AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Sven Burchartz and Jessica Bell, Kalus Kenny Intelex
By way of example, Motorsport Australia, Australia’s motor racing governing body, delegates its power of review and dispute resolution relating to infringements and steward decisions to specialist tribunals and the Australian Motor Sport Appeal Court (“AMSAC”). Mot - orsport Australia provides specific rules and regula - tions on how a protest or appeal must be lodged to be heard by AMSAC. Generally, Australian courts will only get involved in sporting disputes if there has been an allegation that natural justice has been denied, or if there is a con - tractual dispute to be determined – for example, if an athlete alleges that a club has breached its own rules, as set out in the club’s governing documents. 6.2 ADR Mechanisms Australia’s Civil Dispute Resolution Act 2011 (Cth) (“Civil Dispute Resolution Act”) aims to ensure that, as far as possible, people take genuine steps to resolve disputes before certain civil proceedings are instituted. The Civil Dispute Resolution Act provides that an applicant who institutes civil proceedings in an eligible Australian court must file a “genuine steps statement” (a statement outlining the steps taken by the applicant to resolve the dispute prior to litigation or the reasons why no such steps were taken) at the time of filing the application. For the purposes of the Civil Dispute Resolution Act, “genuine steps” include considering whether the dis - pute could be resolved by a process facilitated by another person, including an alternative dispute reso - lution process such as mediation. Alternative dispute resolution processes, including mediation and arbitration, are commonly utilised in the Australian sports industry. For example, early in 2020, one of Australia’s largest free-to-air television channels, Channel 7, was in dispute with Cricket Aus - tralia in relation to its cricket broadcasting rights. In an effort to resolve the dispute, Channel 7 made an application to the leading Australian arbitration body, the Australian Chamber for International and Com - mercial Arbitration (“ACICA”), seeking a ruling. In addition to these alternate dispute resolution path - ways, there are sport-specific mechanisms. Notably,
the National Sports Tribunal offers mediation, concili - ation, arbitration and appeals arbitration for eligible sports disputes. 6.3 Sanctions, Remedies and Challenges Sports governing bodies can impose sporting and financial sanctions (including suspensions and mon - etary penalties) under their own rules and regularly impose financial and other sanctions on athletes or clubs that fail to comply with the rules and associ - ated codes of conduct. In practice, these sanctions are enforced by governing bodies through contrac - tual frameworks that bind clubs, athletes and officials to their rules, such as membership and competition terms and conditions and accreditation requirements. This, in turn, allows for penalties to be imposed, such as disqualifications, suspensions and points deduc - tions. Parties may challenge decisions made by a sports governing body in certain circumstances, including where the parties did not act unreasonably or acted in such a way that would offend natural justice. In the first instance, these challenges typically go through the sport’s own internal appeals tribunal or external bodies such as the National Sports Tribunal. It is not common for Australian courts to intervene in a dispute of this kind, but they may become involved where a party contends that the governing body has breached or failed to follow one of its own rules. 7. Employment Contracts and Rights 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts Employment The arrangements in place between an athlete and a sporting club or team will determine whether that athlete is an employee and therefore covered by Aus - tralia’s strict employment law framework. Given that the express terms of athlete contracts often include promises: • to play the sport whenever and wherever directed by the club; • to wear the club uniform; • to attend training; and
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