Page 2716 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 16 September 2014
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The legislation is a critical part of the ACT’s preparation for hosting games as part of the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup and the International Cricket Council World Cup, both of which will take place next year. Both events, of course, are expected to generate significant positive economic and social benefits both here in the ACT and elsewhere.
Building on existing security and management arrangements under the Major EventsSecurity Act, the bill draws on elements of New Zealand, Victorian, New South Wales and commonwealth law to safeguard human rights and protect the commercial interests of events, event organisers and their sponsors.
The measures in the bill can be applied selectively to particular events when it is necessary to provide additional crowd management, ticketing or commercial and intellectual property protections. In order for the act to apply, a minister must give notice that either a major event or an important sporting event will occur.
This bill ensures that the ACT government meets the government guarantees associated with hosting events for both the Asian Cup and the International Cricket Council World Cup.
The new legislation will meet these guarantees by ensuring the safety and security of all event attendees at major events by providing specific powers for police and other authorised people, protecting against ticket scalping in specific circumstances for certain declared events, protecting intellectual property and other commercial rights of event sponsors, and supporting those provisions with new offences.
If the Assembly passes this bill, we will be the first jurisdiction to fully meet all the government guarantees for these events within a human rights framework. Not only will the bill meet the government guarantees but it will create an important legacy for future events.
Rights protection is a critical element of hosting incentives for major events. The provisions of the bill ensure protection of commercial rights and the investment made by event organisers or sponsors. Events with a national or international profile will be eligible for a major event declaration and some of these events will call for the commercial protections available under the bill. These events will rely on the valuable support of their sponsors so that costs associated with the event can be met.
A key part of attracting sponsorship is making certain that sponsors are able to enjoy the benefits associated with the event without interference from commercial interlopers or competitors. Ambush marketing also risks damaging the commercial reputation of event organisers and, by extension, risks the reputation of host jurisdictions.
The bill also ensures that both spectators and event participants are kept safe by creating powers for authorised officials and police officers to allow them to give reasonable directions and otherwise intervene in problematic situations. The bill creates offences such as failing to comply with directions made by authorised officials
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