Criminal Code Amendment (National Sport Integrity Offences) Bill 2026

Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (12:45): I rise today to speak in support of the Criminal Code Amendment (National Sport Integrity Offences) Bill 2026. In 2017, the Hon. James Wood AO QC conducted a review into the integrity of Australian sport as part of the then National Sport Plan.

The review was not conducted because there was a lack of integrity in Australian sport; it was conducted to examine the measures that were in place to make sure that they were effective and to make sure that they were sustainable. The Wood review examined the then current national and international sports integrity threat environment and foreseeable future challenges.

It looked at the adequacy of Australia's sports integrity capability against this environment, with particular attention going to the capability of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and Australia's sports sector to address contemporary doping threats, including the antidoping rule violation process, opportunities for improvement and the effectiveness of the National Policy on Match-Fixing in Sport, including a consideration of the merits of becoming a signatory to the Macolin convention.

It also examined the merits of establishing a formal national platform for effective ongoing detection of and response to betting-related sports corruption and the merits of establishing a national sports integrity tribunal as a single independent body to hear antidoping rule violations and other sports integrity matters. The Wood review resulted in 52 recommendations, all designed to help safeguard the integrity of Australian sport and combat the present, emerging and future threats from doping, match fixing, illegal betting, organised crime and corruption.

The review also acknowledged the increasing commercialisation of sport, the rapid growth in sports wagering, and the frequent revelations of doping scandals and ongoing manipulation in sports competition. Recommendation 1 from the review was that Australia become a party to the Council of European Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, or the Macolin convention.

This would allow the enactment of national match-fixing criminal legislation, supporting an effective global response to international sports integrity matters, acknowledging the transnational nature of match fixing and related corruption in sport and recognising the global quality of threats to the integrity of Australian based competitions. Entry into the Macolin convention represents a vital step in protecting athletes, officials and fans across all sporting codes by keeping criminal elements out of Australian sport.

With Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and with the exponential growth of women's sport, which is only going to continue, it's a critical time for Australia to affirm that integrity in sport is a national imperative. I'm a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and, as part of my duties on that committee, I worked with my fellow committee colleagues to conduct an inquiry into the Macolin convention.

Australia signed it in 2019, the first country outside of Europe to do so. Ratification of the convention will complete the government's commitment to that first recommendation of the Wood review. There are two main purposes of the convention: firstly, to prevent, detect and sanction national or transnational manipulation of sports competitions and, secondly, to promote national and international cooperation against manipulation of sport.

Ratification does a number of important things. It permits the government to set up harmonised and nationally consistent criminal legislation to prevent corruption in sport and then to prosecute it if and when it happens. Match fixing in particular happens at many levels of sport and often involves cross-jurisdiction actors, meaning effective ratification is a significant step forward in seeking to stamp this out.

The Macolin Convention is the only international agreement that directly seeks to stop the manipulation of sports competitions. It requests governments to work with sports organisations, betting companies and event organisers to prevent, detect and punish sports manipulation. It also sets out a shared legal framework that helps countries cooperate more effectively against a problem that increasingly is crossing borders.

Although Australia has a strong sports integrity protection reputation, no single organisation in this country can manage the risk posed by the international nature of sport. By joining the convention, Australia will gain access to expert networks that are preparing and engaging with monitoring systems. Australia will also be able to collaborate with other convention members on issues such as illegal sports betting, emerging sports that attract wagering but lack clear governance structures and the use of cryptocurrency to conceal corrupt activity.

To meet the requirements of the Macolin Convention, Australia needed to update the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 to create new national sport integrity offences that complement existing state, territory and other Commonwealth laws. This bill does this by introducing a comprehensive suite of reforms that will operate to protect Australian sport. And it also does this by introducing significant penalties for the new offences, including penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for individuals who engage in conduct that corrupts a sporting event.

This is entirely appropriate because, given the amount of money—prize money, sponsorship money, community sports club investment, personal investments and taxpayer funded grants and programs—the harm that can be caused by match fixing is significant. The bill identifies seven types of conduct that are prohibited. Firstly, it's prohibited to engage in conduct that would or would be likely to affect the outcome of a sporting event with the intention of obtaining a benefit for or avoiding or causing detriment that would not otherwise be due because of participation in that sporting event.

It also prohibits providing a benefit to another person that would tend to influence them to engage in conduct that corrupts a sporting event. The bill also bans a person asking for, receiving or obtaining or agreeing to receive or obtain a benefit that would tend to influence a person to engage in conduct that corrupts a sporting event. Then, from an information perspective, the bill outlaws the alteration, destruction or concealment of information about corruption of sporting event, where that alteration, destruction or concealment of information would facilitate, conceal or disguise the obtaining of a benefit.

It also prohibits the improper use or communication of information about conduct that corrupts a sporting event and the possession of information about conduct that corrupts a sporting event. The improper use or communication of inside information is also prohibited. The general principles of criminal responsibility, as outlined in chapter 2 of the Criminal Code, will apply to these new sport integrity offences, which are formulated to apply nationally within Australia as well as outside of Australia in certain circumstances, which is consistent with recommendation 3 of the Wood review.

So that Commonwealth criminal offences be formulated such that offence provisions have transnational application, match fixing offences are linked to wagering outcomes, irrespective of whether the said wager would have otherwise been lawful, and provisions include offences for the use of the inside information. Offence provisions, including for sentencing, are calibrated such as to enliven the possibility of utilising telecommunication intercept powers, and offence provisions are calibrated such to ensure that any applicable time limit for the start of proceedings will not interfere with reasonably conducted investigations of the type anticipated.

These prohibitions respond to a number of growing threats to the integrity of sport in this country. The first is offshore illegal gambling. During the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties inquiry, the committee heard that Australia's illegal offshore gambling market has more than doubled since 2019.

It's now worth $3.9 billion a year and makes up around 36 per cent of total online gambling. Illegal gambling organisations are very often based in offshore jurisdictions and are therefore not subject to Australia's gambling laws and regulations. That means they can allow huge incentives, revenue-sharing agreements and other rewards that are prohibited in Australia.

Other evidence given during the inquiry was that, in an absolute appalling action, illegal offshore providers were targeting Australians who had signed up to the self-exclusion register BetStop. So these new offences and their transnational application recognise that sport integrity threats from manipulation of sporting competitions are increasingly international, reflecting the global nature of sport.

Offences with extraterritorial reach are therefore necessary to respond to these transnational threats that match fixing and related behaviours pose to the integrity of Australian sport and, indeed, to the Australian people. Match fixing has a long history. In preparing my remarks for today, I did some research on historical match-fixing scandals and I, sadly, had my assumptions reaffirmed that match fixing has been prevalent for centuries across many sports.

We had a 1980 Italian football scandal in which teams were suspected of rigging games through the selection of certain referees. Even earlier, there was apparently a scandal in 1910 involving the Carlton Football Club in the then Victorian Football League. I also learned that baseballers in the USA were throwing matches as far back as 1865 for the princely sum of $30.

We all remember, with disappointment and frustration, the Hansie Cronje cricket scandal at the turn of the century that ultimately ruined his career. Match fixing is stupid and pointless and it wrecks sport. I don't want to pay to watch sport or even watch it for free if the outcome is predetermined.

There's no point. Part of the appeal of sport is its unpredictability. The conditions on the day, the form of the team, what's on the line, the upsets, the one-pointers and the extraordinary and unexpected feats of athleticism is what you go to watch sport for.

So this bill and the significant steps it takes in complement with the ratification of the Macolin treaty is about a fair sports sector, free from corruption, underpinned by safety and credibility and also underpinned by a drive to ensure that all stakeholders, be they the players, officials, umpires, spectators or, particularly, the kids who watch their sporting idols, are participating in sport in an environment that is not predictable, not predetermined and wholly based on the capability and merit available on the day.

I commend the bill to the House.