Page 5064 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
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In developing the proposed new regulatory framework, the ACT government has consulted extensively with other regulating jurisdictions, medical experts, law enforcement, academics and sporting experts, as well as the local industry. This included the release of a discussion paper in late 2015 and a position paper in 2016, and further industry consultation in August 2018, when we released a draft of the bill to industry, special interest groups, medical and law enforcement experts.
Further industry consultation was undertaken during August this year, when stakeholders were provided with a copy of the draft bill for review. A total of 93Â combat sports gyms, organisations and promoters were invited to provide feedback. Two information sessions were run, on 14 and 16 August 2018 respectively. Ten stakeholders attended information sessions. Eighteen industry stakeholders provided feedback on the bill, making the total number of stakeholders engaged in the process 35, including special interest organisations and areas.
The main themes of feedback regarded the definition of commercial purpose, exempting light contact combat sports, and notification and administrative requirements. Industry was supportive of inspectorate functions and integrity provisions as a way to boost compliance in the industry. Overall, 95 per cent of stakeholders were supportive of the legislation, with amendments that have been incorporated.
As with all good law reform, updating the regulatory framework must adequately reflect contemporary practice. It might interest members to know that the first piece of legislation to regulate combat sports in the ACT was passed by this Assembly in 1993. It has been updated a number of times, yet so much has changed.
Originally, the Boxing Control Act 1993 only covered boxing and kickboxing events, because disciplines like mixed martial arts and muay Thai simply did not exist in Australia at the time. In 2016 coverage was expanded to mixed martial arts and muay Thai due to the current linkage to New South Wales combat sports legislation. However, the act is no longer fit for purpose. One example of this redundancy is that the existing act requires a different medical clearance process for female contestants that is more frequent and comprehensive than for males. This bill removes this anomaly and allows the consideration of medical concerns to be dealt with where it should—between the assessing medical practitioner and the patient.
The ACT government understands that there are a range of views on participation in combat sports. However, it is clear that our community wants to see combat sports effectively regulated for the safety and wellbeing of participants, and to maintain professional standards in the industry. We heard that the industry wants better regulation in the ACT, to provide clarity on procedures and to ensure that all events are meeting a high standard of safety and integrity, so we set to work doing this. It quickly became apparent that this was a complex reform that needed to be carefully considered and consulted on.
Investigations into health benefits, health and safety risks and integrity matters within the industry needed to be carefully considered to design a piece of legislation that
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