Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026
Ms BELL (Moncrieff) (12:33): I want to start by talking about sport, the inspiration that is sport and what it can do for young lives. I was inspired, as the federal member for Moncrieff, just a few weeks ago when I attended the Benowa State School, where there was a boccia tournament for three primary schools across my electorate. Benowa, Ashmore and Surfers Paradise came together for a boccia tournament for students living with disability.
I can tell you there was hope in their eyes—and in their parents' eyes—when they got to actually participate in something greater than themselves and think about what it would be like to perhaps be a Paralympian at the 2032 Paralympics. There was light in Xavier's eyes and in Florence's eyes when I spoke to them and they told me about the enjoyment they got from participating in sport.
That's what it does. It inspires a nation, and it inspires our youngest athletes and would-be Paralympians and Olympians alike. Last week in the parliament, I met with young athletes preparing to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games—a moment they've trained years and years for.
They have spent their whole lives training every spare hour, quietly chasing the dream of one day pulling on the green and gold on the world stage. I think of the children right across Australia who are currently lacing up their boots, stringing racquets and stepping onto ovals for the first time, not knowing it yet but beginning a journey that could one day lead them to a World Cup or indeed an Olympic Games perhaps in 2032.
The Team Australia uniform means so much more than a piece of clothing. In the lead-up to major events like the Commonwealth Games, a World Cup or the Olympic and Paralympic Games, thousands of young Australians are being inspired to dream bigger because they can see a pathway in front of them. I think of the pride in the eyes of families when a child puts on an Australian jersey for the first time.
It is a symbol of years of hard work, sacrifice and inspiration. I think about the excitement that builds every time the Socceroos take the field, when children across the country pull on jerseys, wave scarves and believe that maybe one day that could be them. The legislation that we have before us amends the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014.
The act protects the commercial rights associated with major sporting events in Australia. It protects against unauthorised reproduction of indicia and images. It essentially protects against fake merchandising.
The act already does this. The protections already exist. The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026 amends the act by changing the process by which a major sporting event will be recognised, and it does so by proposing that events are recognised by a delegated instrument, moving power from the parliament, from primary legislation, and giving it to the executive, to the minister, into delegated legislation.
It's important to note that the laws that provide protection of indicia and images essentially remain unchanged in the proposed new arrangements. What's actually changing is whether sporting events will be recognised by a change to the primary legislation, as has been the case since 2014, or by a disallowable instrument. The government claims this bill modernises legislation to recognise a future major sporting event by a disallowable legislative instrument and makes the process more efficient.
Although the proposed changes to legislation may create efficiencies, they do so by trading off transparency so that members of parliament only see those decisions once they are law. We only see the words afterwards once the disallowable instrument has been introduced. The debate on this bill is not about whether or not indicia or images should be protected, because that already occurs, and we all agree that, of course, they should be protected.
The debate on this bill is actually based on the philosophy of legislating. A key theme of legislating is that all laws should be placed in primary legislation, unless it's critical to do otherwise. The government has not made an argument here as to why it's critical to change the legislation process.
However, I wish to thank the minister for the departmental briefing, where I was informed that this legislation change has been initiated by the minister. It has come from the minister, not stakeholders, and there's no time imperative on this change. We've got plenty of time in the run up to major events.
It is important to note that there is sufficient lead time for a major sporting event of international significance to be recognised and protected under the current legislation. This is because there are often long lead times from the announcement of an international sporting event—think about Brisbane 2032—to when they are played. Examples of major sporting events that have been legislated under this act previously are the International Cricket Committee T20 World Cup 2020, which was recognised by this act by a legislation amendment in 2019; the International Cricket Committee Men's T20 World Cup 2022, which was recognised by this act by a legislation amendment in 2019; and the Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023, which was recognised by this act via legislation amendment in 2019.
This is already happening. Examples of future major sporting events to be recognised by this act include the 2027 Men's Rugby World Cup, the 2028 cricket world cup and, as I've mentioned, the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games, which we are so excited to host in South-East Queensland. Whilst we're on the topic of sport, which this bill is about, one needs to be wary of this minister and the government in terms of how they say one thing and appear to support the sport industry and then do something quite different.
The Albanese government has a track record of a lack of support for our sports stars, leaving them in the lurch. In February 2026, Labor left 2,000 athletes in the dark with an imminent funding cliff. Labor left around 2,000 Australian athletes without certainty about their scholarships and funding with just weeks until the lion's share of national sporting organisations' funding expires on 30 June 2026, which happens to be today.
In Senate estimates, the Australian Sports Commission's CEO, Kieren Perkins—a gold medallist—confirmed that 'circa 2,000 athletes' currently receive direct athlete support and have no certainty their scholarships will continue beyond 30 June 2026. He also confirmed that NSOs likely won't know the outcome until the federal budget in the first week of May, leaving just six to seven weeks before the funding runs out.
These athletes are being asked to make major career and education decisions with no idea whether their support will continue, and that's simply unacceptable, particularly with Brisbane 2032 on the horizon. Government officials also confirm approximately 60 per cent of cash grants to NSOs come from terminating budget measures, meaning the majority of high-performance funding for Australia's 46 high-performance programs has no certainty beyond 30 June 2026.
The United States and China, our competitors, both operate on multiyear funding cycles, giving their athletes and coaches genuine long-term certainty. Yet Australia, as the host nation for 2032, cannot currently guarantee funding beyond the next few months. That's not a runway; it's a cliff.
While the Albanese government has talked up its major sporting events legacy framework as a centrepiece for its sports policy, the coalition has exposed it for what it really is: a policy document with no dedicated funding pool and no grant guidelines. When pressed on the total budget allocation for the framework in 2025-26, government officials confirm there is none.
Instead, approximately $130 million has been handed out on a case-by-case basis with no transparent criteria and no competitive process. What we have is a minister with a chequebook and no rule book. There are no grant guidelines, no published criteria, no competitive processes—just whatever the minister decides.
That is not a framework; that is a slush fund. Meanwhile, the very NSO expected to deliver on Australia's ambitions for Brisbane 2032 can't get certainty on their core operating funding six weeks out from expiry. That tells you everything about this government's sports policy priorities.
Then, if that wasn't enough, we heard in the recent budget estimates in May this year that Labor cuts put grassroots sport at risk. The Albanese Labor government has dealt a $182 million blow to grassroots sport. Australian Sports Commission CEO and Olympian Kieren Perkins revealed during Senate estimates that the government ignored advice to provide ongoing funding for a group of key sporting programs.
Programs facing uncertainty beyond the next 12 months include Sporting Schools, Play Well, Local Para Champions and Local Sporting Champions. Mr Perkins said: The participation-based funding programs received a one year terminating measure status for the 26-27 budget year. Mr Perkins warned that the Sporting Schools program alone would see 'close to two million children' participate in free after-school sport this year and that ending the program 'would have an impact on the number of children getting the opportunity to play free sport after school'.
He said that this lack of long-term funding certainty 'would limit those organisations' capacity to provide participation based growth programs within their sporting environments'. But, despite these warnings, the Albanese Labor government stripped ongoing funding for these programs, slashing the sporting grants budget from $331 million in 2025-26 to $151 million in 2029-30, a reduction of a massive $182 million.
Labor is more interested in their bottom line than supporting grassroots sport and the communities—like the communities of everybody in this place—who rely on it. At a time when families are tightening their belts, affordable community sport has never been more important. Families are choosing whether their kids are able to play sport or not at this time while they're having to pay their huge mortgage bills, their huge electricity bills and all of the other bills, like the groceries and the insurance.
These programs help millions of Australians stay active, connected and involved in sport, and cutting support for community, school and disability sport programs will hit families and local clubs hard. Instead of backing grassroots sport, Labor is creating more uncertainty for the organisations delivering these vital programs. With the 2032 Olympics fast approaching, the government should be backing the programs that help develop our future Olympians and Paralympians, not putting them at risk.
With a government minister who's more focused on justifying using taxpayer dollars to go to a mate's birthday party on a Saturday night in Adelaide and calling it a work meeting, it's only right that we question the transparency of bills that the same minister puts forward. For those birthday party events that the minister tried to justify as a legit use of taxpayer dollars, an independent inquiry found the minister was in breach of the rules.
It ordered the minister to pay back the money and issued a fine. Back to the bill in front of us, this is a bill that changes a process, to give more power to a minister—the same minister who had to pay back the debt—and a bill that nobody has asked for. The government has not justified the need for a change in process.
The coalition indeed supports the protection of indicia and images for major sporting events. This bill aims to change the legislative process by which an international event is recognised to receive these protections. The government has not made a clear case as to why the parliament should lose transparency and concentrate powers into the executive and into the minister of the day.
I note that the scrutiny of bills committee will convene tomorrow to consider this bill, and I look forward to their assessment of it. At the end of the day, this is about more than legislation. This is about protecting the integrity of events that inspire Australian children—in fact, children all over the world—to the dream of becoming tomorrow's Olympians, Paralympians and world champions.
When the Socceroos represent Australia, they carry with them not just a team but millions of young Australians who see a version of themselves in that green-and-gold jersey. The scarves, jerseys and merchandise worn in schoolyards and living rooms across the country are not just products; they are symbols—symbols of aspiration, of belonging and of national pride for Australia.
Every major sporting event we protect is another spark for a young Australian to decide that sport could be their future, and that matters more than any administrative convenience. As we look to events like the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we should be strengthening the connection between young Australians and the dream of representing their country, not weakening it.
While this debate is about process and legislative structure, its impacts will be felt far beyond this chamber—in every backyard, on every school oval and by every child who dares to dream of one day wearing the green and gold. Debate adjourned.