A new office of Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) is to be created in response to the 2018 Wood Review of the nation’s sport integrity arrangements.
The inaugural Chief Executive of SIA, David Sharpe (pictured), said the agency would bring together key stakeholders such as national sporting organisations, athletes and agencies, as well as sports integrity capabilities around the world.
Mr Sharpe is currently Chief Executive of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and a former Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.
“Together, as a team, we are powerful,” Mr Sharpe said.
“We can put a protective, ethical ring around sport to protect it from those seeking to corrupt or exploit the vulnerable for their own gain,” he said.
“This is an opportunity to share and learn from each other because, after all, we are all here to protect sport.”
He said whether it was State-sponsored doping, infiltration of sport by organised crime or corruption in sport, threats to the integrity of sport could emerge from many sources.
“In these unsettled times, as sport collectively deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, sport requires certainty, fairness and leadership,” Mr Sharpe said.
He said the SIA had been developed with the collaboration of ASADA, the National Integrity in Sport Unit, Sport Australia and the Department of Health.
“There is a lot of work to be done, but we are on the right track, guided by the recommendations of the Wood Review,” he said.
Mr Sharpe said his appointment, which was announced by the Minister for Sport, Senator Richard Colbeck on the weekend (3 May), is part of the Government’s commitment to the Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements (Wood Review) recommendation to establish a cohesive sports integrity capability along with the National Sports Tribunal.
“I would also like to put on the record the Government’s commitment to ensuring SIA has the resources to not only be operational but has the capabilities to collaborate with others to get the job done,” Mr Sharpe said.
“I am enormously honoured to be appointed as the inaugural CEO of Sport Integrity Australia and I would like to thank the Government and Minister Richard Colbeck for having faith in me to do the job,” he said.
