Connell Brian: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — In Committee 
Connell Brian: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:6139] 
BRIAN CONNELL (National—Rakaia) 
: 
 By popular demand I am back and I thank you Mr Chairperson for the call on the Sports Anti-Doping Bill though my colleagues on the other side of the Chamber might regret having supported my call when I get to the substance of what I want to talk about. 
Let me start by saying that anything that sends a message that drug abuse in sport will not be tolerated has my support. Anything that sends a message that says that cheating will not be tolerated no matter under what guise has my support. But if ever there was legislation that did not need to come to this Chamber this is it. Let me articulate why I believe that. 
This bill will provide the legislative framework to facilitate New Zealand’s compliance with the World Anti-doping Code. That is a voluntary code but what would have happened had we not signed on to this? Let me tell the Committee that the perfect market effect would have taken place. Sportspeople cannot participate in elite sporting events anywhere in the world unless they abide by the code. To waste Parliament’s time legislating this is simply unnecessary. The real reason for doing it is that the Minister for Sport and Recreation wants to be able to tell the world that New Zealand was one of the first to sign on to the Unesco convention. A self-governing model was in place yet here we are at 9 o’clock on 25 October 2006 talking about this type of legislation. 
The other thing I want to refer to is information sharing which is something that throughout the course of the bill in the Government Administration Committee I felt rather strongly about. There is a conflicting message in what we are suggesting in the stamping out of drugs and in what we have decided to do as a committee. I respect the select committee process and I respect the fact that my arguments there were put and lost but there is still an opportunity to raise them in the course of this debate. 
“Evidence of a prohibitive drug in an athlete’s blood may be sufficient to affect the athlete’s rights under a sporting code but it is unlikely to be sufficient evidence for Police purposes.” That is what we have written in the commentary on the bill. I want to raise this objection and I want to raise it now. If we do not say to elite athletes that we will not tolerate their using class A drugs then however will we get the message out to the wider community that taking drugs in any guise is simply not acceptable? We have an agency that has now proudly changed its name to Drug Free Sport New Zealand yet at the same time the committee would not write into the legislation that it has no tolerance whatsoever of class A drugs. 
A high-profile example is the case of Wendell Sailor the Wallabies right-winger who was caught with a class A drug by his blood tests. The argument rages that that may not be enough reason for a conviction but for goodness’ sake does it not put the police on notice that there is a member of society a member of the wider community who is getting access to an illicit drug regardless of whether it is sports-enhancing? He was engaged—and he has now admitted it—in illegal activities. 
We have lost the opportunity as a Parliament to send out a very clear message that we object not only to drug cheating in sport but also to drug use full stop and that the full force of the law will be brought down upon those who engage in these types of activities. 
I realise that we do not want to prolong this debate but I want to take the opportunity to thank the select committee members for the way they have worked on this legislation. I also thank the advisers who came to the select committee and offered their assistance. Before I conclude I will reiterate the message about drugs. In order to set a precedent that says drug taking of any sort will not be tolerated we need to write it into our legislation when the opportunity presents itself and we need to be firm and walk the talk.