However, inconsistencies in provisions and sanctions between jurisdictions made enforcement problematic, according to Dr Catherine Ordway, an associate professor of sports management at the University of Canberra.
“Match-fixing very rarely stays inside one jurisdiction. It’s not usually Victorian people that are gamblers and involved in the grooming of Victorian athletes on a Victorian event. That pretty much never happens,” she said.
“Criminals are adept at finding weaknesses and exploiting them. If one state has weaker prosecution powers or there are state policing bodies who are not looking [for corruption in sport] … that will be exploited by criminals.”
A national legal framework, first flagged in 2011 when the federal government and states agreed on a national policy on match fixing, is also expected to beef up the capacity of the Australian Federal Police and Sport Integrity Australia to take on corruption in sport.
That would be welcomed by Malcolm Speed, the former chief executive of the International Cricket Council and the Australian Cricket Board (as Cricket Australia was formerly known), who was an early campaigner for jail terms for match fixing.
Speed was an administrator as cricket confronted some of its biggest betting-related controversies, such as the revelation that Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were paid by an Indian bookmaker for pitch and weather information and South Africa captain Hansie Cronje’s acceptance of bribes to throw matches.
“It’s human nature; there will always be someone who is in a compromised position or desperate for money who is approached … and falls for it,” he said.
The late Hansie Cronje answering questions at the King Commission into match fixing in June 2000.Credit: Andrew Ingram
“You need the legislation; you need the penalties in place as a deterrent.”
The push for federal laws comes as Sport Integrity Australia leads the process to have Australia ratify the Macolin Convention, an international treaty aimed at stamping out manipulation and other corruption in sport, signed by the Morrison government in 2019.
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Australia is one of 43 signatories to the convention, which, when ratified here, would provide a constitutional head of power to Sport Integrity Australia to compel sports organisations, betting operators and competition organisers to share information and intelligence.
Citing major events on the horizon in Australia, such as the 2027 men’s rugby World Cup, the 2029 women’s rugby World Cup and the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, Ordway said there was a further reason to strengthen anti-corruption measures.
Lower-tier sports had proved even more vulnerable than the elite level. “We understand that there is betting right down into the community level, and masters-level sport and so on, so there are risks across the whole ecosystem of sport,” she said.
