National Sport Integrity Forum 2021

Thursday 27 May 2021, 3.30–5pm

Online

Free via livestream

Join us for a livestream of the sixth National Sport Integrity Forum to hear leaders at the forefront of the sports industry in thought-provoking, in-depth discussions on the moral, legal and ethical issues related to safeguarding children in sport.

The Sport Australia Hall of Fame and Victoria University share a common goal to promote the achievement of sporting excellence aligned with integrity.

Together with our partners Sport Australia, the Australian Institute of Sport, SportsCover, and Sport Integrity Australia, we will host the sixth edition of the National Sport Integrity Forum: It takes a sporting village to raise a child.

It takes a sporting village to raise a child

Throughout the decades many have advocated the myriad of ills that sport can cure. Sport has and is being promoted as a means to achieve physical health, become mentally resilient, develop many and deep social connections, and bring diverse communities together on a level playing field. Research indeed has shown that sport can deliver on various promises, but increasing media coverage of physical and mental abuse, injury, discrimination, and corruption is also showing that sport is merely a reflection of society – of its rights but also of its wrongs.

This cannot be an excuse for sport not taking responsibility. Sport organisations for a long time may have been lulled into a perception that sport itself presented a safe, supporting and nurturing developmental environment for young people to acquire and practice their life skills for application in the real world. However, our community sport clubs are the real world, and as it takes a village to raise a child, sport is just one of the shops on Main Street.

The 2021 Integrity Forum will tackle issues in regard to better standards, rules, regulations and even laws, but equally important, how sport as an industry can become more aware of and responsive to its crucial role in the village that prepares young people for a complex and ever-changing society.

Official welcome

We are excited to announce that Ms Josephine Sukkar AM, Chair Australian Sports Commission will officially open the event and welcome insights from our international guest speaker Sanjana Kiran.

Ms Kiran is a high-Performance expert in the field of Sport Psychology/Performance Psychology. She is a psychologist to over 28 elite international athletes and elite coaches in preparation for major sporting games such as the Tokyo Olympic Games, and various World Championships. She is also a torch-bearer for the Athlete Psychological Safety Campaign and ambassador of Athlete Mental Wellness.

Following the interview with Ms Kiran, Professor Hans Westerbeek (Victoria University) will lead a moderated panel session with a number of Australian sports leaders.

: Josephine is a professional company director who works across a range of industries, including property, construction, finance, sport, the arts, medical research and social services.

Josephine is Principal of Buildcorp, and serves on a number of private, public, government and not-for-profit boards, including The Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited, Growthpoint Properties Australia, Opera Australia, the Australian Museum, Property Council of Australia, Green Building Council of Australia, Centenary Institute of Medical Research and the Buildcorp Foundation.

She is president of Australian Women’s Rugby and through Buildcorp has been a major sponsor of rugby in Australia for nearly 30 years. Josephine is a Fellow of the University of Sydney, and in 2017 she was recognised for her services to the community, the arts and sports in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
: Sanjana is a high performance Sport Psychologist to international elite athletes in preparation for major games. She is also a Consultant Head of Sport Psychology, Abhinav Bindra Foundation and as Chief Consultant, Category-A, Directorate of Sports, Madhya Pradesh and mentoring India’s Olympic shooters; Manu Bhaker, Aishwarya Singh Tomar, Angad Bajwa.

Sanjana is the Founder and Director of A-Game, a Sport Psychology and Performance Psychology endeavour that aims to facilitate best performance and elevate individuals to attain peak performance. She is the wellness expert to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team during the IPL which was called off due to the impact of coronavirus. She was one of the high-performance trainers for India’s first High Performance Leadership Programme conducted by Abhinav Bindra Foundation and Pullela Gopichand Badminton Foundation.

Panellists

Facilitated by Professor Hans Westerbeek, Victoria University, we anticipate a thought provoking, in-depth discussion that will explore raising a child through sport.

: Jelena Dokic has had a storied and well-documented life and tennis career both on and off the court. With a stellar playing career which included defeating then World Number 1, Martina Hingis at the age of 16. Her rapid ascent through the world ranking was marred by her off-court struggles.

Jelena has penned the best-selling autobiography ‘Unbreakable', a book which details her career and her life. In the book, she details the struggles of being a refugee, dealing with poverty, racism, bullying, and discrimination. She also talks about the physical and emotional abuse she suffered for over 20 years at the hands of her father which started when she was just six years old. She also talks about dealing with heavy depression and almost committing suicide.

Jelena now pours her efforts into commentary as one of the key voices for Nine Network’s coverage of the Australian Open. She is also a motivational speaker speaking on topics which include resilience, mental health and empowerment.
: Anne-Marie is a senior leader in the sporting industry, with over 20 years’ experience in state, national and international organisations with a focus on community participation, capacity building and safeguarding. A senior executive at Netball Australia, for over 10 years’ Anne-Marie was instrumental in driving key national initiatives to grow and sustain participation and build the capacity of individuals.

In her role as Senior Integrity Consultant at Sport Australia, Anne-Marie was responsible for developing national policy to foster a culture of safeguarding within sporting organisations and communities. Anne-Marie was the lead in managing the transition of member protection, child safety and complaint handling functions from Sport Australia to Sport Integrity Australia.
: Matt has worked in sport for over 25 years including senior positions across a number of sporting bodies in Australia and the United Kingdom. Matt has been the CEO of Hockey Australia since July 2017 where the sport has undertaken a range of new initiatives, including the development of a new national home and away hockey league – the Sultana Bran Hockey 1 League.

Prior to joining Hockey Australia, Matt was the Director of the Australian Institute of Sport where he was responsible for leading a series of significant reforms, including the repositioning of the AIS as Australia’s strategic high performance sports agency.

Matt has also worked with UK Athletics as a Senior Performance Coach and Manager, as Head of Performance Solutions at UK Sport for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Previously Matt has also worked for the Queensland Academy of Sport, the Australian Paralympic Committee and Athletics Australia.