Bid for World Cup goal

AUSTRALIA’S bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup scores goals across a number of fronts.

Our national team, the Matildas, is ranked eighth in the world.

AUSTRALIA’S bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup scores goals across a number of fronts.

World football continues to grow both here and overseas, and participation in the women’s football code is rising 8 per cent, year on year.

Australians’ love of all things sport is renowned, and our reputation for hosting major sporting events is second to none.

Melbourne is the nation’s sporting capital. And thanks to the MCG, Etihad Stadium and AAMI Park, its transport network and accommodation options, the city will no doubt form a major plank of any formal bid to host the Women’s World Cup in six years.

As revealed in today’s Herald Sun, Football Federation Australia’s bid for the event — which brings together 24 teams from around the world to play 52 matches over 30 days — is being endorsed and financially supported by the Turnbull government.

Televised World Cup matches play to a global audience of more than 720 million, offering a major boon for the economy.

As a successful host of the tournament, Australia would stand to attract tens of thousands of soccer fans to our shores, providing a great fillip for the accommodation, restaurant, entertainment and tourism sectors, both in the capitals and in regional areas.

Research shows that international sports fans build wider holiday plans around such major events, so they can explore the host country.

Over the month-long duration of the Women’s World Cup, that would provide significant benefits.

Our national team, the Matildas, is ranked eighth in the world, and the opportunity to play for World Cup glory on home soil poses an exciting prospect.

Female athletes are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve, as shown by the success of the inaugural AFL Women’s season and preparations by our women’s cricket and rugby teams for their own World Cup campaigns this year.

Much still remains to be done in working toward gender equity in sport — both in pay and prominence — but having the FIFA Women’s World Cup here would help progress toward that goal immensely.

Probity concerns have marred bidding processes for the men’s World Cup — specifically, for the 2022 event.

But Minister for Sport Greg Hunt insists Australian authorities will be ensuring that the process has been carefully reformed, and is transparent and fair, before any greater financial commitment to the bid is made.

“Our advice is that FIFA has reformed and is committed to an open and transparent bidding process,” Mr Hunt says.

The lucrative business behind international sport can be opaque.

If Australia is to spend even a modest $1 million of taxpayers’ funds to kick off the bid process — and then a further $4 million in December to advance the proposal if there are reasonable prospects of success — the bidding and tender processes must conform to the highest standards of probity.

Final bids are expected to be lodged in late 2018, before a decision in early 2019. Australia, which successfully hosted the Asian Football Confederation’s Asian Cup in 2015, is well placed to be host.

It would be a goal on the economic and tourism fronts but, just as importantly, it would also be terrific inspiration for a new generation of female athletes.

AAT FACES OVERRIDE

THE Administrative Appeals Tribunal is facing much-needed reform to dilute its history of seemingly arbitrarily upholding appeals against government decisions.

As revealed by the Herald Sun, the AAT has handed back visas to more than 81 foreign criminals, despite immigration department authorities seeking to have them deported.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has stepped in on at least two occasions, using his ministerial power to junk an AAT decision and deport a sex offender and is now intervening to deport six Iranians who were shown to be fake refugees.

New laws are also being considered to give the minister overriding powers on citizenship cases before the AAT. The Herald Sun understands the tribunal has previously granted citizenship to a number of foreign nationals even though the Immigration Department made adverse character assessments because of serious criminal convictions.

The cases include those of a convicted people smuggler, a man convicted of sexual assaults against several young boys, and another convicted of manslaughter. On all three occasions, the tribunal took it upon itself to overrule recommendations by immigration authorities to deny citizenship.

New federal laws conferring a ministerial power to nullify AAT decisions on citizenship cases are needed. Decision-making by the tribunal often lacks a public accountability, or adequate reasoning to explain judgments.

Too often, these cases seem to have been decided on emotion and on wider family considerations.