Sport Legislation Amendment (World Anti-Doping Code Implementation) Bill 2026

Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (19:05): I rise today to speak in support of the Sport Legislation Amendment (World Anti-Doping Code Implementation) Bill 2026. I am a sports nut. I love netball, football, cricket, athletics and cycling.

I absolutely love the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. To be faster, higher and stronger—I love that everyone can strive for this, not only the elite athletes we watch on television and in stadiums but everyone. With training and effort, everyone has the opportunity to be faster, to go higher and to get stronger.

The thrill in achieving a PB, in swimming faster, in lifting heavier weights, in knowing that you did this off your own steam because of your own efforts and the training you put in is immensely satisfying. I am a former competitive swimmer, and when I watch our Australian Dolphins race, make finals and win medals in domestic and international competitions I have some understanding of the effort, sacrifice and dedication that they put in to make the team, let alone make a semifinal, make a final or win a medal.

This is the hours in the gym that sprinters put in, building muscle to power them to run 100 metres in the blink of an eye. It's the hours marathon runners put in on the track, put into rest and recovery, put into the gym and put into their diet and nutrition so that every calorie they consume benefits their training regimen. These hours and dedication are incredible.

The sacrifice of professional athletes is incredible: living away from home, constantly training, constantly racing, always on the move and scraping together money in order to compete, buy equipment, train and race. Not every elite athlete earns millions in prize money and sponsorship. In fact, very few do.

But, regardless of their earnings, every elite athlete knows one thing, and that is effort—training until you throw up, pushing your body to its absolute limit to see what it can do, working so hard and exerting so much effort that you can't walk after a race or can't breathe properly when you get out of the pool, get off the track or get off the bike, training through injury and pushing through pain.

One of my good friends is a former competitive road cyclist who competed in teams in Australia, the US and Europe and enjoyed incredible success. She knows the meaning of pushing through. Alex Rhodes was on a training run in Germany in 2005 when she and her fellow cyclists were hit by a car.

Alex suffered 30 spinal fractures, crushed lungs and massive internal trauma and was placed in an induced coma for eight days. Despite that, she came back to competitive cycling and played a tactical role in the women's 25-kilometre points race, helping her teammates win gold and silver in the 2006 Commonwealth Games, just one year after the accident. Alex did this under her own steam—came back, trained, pushed and strove faster, higher and stronger—and was successful.

How incredible and how satisfying to have done that fairly with integrity against all the odds. Alex and I often talk about our previous sporting careers, noting, of course, that hers was an actual career. Mine was more of a splash in the pool.

But we love talking about training and how we used to work hard in the pool, on the track and in the gym. We talk about the thrill of racing and competition and how we hope our respective children and stepchildren will develop the same competitive drive that we both still have, that love of training hard, that love of feeling completely exhausted but completely satisfied that you've given everything no matter the result, that love of being able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'I did everything I possibly could have to win.' Alex and I have also talked about doping—the prevalence, the dangers and the sheer unfairness of it—and how it wrecks sport, how it destroys dreams and how it is the very opposite of faster, higher, stronger.

It's cheating. It's wrong. It cheats the fans, the officials, the sponsors, the volunteers and the other competitors.

When I was younger, I was a Lance Armstrong fan, and who wasn't? I was in awe of his mental toughness, his anaerobic fitness and his strength—seven Tour de France titles in a row from 1999 to 2005, earning him fame and fortune. But in 2012 the US Anti-Doping Agency charged Armstrong with the use of performance enhancing drugs.

Armstrong ultimately didn't contest the charges, which resulted in the loss of his Tour de France titles and a ban from the sport of cycling. Then in October 2013 the agency released a report that declared Armstrong had been part of the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport had ever seen, and in January of that year he admitted that he had been doping for all of his Tour de France wins.

He was a cheat. His wins had not exclusively been his own effort, him pushing his body to its absolute maximum off his own steam. He had achieved his version of faster, higher, stronger by cheating on an enormous scale.

His ego meant he cheated and wrecked the Tour de France for a lot of people for a long time. In Australia, we don't accept this. Australia has been and must continue to be a world leader in sport integrity and in favour always of supporting clean, fair and safe sport.

We kicked this off in this country in 1990, when we established the Australian Sports Drug Agency to combat the use of prohibited drugs in Australian sport. This was nine years before the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency. We did this because we wanted to ensure that when Australians play sport the contest is fair and when Australians watch sport they can trust the result.

In 2003, nine years after we established the Australian Sports Drug Agency, the World Anti-Doping Code was first adopted, taking effect in 2004. It has been amended five times as part of its standard review process, and the revised 2027 World Anti-Doping Code will be effective as of 1 January 2027. It is right that the code is regularly reviewed to make sure it's contemporary and strong so it provides workable and harmonised global anti-doping policies.

It provides the framework that allows athletes to compete under the same core anti-doping rules wherever they are in the world. As the agency responsible for combating doping in sport in Australia, Sport Integrity Australia led Australia's participation in the review process, and it's now working with sports stakeholders to ensure we implement the 2027 code ahead of 1 January next year.

This will be achieved through an integrated package of amendments to primary legislation, regulations and the Australian National Anti-Doping Policy. This bill delivers the required legislative changes through specific amendments to the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020 and the National Sports Tribunal Act 2019, which is the antidoping legislation that gives effect to Australia's international obligations under the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport.

The convention requires states parties to implement arrangements that are consistent with the principles of that code. To ensure the continued operation of a globally harmonised antidoping framework, international sporting federations and governments are now required to amend their own antidoping frameworks to align with the revised code and standards. As a signatory to that convention, Australia is also required to align its antidoping arrangements with the principles in the code.

The bill amends the Sport Integrity Australia Act to implement three code revisions. Firstly, it will allow athletes to seek review by the National Sports Tribunal, as Australia's national level appeal body of decisions, to deny a therapeutic use exemption. Secondly, it will alter the process by which mandatory and voluntary provisional sanctions such as provisional suspensions are implemented to meet the new operational independence requirements imposed on Sport Integrity Australia by the code.

Thirdly, it will make changes to the mandatory publication on Sport Integrity Australia's violations list in certain limited circumstances. With respect to human rights, this bill engages with article 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides that all persons are entitled to a fair and public hearing before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.

With respect to the therapeutic use exemption, the bill establishes a pathway for athletes to seek independent review in the National Sports Tribunal of any decision to deny an exemption. By transferring review of these decisions to Australia's national level appeal body for antidoping matters, this amendment promotes the right to a fair hearing by strengthening the independence and accountability of decisions affecting athletes' rights and interests, and gives effect to the appeal requirements of the 2027 code.

The operational independence aspect of the bill also engages with article 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This amendment promotes the effective and independent administration of Australia's antidoping framework by enhancing the operational independence of Sport Integrity Australia in accordance with the requirements of the revised code, which calls for greater operational independence in the administration of antidoping programs, reflecting concerns about potential conflicts of interest where sporting organisations are responsible for decisions affecting their own athletes.

The amendments, therefore, do not limit any recognised human right. Rather, they support the integrity, impartiality and independence of antidoping decision-making processes which underpin procedural fairness and confidence in the administration of the antidoping system. The bill is compatible with human rights because it promotes the right to a fair hearing and supports the independent, transparent and effective administration of Australia's antidoping framework.

For decades, athletes have used performance-enhancing substances and methods to improve athletic performance and gain a competitive edge. This not only compromises athletes' health, wellbeing and reputation; it ruins sport. A robust antidoping regime is essential to protect athlete health, maintain fair competition and preserve public trust in sport.

Coming up, as well as our regular domestic sports league competitions, next year we will have athletes from all around the world compete on our shores in the 2027 Netball World Cup and 2027 Rugby World Cup. Then, in 2032, we host the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games. I want to watch all this in the knowledge that the competition is clean and fair, and that 'faster, higher, stronger' has been fairly achieved.

This bill, together with Australia's ratification of the Macolin Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, illustrates Australia's commitment to ensure that I, together with all Australians, will be able to do just that. I commend the bill to the Chamber.