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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-21 Daily Xml
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ORGANISED CRIME IN SPORT

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:56): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have a question for the Minister for Sport. Can the minister inform the house about concerns regarding the release of the Australian Crime Commission report into drugs and crime in sport?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:56): Last Thursday, I attended a confidential briefing with the Australian Crime Commission in Melbourne. Other ministers from the states and territories were there with the federal—

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order, sir. The minister has just told the house he attended a confidential briefing, and I am just wondering whether it is in order that he advise the house of what was discussed in a confidential briefing.

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Sport will be seated. That is of course not a point of order, so I call the member for Davenport to order for obstructing the business of the house. Of course, it is a point he may wish to make in debate, during grievances or to the media. It is not a point you make disguising it as a point of order. The Minister for Sport.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: It is a very serious matter, and I find it unbelievable that the opposition want to make jokes about this. I was asked whether I had concerns about—

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order, Mr Speaker: standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for Davenport for the first time for another obstructive point of order. It would be a pity if the first person to leave under the sessional order of 29 February last year would be someone who made three frivolous or vexatious points of order. The Minister for Sport.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Thank you again, Mr Speaker. I was asked whether I had concerns about the release of the information by the Australian Crime Commission, and I do have concerns about that. We were given the briefing and the crime commissioner said that it was his decision to release the information about allegations of match fixing, organised crime and drugs in sport, and it was his timing of what was released and how much would be released.

I have a real concern that what this has done is damage a lot of innocent sporting people and a lot of innocent clubs. I would like to reassure followers of clubs and athletes in South Australia that they should stick with their teams, whether they are sponsors or supporters, until they hear otherwise, because the Australian Crime Commission passed the responsibility to release any information over to the AFL and the NRL where it concerns those two codes.

These investigations could go on for months, and the AFL is not in a position to come out and say who has been accused and who has not been accused. We have 850 AFL players and 18 clubs, and some have been accused of doing the wrong thing, but the very great majority have done nothing wrong and have been accused of doing nothing wrong.

There are clubs here in South Australia who have sponsorships hanging in the balance with sponsors unwilling to sign until this is all cleared up. I would urge them, in light of this dragging on for several months, and perhaps until the end of the season, to get behind our football clubs, and for supporters to get behind their club. Until there is evidence put forward that anyone has done anything wrong, we should all support the innocent athletes out there who have been tarnished by these allegations that are so general in nature.

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