Announcement date
14 May 2024
Link to announcement
Budget Paper No. 2 | Budget 2024–25
Problem being addressed
Sport Integrity Australia's responsibilities include being Australia’s National Anti-Doping Organisation, providing a comprehensive anti-doping program for the Australian sport community and administering the National Integrity Framework which is a set of policies all members of sports need to follow when it comes to their behaviour and conduct in sport. Despite threats to sport becoming more sophisticated, over 50% of the Sport Integrity Australia's funding is tied to terminating measures ceasing on 30 June 2024. Without integrity underpinning participation, the benefits that sport delivers to the Australian community are at risk of being lost.
Proposal
The proposal seeks to address and stay ahead of highly sophisticated and evolving doping methodologies and integrity threats within the context of heightened public expectations and external scrutiny.
The options propose a scalable approach to address and manage these evolving threats. The Impact Analysis frames these options against recommendations of the 2018 review of Australia’s sports integrity arrangements (the Wood Review) and the 2019 Government response to the Wood Review - The Safeguarding the Integrity of Sport.
The Impact Analysis considers four levels of funding for Sport Integrity Australia:
- Option One: will maintain the current status-quo, where the Anti-Doping program returns to pre-2018 levels and Sport Integrity Australia is unable to deliver on its broader integrity obligations.
- Option Two: will ensure Sport Integrity Australia has baseline level capability to respond to threats and opportunities, including minimum resourcing to continue activities and services tied to terminating measures.
- Option Three: will provide a modest uplift in capability, including the staff and resources to sufficiently deliver the priority activities and services of Sport Integrity Australia.
- Option Four: will provide a major uplift in capability, including investment in research and evaluation to understand the needs of participants, and ensure Sport Integrity Australia’s activities and services are evidence based, fit for purpose, and support the Government’s objectives.
Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Good practice
Assessment comments
The Impact Analysis addresses the seven IA questions and follows an appropriate policy development process commensurate with the significance of the problem and magnitude of the proposed intervention. In particular, the IA clearly identifies the policy problems using a wide variety of sources and provides a detailed discussion of the status quo.
To be assessed as exemplary as per the Australian Government Guide to Policy Impact Analysis, the analysis required further discussions on the likelihood and consequence of implementation risks and risk management approaches. The IA would also have benefited from greater detail in the evaluation plan, and from explaining how the evaluation method is suitable for measuring against government objectives.
Regulatory burden
Sport Integrity Australia estimates that the preferred option delivers an estimated benefit of $42 million to stakeholders and is assessed as a cost to government and not an associated regulatory burden.