:

… it doesn't protect you against catching the disease and it doesn't protect you against passing it on.

If this is what world leaders are saying, if this is what some of the most senior medical people from the US are saying, why are we banning athletes based upon their vaccination status? Surely it should be based upon whether they are COVID -positive or COVID -negative, not upon their vaccination status.

This will show the farcical nature of this policy that we have in Australia. The UK Health Security Agency publishes every week a document called the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report. Last Thursday they published the report for week 42. In that, they compared the number of cases of COVID that are vaccinated and not vaccinated. The argument is that we have to exclude the world's top-ranking tennis player from a major sporting event in Melbourne, the Australian Open, one of the major sporting events in the world, because we think that, because he is not vaccinated, he has a higher risk of having COVID and passing it on. Well, let's have a look at what this data actually says. We know that Djokovic is in his mid-30s—I think 34 years of age. If we look at the report from the UK, the most up-to-date data we have for Europe, in the 30- to 39-year-old age group, from week 38 to week 41 the number of cases amongst the non-vaccinated was 21,726, but the number of cases amongst the so-called fully vaccinated—that is, injected twice, although we know that the term 'fully vaccinated' is slippery; it now may mean extra booster shots, but this is referring to those that have been fully vaccinated under the definition that that is two shots—was 56,004. So there were more than twice as many people with COVID in that age group who were vaccinated compared to those who were not vaccinated.

To make the comparison exact, we've got to look at the percentages. This report also does that. It looks at the rates per 100,000. The rate per 100,000 of people not vaccinated was 751, but the rate for those vaccinated was 27 per cent higher, at 956. So this data shows that those who have been vaccinated actually have a higher rate of COVID infections in that 30- to 40-year-old age bracket than those not vaccinated, and yet we have adopted a policy of excluding those who have been unvaccinated from the Australian Open. This is madness. This is insanity. This is tinfoil hat stuff. This is the stuff of superstition and witchcraft. And yet it is the policy of the Australian government to exclude the world's best athletes from this nation based on a nonsense.

These major sporting events are so important to our economy. We've got many sporting events that attract athletes from around the world. They love to come to Australia for these sporting events. The Australian public loves them. But these events in future are being put at risk by a backward, illogical policy based upon superstition that somehow, if someone is unvaccinated, they have a greater risk than someone that is vaccinated. We are putting the sporting heritage of this nation at risk with this madness, this stupidity, this primitive superstition that we have that has spread through the country. If we, going forward, want to retain the great Australian tradition of sportsmanship, we need to end this. We need to all call it out. It is a nonsense. The idea of excluding athletes from this country based upon their COVID vaccination status must stop. It is illogical, it is contrary to the science and it is contrary to the evidence.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are a great sporting nation, and our natural sporting nature has giving us generations of athletes who have gone far with a natural talent and an unequalled opportunity to play and compete. Bennelong was home to the 'Ermington flash', the great Betty Cuthbert, who started her illustrious career with a humble daily run between school and home. Herb Elliott was said to train by running barefoot. But, as sport has developed, we have come to rely on more than just talent and, also, on more sophisticated tools to play well. Ken Rosewall conquered the world with a pair of Volleys and a wooden racquet, but today Ash Barty travels with a team of support staff and cutting-edge technology at her disposal.

This is not to decry modern athletes' reliance on technology. Technology is helping them reach greater and greater heights and is a perfectly legitimate part of the sport. No, what I'm saying is that playing sport is expensive and getting more expensive all the time, and, if you want to excel on the world stage, it gets a whole lot more costly. Once you've paid for the nutritional consultants, the carbon-fibre whatsits, the fitness trackers and holistic training, you're still nowhere without the venue, the competition, the organisers and the event.

It's a rule of the game that, if you want the best to come to your event, you've got to have the best event, and great events don't come cheap. They have to have the best facilities, the stages, the best catering, seamless organisation and the best prizes, and 'the best' costs big.

The first Australian Open, in 1969, had total prize money of $25,000; the current prize money is $71.5 million. God, I wish I was still playing! Which is why I've said many times in all sincerity that, without the sponsors, the game doesn't get played. Consider this: for every single golf tournament played, everywhere in the world, the day before the competition begins starts with a pro-am, where the sponsors get to play with the great players. This started with the Bing Crosby Clambake that started professional golf. Every player who wins a tournament says a couple of things that are very sincere and some that might not be. They thank the umpires, they thank the ball boys and the ball girls and they thank—with the cheque in their hand—the sponsor.

We've got some big years of events coming to Australia. Next year, the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 is coming our way, and in 2023 we're looking forward to sharing the FIFA Women's World Cup with New Zealand. If the weekend's incredible game against Brazil is anything to go by, this is going to be one of the greatest competitions we have seen in this country. But these events won't go ahead without sponsors, and this legislation will protect these events' sponsorship and licensing revenue from being undermined by unauthorised commercial use of event indicia and images. It will follow the same methodology as we used when we provided intellectual property rights protection for the FIFA Women's World Cup and the T20 World Cup. That is consistent with that provided for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 AFC Asian Cup and the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. As a side note, this legislation removes the protection for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, which is clearly not useful anymore.

Building on these protections is critical to attracting the high-end sponsorship we need to ensure the viability of competitions. The protections proposed in this bill for these two events are essential to building a lasting legacy and attracting commercial partners that will invest in major sporting events held in Australia into the future. This may sound unimportant, but major events have long been targets of those who seek to create an impression of association with an event in order to achieve a commercial gain without having purchased the rights. This type of activity is known as ambush marketing by association and has the capacity to diminish the value of sponsorship, reduce the incentive for organisations to enter—

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate made be resumed at a later hour.