Integrity in sport

21 January 2016

The Government should urgently convene a meeting of major sports and state and federal authorities to see where efforts to combat match-fixing can be better coordinated. 

We are prepared to work with the Government in a bipartisan way to explore what else can be done to step up our efforts to remove this shadow over our sports.

If people do the wrong thing, it cheats the fans and not just the bookies.

This is too important an issue to go without response from the Government.

A lot of effort goes into maintaining integrity in sport but we can always do more.

New allegations of approaches to tennis players to fix matches have put the issue back on the agenda and these claims should be examined or re-examined by the relevant authorities around the world.

The last Labor Government took this issue very seriously and introduced the National Integrity in Sport Unit and reached an agreement between the states on a National Policy on Match-Fixing.

We call on the Government to promptly release the full O’Farrell Report into Illegal Offshore Wagering for the community to consider its recommendations.

Sport is too important to our social fabric and the Australian economy to allow anything but the highest standards on sporting integrity.