Submission in response to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019

The Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee has called for written submissions on amendments to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Act 2006 under the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Amendment (Sport Integrity Australia) Bill 2019 (the Bill). A key recommendation from the Report of the Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements (Wood Review) is the establishment of a National Sport Integrity Commission to act as a central agency to undertake the functions necessary to support proposed reforms in responding to threats to sports integrity in Australia.

The Bill sets out provisions regarding the establishment and functions of the Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) as the relevant enforcement body. SIA will nationally coordinate all elements of the sports integrity threat response including prevention, monitoring and detection, investigation and enforcement.

This submission examines the role of government as a state actor engaged in regulating to prevent and respond to sports integrity threats in Australia. As such, the Bill is one of the legal regulatory mechanism deployed by the Australian Commonwealth Government (ACG) as the state actor exercising legislative power to achieve the purpose and objectives outlined in the Government’s response to the Wood Review. The overall purpose of the Bill and the establishment of the SIA is to ‘coordinate a national approach to matters relating to sports integrity in Australia, including preventing and addressing threats to sports integrity’.

This submission identifies the following areas for further consideration, namely:

1. that the constitutional basis of the Bill be reviewed to determine whether the exercise of the external affairs power under the Commonwealth Constitution provides the legal authority to support the Bill in the absence of a specific ‘sports integrity’ treaty or convention covering other threats to sports integrity (excluding the existing anti-doping and financial corruption treaty framework)
2. subject to establishing this constitutional basis, the definition of ‘sports integrity’ in the Bill be reviewed to consider recent scholarship suggesting a broader approach incorporating a multitude of perspectives and elements beyond the inherent integrity of sport
3. subject to establishing this constitutional basis, the definition of ‘threats to sports integrity’ be expanded
4. that clarification be provided regarding the nature and extent of the CEO’s power under the new section 75 regarding the request for information or documents.