Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Probably like Senator Di Natale and Senator Farrell, I am rapt that the true code starts again tonight and we'll have AFL back on our TVs. The southern states are very excited about that. Haven't we missed it? I am just thinking about the impact of COVID on community sport and our representative athletes who were hoping to head off to the Tokyo Olympics. We've missed Wimbledon this year. There have been a whole raft of things that are part of not only our daily lives, if you are involved in community sport, but our national identity on the international stage. Like everyone else who has contributed to debate on this bill, I am very much looking forward to community sport and our international sporting arrangements getting back on track.

Enhancing Australia's antidoping capabilities is incredibly important when it comes to sporting integrity. Our young Australians look up to our athletes and our sporting stars as model citizens for how to conduct themselves, how to understand sportsmanship and fairness and how to play in teams—key skills and characteristics they need for life.

As others have mentioned, sport is also big business. A huge number of people right across our economy are employed in sport. Volunteering levels are through the roof. Sport participation assists with great health and social outcomes. As I said earlier, it also instils national pride as we see Australian athletes and teams always punching—or riding, swimming or running—above their weight, which makes us very proud. We also are known globally for not just being hard at it on the track, in the pool or on the field but also being champions of fair play, a fair go and integrity.

Sport has shaped our culture and identity as Australians and reflects our broader values of sportsmanship and respect for the umpire. It unites our nation like nothing else, bringing people with diverse political views and people from different geographies and cultures together to celebrate our success as one. From grassroots to the world's iconic grass courts and arenas, sport gives us our heroes. We celebrate Steven Bradbury not only because he won a winter Olympics gold medal but because he was there against all the odds and stood tall as those around him fell. From Betty Cuthbert to Louise Sauvage, we share Australia's victories and we expect a level playing field.

This bill really puts us as Australians as leading the world in setting up a sports integrity system. On 5 August 2017 the then sports minister, Greg Hunt, announced a review of Australia's sports integrity arrangements to be led by Justice James Wood QC. I had the great privilege to release that Wood review in August 2018. It was a key component in the development of Australia's first comprehensive national sports plan, Sport 2030. I thank James Wood and his fellow panel members for their efforts in producing the most comprehensive review of Australia's sports integrity arrangements ever conducted.

The Wood review found that doping is much more prevalent and widespread than ever among athletes at all levels. We often think of the high-profile examples that have been mentioned in contributions thus far, but the Wood review found that teams at the amateur level and in junior competitions were being affected and that we really needed a strong system of monitoring and compliance right across the sporting landscape to ensure that those young athletes were protected. The Wood review also found serious and organised crime was involved in match fixing and the supply of performance-enhancing drugs. Under our nation's first sports plan, Sport 2030, we now have a clear path to know what is needed to ensure we build a more active Australia, achieve sporting excellence and back community grassroots sports at the same time, but we must safeguard the integrity of sport, which this bill seeks to achieve.

The election and subsequent introduction of this bill into parliament post-election last year has allowed for additional consultation with stakeholders in both private and public sectors, and as a result we now have greater clarity and context to the proposed amendments in the bill.

Since the bill's first introduction in the previous parliament changes have been made to allow ASADA's secrecy provisions to be included within schedule 3 of the Freedom of Information Act and very minor and consequential amendments to harmonise operations within the Sport Integrity Australia bill. The proposed amendments will streamline administrative procedures in relation to antidoping rule violations and reduce the burden on sports athletes and support personnel.

These amendments are supported by the feedback of stakeholders and include the removal of the Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel from the rule violation process and the removal of a pathway for review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of a preliminary antidoping rule violation decision of the ASADA CEO.

These amendments, along with the previously introduced National Sports Tribunal Bill, are a complementary package of reforms. The ultimate decision as to whether a person has committed a violation will be made by a fair, independent, impartial decision-maker. This government is implementing vital reforms to safeguard the integrity of Australian sport and combat present, emerging and future threats, including doping, match fixing, illegal betting, organised crime and corruption.

These reforms include establishing a new single national sport integrity agency, Sport Integrity Australia, which brings together ASADA, the National Integrity of Sport Unit and national sports integrity functions of Sport Australia. Legislation establishing Sport Integrity Australia was passed by the Senate in February this year. It stipulates the start of the new agency on 1 July 2020, and that will be headed by David Sharpe OAM.

Sport Integrity Australia will focus on regulation, monitoring and intelligence, policy and program delivery, including education and outreach. Sports betting integrity capabilities will be maintained with ongoing support of the world-leading Sports Betting Integrity Unit within the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

The government has established the National Sports Tribunal, which began operations in March this year. That's been created to provide a transparent, independent and cost-effective resolution to sports disputes. The National Sports Tribunal will be trialled over two years and comprises an antidoping division, a general division and an appeals division.

Our government's record on safeguarding sport is there for the world to see. In February last year, on behalf of the Australian government, I signed the Macolin convention—and it's great to see the foreign minister, who was with me on the day, Senator Marise Payne. It's the only multilateral treaty specifically aimed at combating match fixing and other related corruption in sport. What we do know is that organised crime doesn't restrict itself to state or national boundaries. This is a worldwide problem, and we need to work with other jurisdictions to actually mitigate the impacts and ensure that sport is fair for all. The Macolin convention is a great step forward in that effort to protect the safety, fairness and integrity of the sporting competitions we all enjoy so much.

Membership of the Macolin community enables Australia to obtain formal ongoing access to international counterparts and meetings to work together and drive these measures to combat sport corruption at a global level. Signing the convention supports national match-fixing criminal legislation and complements similar laws, where they exist, within our states and territories to protect sport.

The integrity of sport is of paramount importance, and our athletes expect to compete on a level playing field. We want them to compete on a level playing field, because we know we as Australians do alright on a level playing field. As I said earlier, sport keeps us fit and healthy. It's the social glue that binds us together. It creates communities and underpins much of community life, especially for those of us that live in the regions. Boston Consulting Group did a review of Australian sport in 2017 and it showed that every year 14 million Australians participate in some form of sporting activity. As I said earlier, sport generates in excess of $40 billion of economic activity, making upwards of three per cent of our GDP—equivalent to our agriculture sector. So we're not only just good at it, it underpins a lot of our economic activity, and a lot of Australians are employed within our sporting industry.

Each year the Australian government invests more than $300 million to support our high-performance athletes as they prepare for a variety of international competitions, and for pathways for younger athletes as they seek to aspire to the very highest levels of sporting prowess. I'm very proud of our government's record of investing millions to encourage greater participation at the community and grassroots levels in sport. We had a raft of measures under Sport 2030, including community infrastructure investment to help sporting clubs build those change rooms to ensure that young women and girls who are seeking to participate in traditional male sports such as NRL, rugby union, AFL, cricket et cetera, have somewhere where they can safely get changed for their game. That's been a great boon for so many sporting clubs out there in communities.

Another program to increase participation focused on senior Australians. Once you get a little older, and I'm in that category, and you don't run as fast as you used to, you might give up participating in your loved sport. But then you also end up missing out on the social connection that you get from engaging in that community activity. So there was a raft of money focused on ensuring that we encourage senior Australians back into their local community clubs—whether they be soccer or netball—with modified game plans, to ensure that they're also staying physically healthy.

We also had a raft of measures that support the increase in participation, which I'm incredibly proud of. Our government is backing the National Sport Plan and working with state governments to find pathways for young athletes, whether they are growing up in rural and regional areas and getting to that state-level competition, or financial support to get to the national competitions which, without support, can often be a real barrier for them to pursuing their dreams.

Sport plays a fundamental role in Australia's life. We have obligations under UNESCO's International Convention against Doping in Sport to abide by the principles of the World Anti-Doping Code. To that end, the Wood review recommended a range of enhancements to the capabilities of ASADA, and our government is committed to delivering on those recommendations. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Enhancing Australia's Anti-Doping Capability) Bill will assist in combatting the complex and evolving nature of doping in sport. I'm very proud to be part of a government that takes these matters seriously, because sport is powerful. We want people to be participating in it safely so that we can all be rightfully proud of Australian athletes on the international stage and be comforted that the juniors who are making their way through the ranks on their way to that elite level, are equally protected from undue influence from organised crime and other negative influences.

Our response will protect our cherished Australian sports for generations to come, and it will have a lasting effect on the lives of all sport-loving Australians. I'm sure that those sitting opposite share that aspiration for safe, fair, inclusive sport underpinning thriving communities. It was a pleasure to work with the opposition whilst I was the sports minister, in evolving our integrity arrangements. I know that Senator Farrell, as the shadow minister, has enjoyed equally productive conversations with the current sports minister.

This bill will help safeguard Australian sport and combat current, emerging and future threats of doping, match fixing, illegal betting, organised crime and corruption. Parents and guardians of junior athletes will know their children are protected from sport integrity threats and they can be confident that the sports in which they participate are clean, safe and fair. I would like to think there's a lot of bipartisan goodwill around to make sure that that aspiration is achieved, and I've been very buoyed by the contributions thus far. I support the bill.