Two bills were introduced to Federal Parliament in February which would result in drastic changes to sports integrity regulation in Australia. The bills seek to implement the Government’s response to the Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements (the Wood Review); the most comprehensive examination of sports integrity arrangements ever undertaken in Australia.
The first bill, the National Sports Tribunal Bill 2019, will establish the National Sports Tribunal, with an Anti-Doping Division, a General Division and an Appeals Division. If passed into law, the Tribunal will provide a forum for the determination of disputes through private arbitration, or through mediation, conciliation or case appraisal, and will not involve the exercise of judicial power. Details can be found here.
The second bill, the Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority Amendment (Enhancing Australia’s Anti-doping Capability) Bill 2019proposes to make changes to the ASADA Act to strengthen and streamline the anti-doping rule violation process and facilitate better information-sharing between ASADA and National Sporting Organisations. In the second reading speech, it was said that the bill aims to “enhance ASADA's ability to combat the mounting sophisticated doping threats”. Details can be found here.
The legislative reform comes as the Federal Government has announced the establishment of a new body, Sports Integrity Australia, which would act as a “one-stop shop” for all sports integrity issues. Sports Integrity Australia will ultimately will bring together ASADA, the National Integrity of Sport Unit and national sports integrity functions of Sport Australia. In implementing the Wood Review, the government also announced it had become the first non-European nation to sign the Macolin Convention, a Council of Europe convention allowing for information-sharing between international sporting agencies to combat match-fixing issues.