Roy Eric: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — Second Reading 
Roy Eric: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — Second Reading 
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ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 I would certainly like to take a call on the second reading of the Sports Anti-Doping Bill. I was certainly very keen to speak at the first reading too. I think every single New Zealander has an attitude of fair play; it is a significant part of the way we do things. We like to operate on a level playing field and we like to have I believe the best interests of our young people at heart; I believe this bill does those things. It is important that we stay abreast of what is happening internationally and therefore we need to have a programme of regimentation control and anti-doping regulations that is in keeping and in accordance with the best practice in the world. This legislation brings us up to that level. 
There are a few things that I think are quite pertinent. At the first reading I spoke of the impact of drugs on athletes—the shortening of life and the distortions of the body. I used my own instance of when I received steroids medically—not for playing sport—and the impact of my hands and feet growing two sizes. These drugs distinctly distort the natural functions of the body. Yes the drugs are in part part of us but when the system is overloaded with these drugs in the pursuit of excellence and winning then the distortions that can occur in the body can be lethal. There are a number of illustrations of that. So there is the element of danger. We should be saying to our athletes that this is not something they can do. If they attempt to do it they will be caught and if athletes are competing with someone else who is using drugs they will be caught. Let us have a level playing field. 
Our motivation for this legislation is simply this: we want to protect sportspeople. There are incentives to win and today with the level of professionalism winning brings money it brings glory it brings adulation it brings contracts and it brings sponsorship—it brings a whole lot of things. It is important that we tell sportspeople that they deserve those rewards if they are good enough but to use drugs is cheating. 
I do not know at what stage drugs started entering into the whole realm of athletics and sport. Certainly when I was young and my heroes were people like Don Oliver we did not hear of drugs being involved. Initially their use started in the bulk sports—weightlifting—and the field events. As the need for stamina and recovery came along there were refined drugs that assisted people in a whole lot of ways. There was shock disappointment and anger when people found out the level at which some of my heroes of the 1970s and 1980s were involved in drugs 
There is a sense of frustration for those who are actually playing the game—those who are not cheating by using drugs. We recall the Olympics where Ben Johnson I think broke the world record got the gold medal and then—hey presto—came up with a positive drugs test. He said he had put his drink bottle down and when he got it back it tasted sticky. Even at that stage chemists could tell what drugs people had been using how long they had been using them for and most probably—with the sorts of concentrations that had been taken—they could take an imprint going back. So Carl Lewis was elevated—the great Carl Lewis who won four gold medals and was the best thing since Jesse Owens—and subsequently in later years there are some very serious questions to be answered about his association with drugs. 
Again the use of drugs just dims that whole aspect of our heroes and sends the wrong message to our young people. We need to say that the use of drugs is simply not on. It is not on because of health reasons. Basically it is not on because it means people are cheats. I recall four or five Olympics ago when someone won the silver medal at fencing. Fencing is electronic and when a player contacts with an opponent a light goes on. This fencer had installed some kind of circuitry that overrode what was happening when there was a contact and he won a silver medal. Shock horror—that was cheating. No one reckoned he should have been anywhere near the medal. He was a reasonable passable fencer but what he did was cheating. So is using drugs to enhance performance; it is the same thing it is cheating. Let us not dress it up in any other way; it is simply cheating. 
Similarly I am trying to think of the name of the baseball player in the United States who beat Babe Ruth’s record. It was subsequently found that he had a corked bat. I do not know much about baseball but a corked bat helps to hit the ball further. That player was a cheat and he should not have had the record; we understand that. Using drugs is exactly the same thing. So it is right and proper that New Zealand stands alongside the international body that says drugs must not be used in sport. If drugs are used those using them will be caught and if they are caught there will be penalties and those cheating will have no right to stand on the winners’ podium. 
It is probably true because of the money involved that the best chemists are creating the drugs and the agents masking them and the second-best chemists are trying to catch them. That is probably the case. I am not sure how that can be turned round. What we have to do is to make every attempt to restrict limit catch and punish those people who are cheating by using drugs. 
I am pleased that there is a high degree of unanimity over this legislation. As Sandra Goudie mentioned there were only two submissions to the select committee. That shows a high degree of approval since people who approve of legislation generally do not take the effort to write a submission. As I said most New Zealanders have a belief that our sportspeople should be operating on a level playing field and that they do serious damage to themselves if they embark on a drug career. 
I note one or two things about the bill. I was interested in the Minister’s comments with regard to the involvement of the police. Yes I accept his statement that there is no point in overloading the police force with a lot of irrelevant information. I note that under the Privacy Act 1993 Drug Free Sport New Zealand does have the power to disclose information if something shows up—there might be some recreational drugs that are banned. Again this is an interesting paradox. Society is more and more accepting of recreational drugs as the years go by even though in many cases they are not allowed by law and socially there is a high degree of tolerance. In a way that can dim our awareness or our vigilance in the sports arena. In my view there should be no tolerance anywhere; the law should be the law and we want to be quite clear about that. There are people like Simon Poelman who got caught—finally—for smuggling recreational drugs into New Zealand in a teddy bear or some other toy. Surely if he was a recreational drug user that must have shown up somewhere in the tests that he had. It is my view that the police could have and should have been able to get involved in that case much much more quickly than they did. 
I conclude by saying that tonight members were at a function when the best netballers in the world—those of Australia and New Zealand—were recognised here in the Banquet Hall. They were rightly recognised and wished well and everything else. On the night that we extol the best in the world in netball it is appropriate that we are having this second reading. Members want every athlete who is performing in New Zealand to perform well. We want them to be the best in the world. But we do not want them to cheat. If they attempt to cheat by taking drugs they will be caught and we as a Parliament approve of the fact that we will catch them and punish them. National supports the second reading of this bill.