Copeland Gordon: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — First Reading 
Copeland Gordon: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:994] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of United Future to signal that we will support and vote for the Sports Anti-Doping Bill. I thought that the previous speaker Hone Harawira was a bit tough on William Webb Ellis in classifying him as a cheat. I think there is actually a distinction between an innovator and a cheat and I think that what William Webb Ellis did by picking up that ball and running was actually to bring a new innovation into sport—one that has become the backbone of our national game. 
Hone Harawira 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. William Webb Ellis was actually caned for what he did. He cheated. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I remind the member that that may be interesting but it is not a point of order. 
GORDON COPELAND 
: That does not surprise me at all because I am sure the teachers at Rugby School were a bunch of stuffy old—I could use a word that I am not allowed to use in the House which has been used by the previous Speaker of the House on a couple of occasions I seem to recall—people who would not have recognised an innovator if they had seen one. Many many great innovators and great people were caned at school and I have a few notches on my belt to prove that I am one of them. 
Performance-enhancing drugs are the enemy of true sport. Only a dope would take dope. I remember that in the year 2000 when Peter Snell was declared to be the New Zealand sportsperson of the millennium he was asked about performance-enhancing drugs and whether there were any around in his day. He said: “No we did not need them.” I think that encapsulates the true spirit of the proud sporting tradition of this country. We have produced a disproportionate number of great sportsmen and great sportswomen and for the most part we have done that without having to rely on performance-enhancing drugs. 
New Zealand has a simply fabulous sporting history and we should all be very proud of it. I remember that in the mid-1960s  
Sports Illustrated 
 an American sporting magazine that most members will have heard of did a worldwide survey on sporting ability related to the population of a country—in other words a per capita analysis of sporting greatness in the world. The big headline which shows the time was the 1960s was: “Man for man it’s Australia”. However Australia got there because in the world rugby rankings—this was in the mid-1960s would members believe— 
Sports Illustrated 
 had ranked the No. 1 rugby-playing nation of the world as being South Africa the No. 2 rugby-playing nation as being Australia and the No. 3 rugby-playing nation as being New Zealand. If the magazine had got it right New Zealand would have been in second place and the headline of that magazine would have read: “Man for man it’s Kiwis”. 
A huge dispute erupted. In fact in subsequent copies of  
Sports Illustrated 
 which I remind members is an American magazine several pages were devoted to letters from New Zealanders stating it had got the rugby call completely wrong and they provided all the statistics to prove it. The response of  
Sports Illustrated’s 
editors which was in the fine print at the bottom was that the figures showed that Australia had had a better overall performance against South Africa than New Zealand had and on that basis they concluded that Australia was No. 2. Of course that completely overlooked the record between Australia and New Zealand which at that stage was about 75 to 25 in our favour. 
As others have mentioned performance-enhancing drugs bring to mind some very tragic images such as Flo Jo. From the moment I set eyes on Flo Jo I thought to myself: “I don’t think so. I don’t think the female body pumping as much iron as it can over a period of time could ever quite look like that.” To my eyes her body was obviously unnatural and sadly that was proved to be the case by her untimely death. Members will remember the images of the Chinese swimmers who came to one of the Olympic Games. Again they were women. Some of them had shoulders that I think would have made any All Black prop happy. One of them was almost would members believe 1 metre wide across the shoulders. Those young women of course have all gone to early graves as well. So the whole area of sports doping has a tragic history. It is all driven by national ambition and so on. Those things are good but they are not good when they go over the line into cheating and using artificial substances and steroids which are thoroughly bad not only for the human body but for sport itself. 
Performance-enhancing drugs are actually an evil. They undermine sport itself by removing from it honesty ethics fairness health respect courage commitment and solidarity. As a nation we should be proud to take a lead in this area and make sure that we do all we can to eliminate any thought of a culture ever developing in this country that regards winning by any means as being in any circumstances remotely acceptable. It is not. As a previous speaker mentioned and I agree with the point at a certain age young men and women—I am not sure of the age at which they do this—make up their minds that they want to be an All Black a Silver Fern an athlete a swimmer a triathlete a marathon runner a cyclist or whatever it is. At that level we must ensure that we get the point across very very clearly that it is certainly not sporting—in fact it is the opposite—to take performance-enhancing drugs. Otherwise our country will have let loose a virus that will have tremendous long-term negative consequences for us. Performance-enhancing drugs in short have no redeeming features. 
We support the bill and we hope that if necessary the tribunal and others will come back to us if they need additional powers in the future.