King Colin: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — In Committee 
King Colin: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:634;Page:5976] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to rise and speak in support of the Sports Anti-Doping Bill. When one thinks about how we interface as a nation one finds that we certainly celebrate the principles and values around a good even contest. In fact as a nation our sportspeople perform equally as well as—if not better than—any others in the world. 
When we look at Part 1 of the legislation we see that clause 3(a)(i) is “protecting athletes’ fundamental right to participate in doping-free sport and in this way promote health fairness and equality for athletes world-wide;”. That is laudable as the very good member from Otago mentioned and may I take the opportunity to reinforce the comments of that member Jacqui Dean on the party pill problem. The current approach is sending out double standards and a mixed message to our young people. We cannot be complacent when we look at a bill of this nature. I must confess that it is very well-structured and very very consistent all the way through in defining its purpose. Fundamentally that is what Part 1 does. 
The bill talks about some interesting things. For the benefit of the public who are listening at the moment when we talk about anti-doping bills we are talking about people taking substances that will give them an advantage. It could be an advantage in their training and preparation for an event or it could be an advantage during the event itself. Two recent high-profile cases come to mind that sent a sense of great sadness as to the outcome of the events. One was the Tour de France where the first finisher has subsequently run into huge difficulties about the levels of chemicals in his body. Last night some of us had the pleasure of sitting down with Sir Richard Hadlee who was a great bowler; what comes to mind is the problems that have surfaced around the Pakistani pace bowlers. They too have to prove that they have not been assisted by their taking drugs of some nature. So one can appreciate just how important this bill becomes from the point of view of engaging in international sport. 
Sadly the criminals—the cheats—will constantly be moving forward and the bodies that are registered for the purpose of making sure that sports are clean and fair will have to do their utmost to keep up with them. So it is very important that we empower these bodies with what is necessary for them to be able to do that. When I reflect back on it—to bring up a very close-to-home example of having an advantage and actually winning because of that advantage—I think about the overspending of the Labour Party in winning the 2005 election. I was searching for a more sporting example but I could not find one. When we break it down we see that Labour members spent $14000 per electorate more than they were allowed to. That really is an example of what this bill is about because Part 1 refers to the importance of having consistency of standards. 
Part 1 talks about the structure for drug-free sports in New Zealand. There would be a board consisting of five individuals. It talks about “the Code” and for a while I was wondering what sort of code we were referring to. In fact we were referring to the World Anti-Doping Code 2003 as adopted by the World Anti-Doping Agency in Copenhagen on 5 March 2003. I believe that the origin of that code was in issues to do with the Olympics and we know that the Olympic movement is very much about fair play—which is something we certainly do not see when we look at the outcome of the misuse of taxpayers’ funds during the 2005 election. I am sure that that will have ongoing ramifications in the future as those people are held to account under the spirit of fair play which New Zealanders are very well known for.