Athletics Australia statement on new ASC Governance Principles

Athletics Australia Chief Executive Officer Dallas O’Brien says that the Australian Sports Commission’s newly released Mandatory Sports Governance Principles are designed to strengthen the performance of national sporting organisations and that Athletics Australia welcomes the new criteria.

The Australian Sports Commission publicly announced yesterday that it is requiring higher governance and accountability standards from National Sporting Organisations, and released a set of new Mandatory Sports Governance Principles.
 
“Athletics Australia welcomes the move by the Australian Sports Commission to institute more stringent governance guidelines,” said O’Brien.  “We have already had a series of meetings with ASC Chair John Wylie over recent months and ASC CEO Simon Hollingsworth made a presentation to our President Rob Fildes and the Athletics Australia Board whilst the Commission were in the process of drafting the new principles so their content doesn’t come as a surprise to us.
 
“Athletics Australia already conforms to many of the new mandatory guidelines, as the AA Board has always been committed to putting in place best-practice around our sport’s governance.  We have already previously established a dedicated Governance Sub-Committee as well as an Ethics and Integrity Unit, which puts us ahead of the curve in many ways.  The recent appointment of Simon Nathan to the new role of High Performance Director is also another significant step that will help us to meet the new standards.
 
“Sports which, like athletics, are as committed to achieving excellence off the sporting field as well as on it have absolutely nothing to fear from these new governance principles.  Any move towards greater transparency in national sporting organisations is something which should be universally welcomed.”

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