I very proudly rise to speak on the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, which does two things: it amends the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 and it amends the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020. Labor supports this bill, which was introduced in the Senate on 16 June this year. I'll deal with those two aspects, the two aims of the bill, separately.
The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill provides protection for major sporting events against ambush marketing. In simple terms, 'ambush marketing' describes unauthorised businesses associating their names, brands, products or services with a major sporting event. 'Unauthorised' means businesses that do not have commercial rights and are not licensed sponsors or corporate partners, for example. The act needs to be updated because it currently includes schedules for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games—a great event which is now in the past—and the postponed ICC T20 World Cup 2020. The bill amends the act to remove references to these two events. It also adds the FIFA 2023 women's World Cup and the rescheduled ICC T20 World Cup, which is now due to be held in 2022.
Labor was proudly first to publicly express our support for Australia's bid to host the FIFA 2023 women's world cup, which was of course successful. Hosting the 2023 FIFA women's World Cup is a huge opportunity for Australia. I commend Football Australia on its goal of reaching gender parity in grassroots participation by 2027, which will no doubt be aided by a World Cup on home soil, although I would make the point that we desperately need more facilities for the increased female participation in football, particularly in my electorate, where we are seeing female players having to get changed in cars or out the back in the bush. It's a most unwelcoming state of affairs.
While we are talking about major sporting events, it would be remiss of me not to mention the wonderful news in July that Australia will host its third Olympic Games, in 2032. Congratulations to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government, the council of south-east Queensland mayors, the Australian Olympic Committee, the federal government and everyone else who was involved in Brisbane's successful bid. In July and August, the efforts and achievements of the Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams in Tokyo lifted the spirits of millions of Australians in lockdown. They amazed and entertained us and did us all proud. I know I'm not alone in already being excited about the opportunity for our athletes to represent Australia in front of huge crowds in 2032.
COVID-19 forced the postponement of the ICC men's T20 cricket World Cup, which was meant to be held last year but is now scheduled for 2022. I hope Australia's vaccination rollout is advanced enough by then that the competition can be run smoothly, because postponements and cancellations hit hard. It's not just the financial toll on the bottom line, there is the effort that goes into planning and preparing for major events both for athletes and organisers. It's a challenge for them to have to do it all again, as well as to find space in an already crowded sporting calendar.
I'm sure all members of this House sincerely hope that the current obstacles to international major sporting events will soon be a thing of the past. That's certainly my hope, because the T20 World Cup, FIFA women's World Cup and Brisbane Olympics are not the only major sporting events on the horizon for Australia. Next year Australia will host the women's basketball World Cup, the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, the UCI road cycling world championships and the Virtus Oceania Asia Games for intellectual impairment. In 2023, in addition to the FIFA women's World Cup, Australia will host the World Transplant Games. In 2025 we've got the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, where Australia's own Tokyo Olympic gold and bronze medallist Jess Fox is lauded as the greatest ever individual paddler. In 2026, Australia will host the UCI BMX World Championships. And I've got my fingers crossed that Australia will also win the right to host the Rugby World Cup in 2027. I know the member opposite, the member for Wright, is a proud rugby union player, and as a proud member of the Southern Beaches Old Salts and an old boy of Briars and Gosford Red Devils, I am certainly hopeful that we win the rights to that World Cup. And there are a few more still up for grabs.
These major sporting events entertain and inspire Australians. They boost tourism, trade and our economy, and they strengthen our international ties, to name just a few of their benefits, so it's important that we protect these events through updates like this amendment to the major sporting events protection act 2014. The protections provided by the amendments in this bill are standard and necessary for major sporting events hosted in Australia. They mirror protections for past sporting events. The addition of the FIFA 2023 women's World Cup to the schedule under the act was one of the government guarantees required by FIFA in order for Australia to secure the event. As such, it is supported by Football Australia. The addition of the T20 World Cup is a protection expected by the International Cricket Council and is therefore supported by the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 local organising committee.
Labor supports the amendments that this bill seeks to make to the major sporting events protection act 2014. I move:
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:
(1) notes the importance of rights protection for hosting major sporting events, and supports the changes in this bill to protect the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia New Zealand 2023 and the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 from ambush marketing; and
(2) calls on the Government to further support Australia's ability to host international sporting events by implementing an effective national quarantine system to ensure COVID-safe travel for sports teams and officials".
I now have a few very brief comments on the other aim of this bill, which is to amend the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020. That act deals with Australia's sport integrity arrangements and requires an update in order to correct references to articles of the World Anti-Doping Code, the WADA code. As a signatory to the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, Australia is required to implement anti-doping arrangements in accordance with the principles of the WADA code. Provisions to the code earlier this year also resulted in changes to the number of articles within the code. The amendments proposed in this bill simply update the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020 to reflect the current article numbering. Labor supports this bill.