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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-30 Daily Xml
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INTEGRITY IN SPORT

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Recreation and Sport. What is the government doing to protect the integrity of sport in South Australia, especially at the sub-elite level?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:52): I thank the member for Colton for the question. In February this year, the Australian Crime Commission released a report that identified widespread use of peptides in certain clubs at the elite level in the NRL and AFL. In the AFL's instance, it was mainly at one club and plenty has happened this year, and we know what happened there. What the AFL has done—and I sat down with them earlier in the year—is employ an integrity officer, and it has an integrity team.

Many of the AFL clubs have also now put integrity officers on their staff. The first club to do that was the West Coast Eagles, and they employed a former police officer who travels everywhere with the team. They said that one of the problems you can have is with a sponsor who might have a legitimate business at the front but an illegitimate business at the back peddling drugs and doing other things who wants to associate themselves closely with the club.

It has worked very well at West Coast and with the clubs here in Adelaide. Port Adelaide in particular has now assigned the role of integrity officer to one of its staff members to keep an eye on people. When the West Coast team is at the airport, for example, mixing with people who might come up and try and influence these players and befriend them, they have an integrity officer keeping an eye on things like that.

One thing that was highlighted was that at the sub-elite level—so before players get through to the NRL or the AFL, the top level of sport in Australia—there is also a danger that people could be approached by bad influences such as people who might want to get players involved in drugs or gambling and other things.

South Australia is the first state in Australia to appoint two integrity officers to work with the sub-elite groups such as SANFL and other levels of sport: to educate players and officials about the integrity and governance issues; to help clubs with probity checking processes; to assist with risk assessments; to advise on investigations; and to help develop the codes of conduct around match fixing and sports betting.

Our government recognises the dangers that are there, and the Executive Director of the Office for Recreation and Sport, Paul Anderson, is chairing the national working group of officials looking into matters of integrity and advising on strategies to protect sport and athletes at that sub-elite level.

South Australia has done pretty well in this space. The government has been proactive in implementing legislation to protect the integrity of sport. Earlier this year, thanks to the Attorney-General, the gambling reform bill was passed, which means people involved in match fixing face a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment. I am proud South Australia is taking the lead nationally in this area. Sport plays an important role in the community. Confidence in the integrity of sport must be maintained to ensure players, clubs, spectators and everyone involved with sport can continue to enjoy the enormous benefits it brings to our society.

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