Sport Integrity Australia: David Sharpe says abuse in sports must stop

In the wake of the gymnastics scandal, other sports have been put on notice about how they deal with reports of abuse.

Gymnastics isn’t the only Australian sport with a shameful past.

News Corp can reveal that other sporting bodies have privately approached Australia’s new national sporting watchdog seeking advice on how to deal with historical abuse claims.

Bound by strict confidentiality rules, Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) can’t identify which sports have made contact, but can divulge the blunt recommendation it gives to any administrators still trying to figure out the right time to end the abuse and all the denials and cover ups.

“We need to stop now. If we stop now, the victims of the future become less,” SIA chief executive David Sharpe said.

“If things had been dealt with in the past in a similar way, we wouldn‘t have the victims that we have and the numbers of victims we have. It’s time to stop.”

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While Gymnastics Australia has been roasted for turning a blind eye to the decades of horrific abuse that young, mostly female participants experienced, Sharpe said the organisation actually deserves some credit.

By agreeing to allow the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to conduct a fully independent review into the sport’s toxic culture, then by issuing a formal apology immediately after the scathing review was published, Sharpe said the sport’s administrators had set a new standard that all sports needed to follow.

“What they‘ve done is very brave and it’s right,” he said.

“Every sport needs to now have a very close look at that report and what gymnastics have done leading the way there.

Gymnastics Australia has been roasted for turning a blind eye to decades of abuse.

“And what we‘ve got to do is say everything from this point on needs to be dealt with in different levels. Some is criminality, some people just want a voice, some people just want an apology. But we need to stop now.

“Coaches, staff, volunteers, administrators need to have a better understanding of what abuse is.

“And we also need to have a clear understanding of how to address issues if you think it‘s abuse.

“If it looks like or smells like abuse, there needs to be a process for everyone, including children, to be able to report that to an independent body such as us.”

One of the biggest takeaways from the AHRC review into gymnastics was that sports should no longer be allowed to investigate themselves.

The recommendation is that sports sign up for the new National Integrity Framework, which was set up to deal with complaints and serious integrity issues – including child abuse, intimidation and bullying in sport.

Taxpayer-funded sporting bodies that don’t properly investigate or act on serious integrity issues have already been put on notice that they need to raise their standards after the federal government began a crackdown on sporting organisations accused of sweeping things under the carpet.

David Sharpe says other sports have been put on notice after the gymnastics scandal.

Canberra has already committed $10 million to a two-year pilot program for independent investigations, which has been endorsed by Australia’s three peak sports bodies, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Paralympics Australia (PA) and Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA).

“The National Integrity Framework is multi-level and broad as it needs to ensure fairness, transparency and independence in complaints handling,” AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said.

“This will ensure complaints are dealt with independently and will significantly reduce the workload of managing complaints at all levels of sport. It also extends to the crucial integrity of sport areas as competition manipulation and anti-doping.”

Run by SIA, the new independent complaints handling process was launched in March and while no sporting bodies have signed up yet because they’re still working through all the requirements needed to comply, Sharpe said the gymnastics review was the reminder every sport needs to get moving.

“If this is not the wake up call Australian sports needs, nothing is,” Sharpe said.

“We really need to now push up on this and roll the momentum into these sorts of things.

“We need to continue to work with the Human Rights Commission, with the Commonwealth Ombudsman office, agencies like that, the office of child protection in the prime minister‘s office.

“All of those bodies are critical to make sure that we‘re held to account, that we get our processes right, that we continually improve what we’re doing, and that sports come along with us.”