Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (17:12): It actually is very good to follow on from the member for Leichhardt, who might have been a little bit humble there, because not only was he a very, very good basketballer in the National Basketball League, which is the top competition for clubs in Australia but, indeed, he played a lot of regional basketball at a very high level, including in Albury-Wodonga, near my electorate.

It's good that top-line players can get out into the country and show their wares too. I commend him for his basketball career. I well recall from when I was a basketball writer a very good basketballer by the name of Greg Hubbard.

The member opposite would remember, having been a Wollongong Hawks player, Greg Hubbard's exploits not only with the Wollongong team but also as a national player. Mr Matt Smith interjecting— Mr McCORMACK: Indeed! I always do my research.

I've also got a very good memory for sport. It's one of my favourite pastimes. But I was a sportswriter.

My very first job, in fact, was as the ground announcer at Eric Weissel Oval, the rugby league oval in Wagga Wagga. As a 16-year-old, I would, with a booming voice, kick the kids off the ground at half-time. Most of the kids I was kicking off the ground and preventing from stealing the corner posts I was actually younger than.

But, anyway, I digress. I'll move on. I'm supposed to be talking about the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026.

The member for Leichhardt is right when he says that sport galvanises Australia like nothing else. It truly does. At the moment we're all cheering on the Socceroos.

This legislation is important because it will protect the logos and images used in future sporting competitions. It was interesting to attend the Wagga Tigers Football and Netball Club two Saturdays ago when they had their ladies day. Interestingly, Narrandera Sportsground had its ladies day on Saturday last.

A number of women attended, some of them very frocked up. Some dressed up with interesting pink hair for the special occasion and others just came as they normally would to the football. But having followed my youngest son Nicholas, who played for Inner West Magpies for a number of years in the Sydney Premier Division, the difference in the crowds that suburban competitions attract and country leagues attract is chalk and cheese.

It was interesting that Joe Heaney, who organised the Wagga Tigers ladies day, actually said at the end of the day when she was thanking people for coming along, 'This is what country communities are all about,' because there was camaraderie. Both teams, Turvey Park and Wagga Tigers, went back into the clubrooms at the end of the game, mixing with one another, mingling, and there were hundreds of people there.

I can well recall going to a game between inner West Magpies and Manly-Warringah in the Sydney AFL, where there were three supporters at the ground—myself and two from Manly. Not rubbishing the competition—the standard of football is probably second to none—but it just doesn't have the support because, these days in the big cities, if people are going to go to the football, they go to the big competitions.

They'll go and watch the Sydney Swans or the Greater Western Sydney Giants play. But out in the country, it's not uncommon to have a football oval, be it Australian Rules or Rugby League or indeed rugby or soccer, ringed with cars not once, not twice but three times. Deputy Speaker Aldred, just yesterday you spoke about the funding that the Sandy Creek ground received, and rightly so.

I remember many times as a teenage football reporter going to Sandy Creek for the Tallangatta and District Football League grand finals. Wasn't that a day when the Mountaineers came down to cheer on Kiewa-Sandy Creek against whoever they were playing in the Tallangatta league—great memories, great days. Sport is important.

It's important that we protect sport. It's also important that major sports are protected. These days, given the amount of AI, the amount of technology, the number of nefarious activities that do happen on a commercial basis, it's important that we protect sport, sporting competitions and clubs at an elite level from illegal knock-offs and from misuse on trademarks, logos and the like, because it does happen.

The companies doing it know they're doing it. I don't think there was a lot of consultation. There could be an argument that the bill does reduce legislative transparency and concentrates powers to the executive because members of parliament will only see decisions about proposed changes to legislation and inefficiencies et cetera once they are in law.

But look, the legislation change has been initiated from the minister, not stakeholders, and there's no time imperative on this change. But that said, as the member for Leichhardt quite correctly pointed out, these sorts of amendments, this sort of legislation, are there for a purpose. Sometimes it would be nice if the government did a little bit more consultation, and I say that with all due deference.

I appreciate we've got a lot of sport going on at the moment too with the FIFA World Cup. This also will protect important major sporting events such as the International Cricket Council's T20 World Cup in the future world cup. I appreciate that it has protected previous world cups in cricket, the Twenty20 series.

The 2027 Rugby World Cup is coming along. I know the member for Leichhardt mentioned the 'world game'. The Rugby World Cup is a massive event.

I appreciate that he mentioned his fiance and the All Blacks. What a powerful organisation that team is. I say 'organisation' because it's almost an industry rather than a sport.

We've also got a lot of Twenty20 cricket being played at an international level in the 2028 season. We've always got touring teams coming to Australia. Most importantly, perhaps, are the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics.

I shouldn't say Brisbane, because it's going to be far wider than just Brisbane. Whilst I appreciate that the Queensland capital is going to enjoy the benefits of hosting most of the big events, I'm particularly pleased that regional Queensland is going to be hosting some of those events, including, as I understand, rowing at Rockhampton. That always runs off the tongue in a very nice way.

I appreciate the efforts of the current Leader of the Nationals. I say 'current' because he had a lot to do with it when he wasn't the leader, but he is the leader now. There's nothing going on with the Nationals that anybody needs to chip me about.

The member for Capricornia also had a lot to do with getting those rowing events and making sure that regional Queensland had a part to play in what is going to be something that will unite the whole nation. We will all get behind our Olympians and our Paralympians. It was also great to have Scott Reardon and his wonderful wife in Temora recently.

They are both gold medallists in the Paralympics. Their speech to the young crowd was just outstanding. The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act came about in 2014.

There have been a few amendments along the way, with World Cup events in cricket and the Women's World Cup. The legislation protects indicia and images to ensure that there aren't illegal activities. However, I would just caution you.

I know that, as a former newspaper editor, country newspapers often picked up logos and ran them on the scores to differentiate them from the rest of the regional scores. Whether or not there are going to be any regional newspapers left by the time 2032 comes around, I'm not quite sure, given the way they're, unfortunately, going. The printed editions are not faring that well.

I know there was a bit of pushback to use the Commonwealth logo when I was the editor of the paper at Wagga Wagga. At the time, there was no legislation protecting such usage in the Commonwealth. It was one of those things where the actual logo of the rings was considered to be the Olympics.

There was some interesting legal activity and letters written in relation to that. I think we have to be a little bit sensible about what the law comes down heavily on and what it doesn't. The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026 before the House relates to the process by which a major sporting event will be recognised via a delegated instrument, moving power from the parliament—and this is the point I was making before—from primary legislation to the executive, into delegated legislation.

I hope this won't take power away from the Minister for Sport. I stand corrected on that. We don't want to see any more usurping of power from ministerial control to the bureaucracy down the hill.

I appreciate there are a number of people sitting behind Labor members. I'm not quite sure whether they're the people from down the hill I've just mentioned. I haven't besmirched you.

But I do have a long-held belief that ministers are ministers for a reason. It's because they have delegated power. They have appropriate power.

At the end of the day, they are the ones who will ultimately wear the criticism or otherwise of decisions made. It's not the bureaucrats. It's not the Public Service.

I've got a high regard for the Public Service. The member for Sturt will have heard me say many times that I do think there is a concern that we are giving up too many powers to people who are not elected officials. That does not sit entirely well with me.

The Albanese government claims that this bill modernises legislation to recognise a future major sporting event via a disallowable legislative instrument, making the process more efficient. I hope that piece is correct and right because I realise that, currently, to recognise a major sporting event, an amendment is required to primary legislation. We have a motion before the House to ensure that logos and trademarks and sporting events are protected.

Let's not be overly bureaucratic about this. Whilst I realise that we can't have clothing companies and major media organisations pinching logos and the like to use commercially to make money out of, there has to be some common sense at the appropriate level. There is sufficient lead time for a major sporting event of international significance—that is, world cups and the like, major test matches et cetera—to be recognised and protected under the current legislation.

Whilst I get that there are long lead times for international sporting events a la the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics and while I realise also that stakeholders are not calling for this change, the government has seen fit and the government feels the need that this is important and that it needs to happen now, and, indeed, I don't believe that the coalition will be standing in the way to seeing a blocking of this particular bill.