Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It has been said that sport is the window into a country's soul. When we think of ourselves as Australians, we often think of ourselves as a sporting nation and, through that window, we can see a lot to be proud of. Fourteen million of us participate in sport annually, and 1.8 million of us volunteer each year in a whole range of different ways, whether it is in football, soccer, netball, cricket, rugby league, rugby union, basketball, swimming, athletics, tennis—the list goes on.

People who participate in sport benefit directly. There are benefits for physical health, and for mental health—which is so important, as we note World Suicide Prevention Day today. Sport gives us fresh air, the chance to work with others as a team and the elation of overcoming challenges. And sport can be a way of bringing people together. When people show up to play a game of sport together, they connect, and our communities are that little bit stronger.

Sport is so important in Australia, and that's why fairness and integrity in sport are critical. I want to talk a little bit about the importance of sport in Australia and in our society, to underline why fairness and integrity are so important.

Ten years after the terrible fires of Black Saturday, what did the Whittlesea and Kinglake communities do to note the anniversary? They played a game of footy. One of the organisers of that game spoke about what community teams meant: 'We really supported Kinglake, and our football ground was a hub of activity and a staging area for a number of weeks and months afterwards. We just wanted to bring the two clubs and the two communities back together.'

Sport can bring us together as a country. We're now celebrating as a country that the Ashes are coming back home. When the Socceroos and the Matildas compete, people around the country stay up until all hours of the night to watch and cheer them on. And every four years we cheer together, as an Australian makes it up onto an Olympic podium.

Sports can even strengthen our international relationships. The Lowy Institute wrote a report specifically on the potential of Rugby League to connect Australia and Papua New Guinea, a key bilateral relationship. They said:

Sport is an area with great power to connect people and rugby league is the sport with the strongest existing links across PNG and Australia.

It's also a sport with great potential to build new interest in PNG amongst Australians who may not have an existing connection to PNG but are passionate about Rugby League.

But if sport is a window into a country's soul, it can also show us the negative side of Australia. Adam Goodes was named Australian of the Year in 2014, but the racist attacks that he was subject to are a blight on the sport and show us something about Australia that isn't easy to confront. They show how much further we still have to go in addressing the longstanding injustices that modern Australia has not fully acknowledged or dealt with. I would like to quote a part of the AFL's response to two recent documentaries:

Adam, who represents so much that is good and unique about our game, was subject to treatment that drove him from football. The game did not do enough to stand with him and call it out.

We apologise unreservedly for our failures during this period.

An apology is an important step, but it's only one of many steps that are needed to ensure that sport in Australia can represent the vision of ourselves that we want to believe in so that, when we look through that window of sport, we can see a vision of Australia that we want to believe in, not one that we are ashamed of. That's why it's so important to ensure that we have integrity in sport. We hope that these bills will contribute to stronger integrity in Australian sport.

These bills follow from processes that have been underway for years. When the Essendon doping incident occurred, Senator Richard Di Natale spoke about the need for a system that did not just focus on the players but also took into account other individuals and organisations involved in doping violations. The value of sport for individuals and communities is undermined when people do the wrong thing. As fans, we watch the best athletes because we want to see who has the most skill, not who has the best pharmacist. This is something that the Greens have been speaking up about for many years.

In 2017, the government commissioned the Wood Review of Australia's Sports Integrity Arrangements. The Wood review took place over a year, with input from over 40 stakeholder meetings and 30 written submissions. In its final report, the Wood review identified multiple challenges in sport, including the commercialisation of sport, rapid growth in sports wagering and doping scandals. The National Sports Tribunal is being established as part of the government's response to the Wood review to strengthen the integrity of Australia's sports. When introducing the bill in the other place, the government described the establishment of the National Sports Tribunal as a pilot. The two pilot years are an opportunity to see how the tribunal will operate and how it ensures that the rights of athletes are protected. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, International Convention against Doping in Sport, to which Australia is a signatory, requires that athletes receive a fair hearing, so it's important that we closely monitor how the tribunal protects athletes' rights during this pilot.

If sport is a window into the nation, it can also show us the progress we're making. The AFL Women's competition is an exciting development, going from 10 teams in 2019 to 14 in 2020. Now, when a young girl takes her footy down to the park for a kick, she can imagine herself being Erin Phillips winning best on ground, Tayla Harris taking the mark of the year or Ashley Sharp kicking the goal of the year. Personally, I'm proud to be a foundation member of the Western Bulldogs' women's competition and to have seen for myself how important it has been for increasing participation in sport amongst girls and young women and how it's attracted a whole new cohort of people to engage with and get involved with both elite and local football.

But sport can also show us the distance we have to go in achieving our vision of a fair Australia. If we want to be a nation that celebrates and includes everyone, then everyone should be able to participate in sport, including trans, gender diverse and intersex people. Tragically, surveys suggest that almost 40 per cent of LGBTIQ+ people who participate in sports have felt unsafe or vulnerable in a sporting environment, and many more choose to not participate, because they don't feel safe.

Everyone deserves to be able participate to safely in sports, and we should support them to do so. Bouquets to the AFL for bringing the women's league into existence, but brickbats to them for how they have managed the inclusion of transgender athletes. The way they dealt with Hannah Mouncey in her attempts to be included in the AFLW draft was nothing short of reprehensible, and she eventually withdrew from the 2019 draft, arguing that the AFL had treated her 'like shit', 'with every effort made to wear me down to the point where I couldn't continue'. The AFL policy requires that trans women maintain a maximum set level of testosterone for at least two years on the basis that higher levels of testosterone can result in a competitive advantage for trans or non-binary athletes, but the AFL also require trans women to submit data on a series of tests which they believe further determine their competitive advantage. This includes the person's height, weight, bench press, 20-metre sprint, vertical jump, GPS and two-kilometre run data. If the prospective player exceeds recorded AFLW averages on these measures, even if their testosterone levels are below the stated requirement, then the AFLW reserve the right to deny their nomination. In doing so, they will explicitly keep players like Hannah out of the league because she's too strong.

Hannah's example gives some insight into the challenges faced by transgender athletes, but I want to also talk about the challenges that intersex athletes face, because they are equally large. We've all heard of South Africa's incredible athlete Caster Semenya. In her own words, 'I am a woman, and I am fast.' But, sadly, it hasn't been that simple for Caster. She's faced a long battle just to participate in the competitions that she excels in. She's had to battle rules issued by the International Association of Athletics Federations which require some female runners whose bodies produce high levels of testosterone to take medication to lower those levels. These rules seem to be a direct effort to target Semenya, who is believed to have a condition that produces high testosterone. Semenya appealed against the new regulations earlier this year, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against her. Intersex Human Rights Australia, in reflecting on this Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling, stated:

Caster Semenya is a Black South African cisgender woman, born with a variation of sex characteristics, seeking to compete in the sex category she was assigned at birth.

…   …   …

The decision is more of the same old story: discrimination, forced medical intervention, and decision-making despite a lack of evidence.

Inclusion is powerful, and it's necessary. We see its power when women's sport is championed and supported. I've seen it firsthand at events organised by Proud 2 Play, including their recent lawn bowls event in Melbourne to celebrate Wear It Purple Day. Proud 2 Play work to ensure that all LGBTI+ people feel safe and confident to lead happy and active lifestyles in welcoming and inclusive environments.

Coming back to the AFL—it is finals season after all—they know that, with regard to trans players, they've got to lift their game. They issued a joint statement with Proud 2 Play earlier this year in response to a transphobic video that featured former Footy Showpresenter Sam Newman. The statement says:

The AFL is proud to work with the LGBTI+ community to ensure our sport is welcoming and inclusive, and these comments are damaging to young trans people, and the broader LGBTI+ community.

It's in this context that our second reading amendment was formulated. It's in this context that we are calling upon the National Sports Tribunal, when it's established, to consult with intersex-led organisations and with transgender and gender-diverse organisations; to adopt policies that reflect the 2016 guidance by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the Darlington Statement 2017; and to ensure access to sport at all levels of competition by all intersex people, including all cisgender intersex women being permitted to compete as women without restrictions or discriminatory medical investigations.

The Greens support this bill. We support the establishment of the National Sports Tribunal as set out in the bill, but its work must be grounded in values of inclusion and equality. That is why we're calling upon the Senate to support our second reading amendment that is aimed at ensuring that that's the case. I move the second reading amendment on sheet 8744:

At the end of the motion, add:

", but the Senate:

(a) recognises that all people have fundamental human rights and are entitled to equal protection of the law without any discrimination, including on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status; and

(b) calls on the National Sports Tribunal, when established, to:

  (i) consult with intersex-led organisations, and with transgender and gender diverse organisations;

  (ii) adopt policies that reflect the 2016 guidance by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and the Darlington Statement 2017; and

  (iii) ensure access to sport at all levels of competition by all intersex persons, including all cisgender intersex women being permitted to compete as women, without restrictions or discriminatory medical investigations."