House debates

Thursday, 10 December 2020

Bills

Sport Integrity Australia Amendment (World Anti-Doping Code Review) Bill 2020; Second Reading

12:28 pm

Photo of Katie AllenKatie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Twenty years ago all of Australia stopped to watch Cathy Freeman win gold for Australia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The new kid on the block was Ian Thorpe, a 16-year-old who smashed records in the pool. Susie O'Neill, Grant Hackett, Leisel Jones and Michael Klim became household names. The Sydney Olympics signalled the start of a new millennium. Australia was united as we cheered our athletes on and showcased the Australian spirit to the world. If the world didn't know where Down Under was, they sure did by the end of the Olympics.

Australians pride ourselves on honesty, integrity and a fair go, on and off the field. We don't suffer fools lightly and we won't tolerate cheating. We do not tolerate it among ourselves and we will not tolerate it in others. Earlier this year Australian swimmer Mack Horton reignited his feud with Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, who has previously been suspended from competitive swimming due to doping charges. In front of the entire swimming fraternity, Mack refused to share a podium with the swimmer, making a stance about the need to ensure a clean playing field. The public support for Mack was overwhelmingly positive. Our athletes have to work hard—and their families, too. It's early mornings at the pool, it's long afternoons at the football oval, it's driving all over the state and country for competitions and meets. To have all that hard work devalued because of the actions of individuals who don't hold the same values is deeply upsetting. On home soil, the never-ending saga of the Essendon Football Club rocked the sporting world and dominated the news for years. The system was let down, as were other players, fans and supporters.

In Australia we have a reputation to uphold on the global stage, and that is why bills like the Sport Integrity Australia Amendment (World Anti-Doping Code Review) Bill 2020 are so important. It ensures we are in line with the rest of the world, and in some cases leading the world, in having a united antidoping approach.

This bill amends the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020 to reflect the 2021 code and ensures that Australia continues to meet its obligations under the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport. UNESCO recognises that doping jeopardises the values, ethics and integrity in sport, and the health of those involved in it.

The World Anti-Doping Code is a core document that harmonises antidoping policies, rules and regulations within sport organisations and among public health authorities around the world. The code is reviewed every six years to ensure it continues to be relevant and up to date. It's a document that accounts for the latest in doping technology and practices. These continue to change as science informs better management and measurement.

The revised World Anti-Doping Code is due to commence on 1 January 2021 after an extensive review undertaken by WADA—or the World Anti-Doping Agency—from December 2017 through to November 2019. This bill will allow Australia to sign up to the code and, in return, enact the code within our sporting bodies and ensure our own agencies, like ASADA, are working within the code and are consistent with the principles of the world antidoping convention and what is happening around the world.

By aligning our own practices to the UN and the rest of the world, we are working to create a level playing field for domestic, international, professional and amateur sport, and to end the scourge of performance-enhancing substances and methods. Australia has always participated in its global health obligations and involved itself in the decisions made by global agencies. We have an important role to play as a middle-order country that punches above its weight with regard to great integrity, and the world antidoping convention is no different.

Australia has participated in the review and provided feedback and comments throughout the review process to ensure we were active in the decision-making process. The Australian government consulted with several stakeholders, including national sporting organisations, Sport Australia, the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee—and a big shout-out to one of my colleagues from Monash University, Sue White, who's on that committee—and local antidoping experts throughout the code review process. Given Australia's consistent views against doping and our inherent approach to demanding a fair go and integrity, I'm sure the convention is better for having our participation and expertise. Our medical researchers and health practitioners are well regarded around the world. The revised code was approved by the WADA Foundation Board at its meeting on 6 November 2019 at the Fifth World Conference on Doping in Sport in Poland.

This bill will also widen the net and extend the National Anti-Doping scheme to include other people under the code. Previous to the review, only the athlete and support person, such as a coach, were subject to the code. Under the new guidelines, sporting administration bodies like the Australian Olympic Committee can determine who it would like to subjects to its antidoping policy. It's anticipated that a sporting administration body's executive and senior management would be subject to this bill as well as specified employees.

By widening the net to include not just the athlete and the coach, the code will seek to discourage doping facilitation such as trafficking or administration of a prohibited substance or method. It will also aid in the reporting of an antidoping rule violation or tampering with the doping control processes. This latest review also works to close a loophole that will strengthen the definition of when you are formally defined as an athlete with regard to this bill.

In addition to required code amendments, the bill amends the Sport Integrity Australia Act to amend the definition of athlete to continue to capture a person for six months after the last time they competed. This will work to stop the practice of athletes competing then retiring for six months. During this time they could theoretically be able to engage in doping and other performance enhancing measures. They could then stop doping and return the sport having benefited from the performance enhancers that are tested once enrolled back in competitive sport. They would not display any positive result.

This bill makes sure those who remain in organised sport under a gruelling training regime are not disadvantaged by those who leave the sport and then come back simply so they can avoid detection for doping. This bill is not to arbitrarily go after athletes who have genuinely retired.

Signing up and participating in these types of agreements strengthens our global health diplomacy. It adds validity and integrity to our sporting culture. It means other countries want us to compete in their competitions because they know we run a good clean fight, even if we are, on occasion, beaten. It means that we can continue to hold our heads up high at international events and that Australians are respected in their chosen sports. I commend this bill to the chamber. I think it speaks a lot to the sort of people we are as a country.

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