Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Bill 2021 [2021] AUSStaCSBSD 132 (23 June 2021)

• Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Bill 2021
• Significant matters in delegated legislation7

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Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection and Other Legislation Bill 2021

Purpose	This bill seeks to amend the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 to provide protection against ambush marketing by association for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association Women’s World Cup Australia New Zealand 2023 and International Cricket Council T20 World Cup 2022. It also seeks to remove the historical Schedule related to the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games as this Schedule has ceased to have effect, and to make a minor technical amendment to the Sport Integrity Australia Act 2020
Portfolio	Sport
Introduced	Senate on 16 June 2021

Significant matters in delegated legislation^[7]

1.11 Item 1 of Schedule 1 seeks to amend the definition of 'event body' in the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 (the Act) to provide that additional event bodies may be prescribed in the rules. Currently, event bodies must be listed in the Schedules to the Act for the relevant major event. An event body is authorised to use a major sporting event's protected indicia and images for commercial purposes and can authorise other persons to use the relevant indicia and images.^[8]

1.12 The committee's consistent scrutiny view is that significant matters, such as the scope of definitions or concepts central to the operation of a scheme established by an act, should be included in primary legislation unless a sound justification is provided for the use of delegated legislation. In this instance, the explanatory memorandum states:

This function may be used should an ‘authorising body’ wish to recognise an additional body as an ‘event body’ for events listed in Schedules of the Act.^[9]

1.13 It is unclear to the committee why it is appropriate to allow the minister to prescribe additional event bodies in the rules in circumstances where there is no guidance on the face of the primary legislation as to the types of bodies that may be prescribed. The committee notes that the other amendments made by the bill are to list events occurring in 2022 and 2023 as major sporting events. The committee considers that, given the nature of the relevant events and the amount of planning generally undertaken, there would be time for any additional event bodies to be included by amendments to the primary legislation.

1.14 The committee therefore requests the minister's more detailed advice as to:

• why it is considered necessary and appropriate to allow the definition of 'event bodies' to be amended to allow additional event bodies to be prescribed in the rules; and

• whether the bill could be amended to include at least high-level guidance on the face of the primary legislation as to the circumstances in which it would be appropriate to prescribe additional event bodies in the rules.

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[7] Schedule 1, item 1. The committee draws senators’ attention to this provision pursuant to Senate Standing Order 24(1)(a)(iv).

[8] Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014, section 16.

[9] Explanatory memorandum, p. 7.