Athletics Australia adopts Sport Integrity Australia’s National Integrity Framework

Athletics Australia (AA) has committed to increasing its integrity efforts through the adoption of Sport Integrity Australia’s (SIA) National Integrity Framework.

The National Integrity Framework, launched in March 2021, is a suite of policies, developed by SIA to protect all participants in sport and to assist in dealing with important issues of abuse, harassment, misuse of drugs and medicines plus other safeguarding issues across Australian sport.

Athletics Australia collectively represents approximately 38,000 individuals including athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers, and its objective in adopting the Framework is to build a more collaborative, well governed sport that looks after the safety of its participants. The suite of policies will assist AA and its Member Associations achieve this.

“Adopting Sport Integrity Australia’s National Integrity Framework is a significant priority for Athletics Australia in operating as a best practise NSO,” said Athletics Australia CEO Peter Bromley.

“It allows us to help better provide a safe, fair and transparent environment for all participants and will help improve how we manage, report and investigate prohibited conduct under the new policies.

“As an organisation, we need to be mindful of the inherent integrity risks in sport and as such, have we placed a focus on these risks, and we believe adopting the National Integrity Framework is key to mitigating such risks.”

A key change is the streamlining of how integrity complaints are managed. The National Integrity Framework contains a Complaints, Disputes and Discipline process, which will see specific complaints for matters that occur after July 1, 2022 handled independently and transparently through SIA.

The policies within the Framework include:

• National Integrity Framework – Overarching framework document that connects the below policies and describes how the policies function.
• Member Protection Policy – Sets out expectations and behaviours to ensure everyone involved in athletics is treated with respect and simply replaces the old policy.
• Child Safeguarding Policy (with South Australia Addendum) – Sets out the process for responding to and reporting child abuse allegations. It is a new policy that was previously within athletics old Member Protection Policy
• Complaints, Disputes and Discipline Policy – a new policy applying to all NIF policies with Sport Integrity Australia supporting an independent complaint review process arising from an individual or organisation engaging in prohibited conduct from each policy.
• Improper Use of Drugs & Medicine Policy – A separate policy to anti-doping that protects the health and wellbeing of athletes from misuse of drugs and medicine.
• Competition Manipulation and Sports Wagering Policy – Prescribes prohibited conduct regarding improperly altering the result of a race, betting or disclosing inside information. Replaces the 2016 National Policy on Anti-Match-fixing.

Athletics Australia will now commence work with its Member Associations to have the Framework implemented at a state and territory level.

For more information, or to view the policies, visit https://www.athletics.com.au/about/constitution-policies/

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 13/7/2022