Sport Legislation Amendment (World Anti-Doping Code Implementation) Bill 2026
Ms WELLS (Lilley—Minister for Sport and Minister for Communications) (09:37): I move: That this bill be now read a second time. We are in a golden period of Australian sport. Just look at the past two years.
Our Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams recorded their best-ever result at Milano Cortina and our Commonwealth Games team headed home from Glasgow with some serious bling after many record-breaking performances. In 2024, Australia's summer Olympians became our most successful team ever—53 medals, and a record number of personal bests. As we build toward the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Australians have a veritable feast of major sporting events to look forward to—annual tournaments like the Australian Open and events the Albanese government is supporting, including next year's netball and softball world cups and the men's and women's rugby union world cups in 2027 and 2029 respectively.
We will see the world's best athletes right here in our backyard. From playground to podium, the Albanese government is investing today to make the most of these opportunities. Our $200 million Play our Way program—the largest-ever sporting fund specifically for women and girls—is delivering 300 projects around Australia to provide facilities and programs aimed at getting more girls and women to play and stay in sport.
Earlier this year, we announced a record-breaking $513 million to support our high-performance athletes over the next two years leading into the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and on to Brisbane 2032. And last week we marked a major milestone for the $249.7 million redevelopment of the Australian Institute of Sport, with demolition 50 per cent complete and a builder appointed to deliver the major works.
We are investing in our athletes. We are investing in participation. And we are investing in the facilities and institutions that support Australian sport.
In this year's budget we also committed a further $20.1 million to support Sport Integrity Australia in its role as our national antidoping organisation and coordinating agency for integrity issues across Australian sport. When an Australian athlete steps onto a track or court, or dives into a pool they should know the contest is fair, and within the rules. And the Australians cheering for them should be able to trust the result.
If we want Australians to believe in sport, then integrity cannot be an afterthought. Australia is a world leader Australia is a world leader in sport integrity and has a longstanding record of supporting clean, fair and safe sport. Australia established the Australian Sports Drug Agency in 1990 to combat the use of prohibited drugs in Australian sport, well before many countries had developed their own systems and nine years before the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency—WADA.
We have and continue to play an active role in shaping world antidoping governance and policy. Australia is a signatory to the UNESCO antidoping convention, the Oceania representative on the WADA executive committee and associated committees and we have been integral in shaping the World Anti-Doping Code. The 2027 w orld a nti- d oping c ode The World Anti-Doping Code provides the framework that allows athletes to compete under the same core antidoping rules wherever they are in the world.
It is updated regularly because while sport does not stand still, neither does doping, technology and the risks facing our athletes. For example, international investigations into Russian sport identified institutional involvement in doping practices, and the manipulation of samples and interference with antidoping processes. These findings led to significant international consequences and demonstrated the harm that systemic doping can cause to clean athletes and confidence in international competition.
Following a two-year global review by WADA, the revised 2027 code was approved in December 2025 and will begin on 1 January 2027. The 2027 code strengthens the effectiveness, fairness and consistency of the international antidoping system, including through enhanced operational independence, improved athlete appeal rights and updated public disclosure provisions.
Australia, through Sport Integrity Australia, participated throughout the review process, working with athletes, sporting organisations, the National Sports Tribunal, the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee, the Australian Sports Commission, peak sporting bodies and Australian antidoping experts. To maintain a globally harmonised antidoping framework, all code signatories, including Australia, are in the process of reviewing and updating their frameworks to comply with the revised code and international standards by 1 January 2027.
And we will. Because a robust, international antidoping system needs to address both individual and systematic attempts to undermine fair competition. Because our athletes, our coaches and sports administrators, who give everything a fair go, should have trust they are competing in a fair contest.
Implementing the 2027 c ode Sport Integrity Australia, the agency responsible for combatting doping in sport in Australia, is working with sport stakeholders to ensure we implement the 2027 code ahead of 1 January 2027. This will be achieved through an integrated package of amendments to primary legislation, regulations and sporting policy, the Australian National Anti-Doping Policy—ANADP.
TheSport Legislation Amendment (World Anti-Doping Code Implementation) Bill 2026delivers the required legislative changes through specific amendments to the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020and the National Sports Tribunal Act 2019. The b ill First, this bill makes amendments to strengthen athletes' appeal rights in relation to therapeutic use exemption decisions.
Athletes will now be able to seek a review of therapeutic use exemption decisions through the National Sports Tribunal. This means athletes who have been denied approval to use a legitimate medical substance or method, which is usually prohibited in a sporting context, can take their case to a national independent appeal body. Second, the independence of Australia's antidoping system will be reinforced by transferring responsibility for imposing consequences from sports to Sport Integrity Australia.
The 2027 code requires greater operational independence in the administration of antidoping programs. This avoids potential conflicts of interest, where a sporting organisation is responsible for decisions affecting athletes in their sport. Now the Sport Integrity Australia CEO will issue provisional suspensions and sanctions where an antidoping violation may have been committed.
Third, the new approach to publication on the Sport Integrity Australia violations list, addressed in part 3 of the bill, balances the public interest with privacy safeguards and further protect vulnerable participants. While the code still requires a public-facing list on antidoping violations that have occurred, there is now a broader scope to exclude athletes in certain circumstances.
This includes those who have not been found to have committed an offence or are not at fault. With respect to minors, protected persons and recreational athletes, there will be greater consideration of whether publishing details of a violation will be in the best interests of the individual, while balancing with public interest. Finally, the bill updates the Sport Integrity Australia Act definition of an athlete to remove the domestic rule that automatically treats a person as an athlete for six months after they last competed.
This brings the act in line with the definitions and technical instruments recognised under the international antidoping framework. Conclusion The Albanese government is backing Australian sport for the long term. We are backing our athletes, our sporting organisations and the major events that will define our next decade.
And we are doing the work to create a fair arena that makes these moments possible. We are strengthening our laws against match fixing and competition manipulation. We are investing in Sport Integrity Australia.
And through this bill, we are ensuring Australia's antidoping framework remains among the strongest in the world, because when the world comes to Australia through the major events ahead of us and Brisbane 2032, we want to showcase more than Australian sporting success. We want to showcase Australian sporting values, fair competition, independent decisions, clean sport.
A fair go must mean a fair contest. I commend the bill to the House. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order for the next day of sitting.