Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019. As chair of the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee I am pleased to make a contribution to the debate. On 17 October 2019 the House of Representatives introduced the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019. It was referred to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee on 14 November 2019 and the committee tabled its report on 5 February this year.

As you have heard from previous contributions, the bill seeks to amend the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Act 2006, the ASADA Act, to establish Sport Integrity Australia as a single body for the administration and coordination of functions to prevent and address threats to sports integrity in Australia. It also seeks to bring together all existing national sports integrity functions and capabilities across the Commonwealth. The bill responds to the key findings of the Review of Australia's Sports Integrity Arrangements, the Wood review, which addressed the vulnerability of Australian sport to future corruption. It is important we establish a central, specialised intelligence capability to support law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

Sport plays a significant role in the Australian way of life. Our sport-loving nation regularly comes to a standstill for major sporting events like the AFL Grand Final, the Ashes, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the Australian Open, but on any given day, particularly at weekends, sporting facilities around the country are populated with people of all ages participating in and cheering on any number of sports, and if we're not there we're probably playing cricket in the backyard. Quite simply, it's a part of who we are as Australians. As Australians, we expect the sports that we participate in and watch to be fair and honest representations of the game, and we expect sport to be free of corruption. We have a high expectation of those who play, coach and manage sport, whether in a professional or an amateur capacity, and we need confidence that our sports are protected from threats to this integrity. Cheating and misconduct in sport, and sporting environments where abuse, discrimination and harassment are prevalent, are all considered harshly because of the importance sport enjoys in our national identity. Sport is also an integral component of the Australian economy. Any threat to the integrity of Australian sport will have direct consequences for the health, economic, social and cultural benefits of sport, as well as having the capacity to undermine potential investment in sport. A major threat to sports integrity could spell the end to Australian culture as we know it.

The Wood review identified avenues for enhancing Australia's capability to respond effectively to the increasing sophistication and complexity of threats to the integrity of sport. It also recognised that the changing nature of sport and the international competition we enjoy means sports integrity matters now go beyond a single stakeholder. These matters are complex, and the global nature of our world now means that they can be connected across sports, industries, law enforcement, borders and time zones. That is a big web to control.

The Wood review was undertaken after the then Minister for Sport requested a review of Australia's sports integrity arrangements in 2017. This review was part of the work conducted to develop a National Sport Plan, Sport 2030, in response to the growing global threat to the integrity of sport. The review was conducted by an independent and expert panel led by the Hon. James Wood AO QC. The Wood review was tasked with examining the following three areas: firstly, the current environment and threats around national and international sports and foreseeable future challenges; secondly, the adequacy of Australia's current sports integrity capability, particularly the capability of ASADA and Australia's sports sector to address contemporary doping threats, the effectiveness of the 2011 national policy on match-fixing, including the merits of becoming a signatory to the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions—the Macolin convention—the case for national match-fixing laws, the merits of establishing a formal national platform for effective ongoing detection of and response to betting related sports corruption and the merits of establishing a national sports integrity tribunal; and, finally, the options for structural changes to current sports integrity arrangements, including the merits of establishing a dedicated national sports integrity commission or similar entity.

The Wood review is considered to be the most comprehensive examination of sports integrity arrangements ever undertaken in Australia, if not the world. It found sports were challenged by a range of mounting integrity threats which include the increasing sophistication and incidence of doping; the globalisation of sports wagering, particularly through rapidly growing illegal online gambling markets; the infiltration and exploitation of the sports sector by organised crime; corruption in sports administration; and growing participant protection issues, particularly the sexual abuse of minors in sporting environments.

The Wood review report was presented to the government in March 2018. This report addressed key domestic and international threats to the integrity of sport, and made 52 recommendations across five key themes. These themes were: a stronger national response to match fixing through Australia becoming a party to the Macolin convention; the establishment of an Australian sports wagering scheme to sit within a proposed national sports integrity commission; a range of reforms aimed at enhancing Australia's antidoping capability; the establishment of a national sports tribunal; and the establishment of a national sports integrity commission.

In implementing the recommendations from the Wood review the government has adopted a two-stage approach. The Department of Health and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority made a joint submission to the committee's inquiry, explaining that the first stage of implementation should be to establish Sport Integrity Australia, and that the second stage of implementation would address the mechanisms needed to achieve the sports integrity recommendations proposed by the Wood review. Sport Integrity Australia will draw together and develop existing sports integrity capabilities, knowledge and expertise cohesively by coordinating all elements of the sports integrity threat response nationally.

Sport Integrity Australia will implement Australia's international obligations, both under the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport and, once in force and binding on Australia, the Macolin convention. In order to do this, Sport Integrity Australia will bring together the existing functions of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, the National Integrity of Sport Unit and the sports integrity functions of Sport Australia. Once established and operating, it is anticipated that Sport Integrity Australia will expand to include enhanced match-fixing detection and suspicious wagering alert capabilities, a whistleblower scheme, and promote national collaboration on sports wagering-related integrity frameworks.

One of the Wood review's key recommendations was the establishment of a national sports integrity commission which would address the need for a formal national capability dedicated to coordinating the collection, analysis and dissemination of information and intelligence in relation to sports integrity. The Wood review found no existing Australian entity had the capability or power to obtain the information and intelligence necessary to understand and address threats to Australian sports integrity. In its joint submission to the inquiry, the Department of Health and ASADA explained that the establishment of Sport Integrity Australia would merge all functions and ongoing resources of the three current agencies to perform the existing sports integrity functions. These include policy and program delivery on all sports integrity matters; education and outreach on all sports integrity matters; the existing oversight of the implementation of adherence to sports integrity policies and programs by national sport organisations; antidoping monitoring, intelligence collection and investigations that are now performed by ASADA; and international engagement, including being the formal national platform for the purposes of the Macolin convention.

Sport Integrity Australia will act to prevent and address threats to sports integrity, aiming to achieve fair and honest sporting performances and outcomes; promoting positive conduct by athletes, administrators, officials and other stakeholders on and off the sporting arena; achieving a safe, fair and inclusive sporting environment at all levels; and enhancing the reputation and standing of sporting contests and of sport overall. To ensure the new agency can achieve all this, amendments will be made to the ASADA Act. These amendments are set out in the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019 and will abolish ASADA and create Sport Integrity Australia; expand the functions of Sport Integrity Australia's new chief executive officer to include functions related to broader sports integrity issues; and create an advisory council appointed by the minister to provide external expert advice of a general nature in relation to strategic and governance matters to the CEO of Sport Integrity Australia and the minister.

Those who made submissions to the inquiry support the establishment of Sport Integrity Australia, in particular—and I note Senator Brown also quoted this submission—the Australian Olympic Committee submitted that it is, 'Paramount to the integrity of sport in an increasingly complex sporting environment that there is a coordinated national approach against doping, match-fixing, illegal gambling, corruption and participant protection issues.'

In addressing the second stage of implementing the Wood review's recommendations, the mechanisms proposed are a joint investigation and intelligence unit and a strategic analysis unit and the transfer of the sports wagering data monitoring and alert functions of the Sports Betting Integrity Unit from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to Sport Integrity Australia. The bill also amends the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 1988 to ensure Sport Integrity Australia's ability to receive and disseminate information as required.

A version of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019 was introduced in the 45th Parliament but lapsed when the House of Representatives was dissolved on 11 April 2019. We're committed to seeing this bill through in its updated format. To this end, the Department of Health and ASADA requested that the bill incorporate updates after consultation with stakeholders in relation to the earlier version of the bill. These updates include amendments to the object and CEO's functions and powers to better reflect the role and remit of the new agency; amendments to facilitate better information sharing by and with SIA; and consequential amendments to harmonise operation with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Enhancing Australia's Anti-Doping Capability) Bill 2019.

The Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee received six submissions during its inquiry. In relation to the matters raised in the submissions, the Wood review noted that sports integrity matters are complex, globalised, interconnected and beyond the control of any single stakeholder. The review found that Australia's vulnerabilities were exacerbated by the lack of nationally consistent legislative measures and other protections and development of centralised intelligence and law enforcement capabilities to connect Commonwealth, state and territory agencies. Indeed, the Wood review stated:

Without the presence of a comprehensive, effective and nationally coordinated response capability the hard-earned reputation of sport in this country risks being tarnished …

And this would potentially reduce participation rates, which would then diminish the social, cultural and economic value of the significant investment we make in sport.

As commented on by Senator Rice, in considering the bill's constitutionality, some submitters noted that there were no express Commonwealth constitutional powers to legislate in the areas of sport, sports integrity or crime. They also questioned whether, considering that lack of express power, the bill would be constitutional. However, section 3 of the ASADA Act identifies implementing Australia's international antidoping obligations as the foundation for the act, and the explanatory memorandum to the bill states that Sport Integrity Australia would implement Australia's international obligations under the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport and the Macolin convention, noting that the Macolin convention was not yet in force and binding on Australia.

It is important to note—as was also mentioned by Senator Rice—that a new definition of sport integrity has been added to this bill which is the manifestation of the ethics and values that promote confidence in sport. Threats to sports integrity include doping, drug use, match-fixing and criminal exploitation of athletes and events, but this is by no means exhaustive. The establishment of Sport Integrity Australia is a significant first step in our efforts to protect the integrity of Australian sport. Sport Integrity Australia will draw together existing sports integrity capabilities into a single national agency, and the amendments proposed in the bill will provide a sound base from which to expand the remit and capability of Sport Integrity Australia. These amendments will equip Sport Integrity Australia with the tools it needs to meet Australia's international obligations and the expectations of stakeholders to ensure that Australian sport at all levels is safe, fair and inclusive. I urge the Senate to support the bill.